Teacher retention. Student engagement and attendance. Providing professional development for educators to help them deliver effective literacy instruction. School readiness. Enhancing outcomes for students with disabilities.
When public schools opened their doors to students for the 2023-24 school year last August, many districts faced – and they continue to face – a range of challenges stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, as the past school year got underway so did a unique partnership between the UNC School of Education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) — the North Carolina Practitioner Network — which is working to help districts from across the state to address these kinds of lingering challenges through practice-informed research and evidenced-based solutions.
Since the Network’s launch, the effort has convened administrators from 14 districts — from as far west as Caldwell County and as far east as Chowan County — for 5 interactive workshops, both in-person and virtual. Working with higher education and K-12 leaders, university-based researchers and faculty members, and policymakers, Network participants have developed their ability to identify unique challenges their districts face, utilize research methodologies and tools, and then develop evidence-based strategies.
The first year of the Network concluded at a July 18 workshop at the Cabarrus County Schools administrative offices. North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt welcomed attendees and emphasized the importance of research-practice partnerships between districts and higher education. She noted the Network’s state-wide, innovative approach to enhanced research-practice partnerships as “unique” in the national landscape and lauded each district individually for their varied work to best serve educators and students.
“Educators gain access to research findings, helping them to stay at the forefront of best practices,” Truitt said. “On the flip side, researchers benefit from the practical insights of educators, which can and does inspire new research questions and methodologies, advancing education and research.
“It’s a win-win and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.”
Growing partnerships, refining research
As part of the North Carolina Practitioner Network, each participating district has been paired with a university-based researcher. Districts include: Cabarrus County Schools, Caldwell County Schools, Chatham County Schools, Cumberland County Schools, Edenton-Chowan Public Schools, Guilford County Schools, Iredell-Statesville Schools, Pender County Schools, Rowan-Salisbury School System, Rockingham County Schools, Mooresville Graded School District, Union County Public Schools, Wake County Public School System, and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. Researchers from East Carolina University, Fayetteville State University, NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, NC State, and UNC Greensboro have worked closely with their paired district’s employees, first by listening and then by helping to refine their research questions.
Some district staff members noted that their research questions had changed since the first workshop in November, saying their paired research partner brought fresh eyes to their existing data and asked new questions.
“We truly appreciate this partnership,” said one district partner from Caldwell County Schools, who noted that their research partner, NC State’s Jared Stewart-Ginsburg, Ph.D., was able to tease out their data in a way that provided additional meaning. Together, they want to increase the academic growth of Caldwell County’s students with disabilities.
UNC School of Education faculty member Martinette Horner, Ed.D. — who co-leads the Network with Amy Richardson, the School’s director of PK-12 partnerships — said research-practice partnerships like this help ensure the success of schools and districts by investing in district leaders and personnel.
“Supporting educators and education professionals in their development of a robust toolkit that addresses a problem of practice they face each day… This is the kind of work that speaks to me and has been the arc of my career,” said Horner, who also directs the School’s Master of School Administration program. “Once these educators implement data-driven solutions to this challenge, they will have experiences and a professional network to solve the next challenge and then the next.”
While many districts face similar challenges, they each have to tailor their research based on the unique context of their district. For example, geography potentially affects teacher retention and district size affects how to approach research focused on – and the implementation of solutions for – chronic absenteeism.
The district teams are also already beginning to brainstorm creative policies to solve challenges. One district, for example, is working to develop new incentives to address teacher retention. Another is considering the sustainability and impact of high-dose tutoring in middle school math.
Implementing solutions
In the second and third years of the network, a subset of district teams will receive support from the North Carolina Collaboratory to continue their research.
The North Carolina Policy Collaboratory was established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2016 and works to address pressing environmental, economic, and public health issues faced by North Carolinians. The Collaboratory is funding more than $7 million in research that prioritizes the post-pandemic learning recovery process for students statewide, Jeff Warren, Ph.D., executive director has said previously.
“We need to see research solving real problems but it’s challenging to figure out a model in which that actually works,” said Greer Arthur, Ph.D., research director for the North Carolina Collaboratory who was in attendance. “The North Carolina Practitioner Network is maybe one of the best models.
“The whole [research] dynamic is shifted. It’s the districts leading the research because they already have an idea of how they will apply it. There is so much urgency for this work right now.”
With funding, the district-researcher teams will work to gain school board and district approvals and secure IRB approvals to conduct additional research and then implement solutions.
And then after that, the districts will have relationships with research partners and a framework to continue conducting research to improve their work focused on students and educators.
“I’ve been doing this kind of work in North Carolina for 20 years, building research capacity. I hope you understand how blown away we are by this work, how proud we are of the work you’ve been doing,” said Jeni Corn, Ph.D., director of research and evaluation at NCDPI, said to everyone at the July 18 workshop. “This is making a difference at the local level.”