SERP

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• SERP
• Strategic Education Research Partnership
• April, 2007

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What is SERP?

• Initiated at the National Academy of Sciences
• Two big questions posed
• Why has research supported innovation
  continuous improvement in medicine, agriculture,
  and transportation, but not in education?
• What can be done about it?
• Study committee included national leaders in
  business, research, policy, and educational
  practice

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Answers to the Big Questions in a nutshell

• Education is missing two critical components
• Field Sites places where researchers,
  practitioners and designers work in practice
  settings to
• Observe, explain, document, replicate and
  evaluate practice as a source of new knowledge
• Define problems test solutions in context
• Address unimagined complications and unintended
  consequences
• Train new researchers and practitioners for use
  inspired RD

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Answers to the Big Questions in a nutshell

• Education is missing two critical components
• 2. Coordinating Capacity an
  organization responsible for nurturing
  long-term collaborations, knowledge
  accumulation, and diffusion across the U.S.
• Steers a long-term program of work
• Replicates promising work in different settings
• Develops common tools for practice and research
• Maintains quality standards
• Builds effective communication networks

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SERP MISSION

• To create a set of field sites
• 12-15 at maturity in varied (urban, suburban,
  rural) settings
• targeting major research centers for initial
  sites
• To develop an executive office with unique
  coordinating capacity

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FIELD SITES STRUCTURE

• Core Group
• Brings district and research leadership together
  regularly
• Allows district to define priority problems
• integrates partnership work into the fabric of
  the district
• Facilitates research, redirects resources
• Research Team
• Carries out research and evaluation in school
  settings
• Harvests, consolidates, and spreads teacher
  knowledge
• Builds capacity for research on practice among
  teachers and graduate students
• Design Group
• recruits national expertise in research and
  development
• Brings cross-disciplinary expertise to problems
  of practice

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Core Group

Observing Practices Outcomes
Guiding Facilitating Work
Generates Ideas for Intervention
Defining Priorities
Develops Tests Materials Practices
Research Team
Design Group
Designs Tools
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SERP Institute Executive Office

• Develops and nurtures partnerships with school
  districts
• Recruits interdisciplinary research, development,
  and practice teams
• Tackles daunting data management challenges
• Actively bridges cultures
• Between universities and districts
• Within each of these entities
• Develops direct links across sites

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Field Site Work in Boston

• Focus middle school literacy in content areas
• Examples of work
• Design and pilot middle school literacy
  assessment for teacher use with screening and
  diagnostic value
• Design and pilot intensive instruction in
  academic vocabulary coordinated across subject
  areas
• Design and pilot an instrument for identifying
  schools that badly need organizational support in
  order to achieve instructional improvement
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the Read 180
  program for different types of students, and as
  used in different course configurations
• Videotape effective teachers for professional
  development purposes

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SERP Field Sites 2 and 3

• San Francisco Unified School District
• Middle School math and science literacy and
  language challenges of math and science
• Minority Student Achievement Network
• Arlington VA, Evanston IL, Madison WI, Shaker
  Heights OH
• Minority student mathematics and academic
  engagement at high school entry

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Long Term Funding Strategy

• Public-Private Partnership
• Field site funding anchored by community
  foundations and corporations
• Funding from foundations with a national reach
  and from government sources
• Funding from federal agencies (National Science
  Foundation, Dept. of Education) for large scale
  studies and for professional development
• Membership contributions from School Districts

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SERP in the next 3 years
SERP Central Accumulation Coordination Communicati
on Quality Control