National Network for Educational Renewal

Proposal for the NNER Research and Evaluation Center

Background

The NNER has long struggled with the complex task of research and evaluation on our work. While we advance practices, policies, and structures founded on the values of the Agenda for Education in a Democracy (AED), we have yet to develop a means to study this work as an ongoing practice. Using the structure of the NNER as the theory of action and the AED as our philosophical grounding, we can learn from studying local, cross setting, and Network-wide initiatives.

This proposal outlines a possible new enterprise for the NNER, an independent research and evaluation center available to all NNER settings that supports projects including grant evaluations, local initiatives, cross-setting work, and NNER-led initiatives. It will be titled the NNER Research and Evaluation Center, and subsequently be referred to as the “Center” in this document.

NNER Research and Evaluation Center Mission

The proposed Center will support NNER settings in their research and evaluation efforts and in doing so, will begin to build a registry of research and evaluation studies that can be analyzed in the aggregate to explore the varied forms of impact the NNER has across all of its settings. The Center will call upon research and evaluation expertise from throughout the NNER to work across settings and as such, provide mentoring to new faculty and graduate students as they develop research and evaluation skills. The NNER mission will serve as the logic model to help interpret the results of this research and evaluation work allowing the NNER to study work occurring throughout the network and use the collective findings to guide the NNER’s future initiatives and show evidence of change for potential funders.

Brian Cobb will serve as the lead consultant to the Center; he co-directed a similarly structured R & D Center at Colorado State University that worked in partnership with two local school districts. He also has extensive experience in educational research and mentoring. Ann Foster current Executive Director of the NNER served as Co-Director of the same R & D Center, working with Dr. Cobb. She will coordinate the NNER Center’s work and organization.

Operations and Structures

The Center will operate as a service-based organization, contracting with NNER setting members to design, facilitate, lead, and/or participate in a variety of local research and evaluation efforts. For example, setting members might contract with the Center for required external evaluations for grants that currently are funded to those settings, or for grant proposals that are in the process of being developed. Setting members that would like to research local unfunded initiatives, practices, policy implementation, as examples, could also contract with the Center. Fee for services would be based on individual projects. For example, grants that require an external evaluator would contract the Center for the amount established in the grant proposal (either funded or proposed to be funded) and, local setting grant administrators would work collaboratively with the Center to design and develop the narrative for the evaluation plan, including personnel and other budgeted needs. Local externally unfunded initiatives would be contracted based on the needs and scope of the project. For example, assume a group of school administrators would like to study partner school impact(s) related to hiring of new teachers. By contracting with the Center, the Center could lead the design and development of the study, work with local graduate students to develop the instruments and data collection processes, assist as necessary in the analysis of data the results, provide technical assistance to the graduate students in the interpretation of the analyses, and critique drafts of the written technical report as it is developed for publication.

Procedurally, any individual at any NNER setting who was interested in using the services of the Center would first fill out and submit a brief, web-based “Service Request” the template for which is posted on the NNER home page. Ann Foster will screen all requests and then schedule a conference call with the originator of the request and with Brian Cobb, as needed, to clarify the nature of the request and establish the next steps associated with the request. As these next steps are clarified and operationalized, a “Service Contract” will result stating services, personnel and roles, timelines, and budget. All service contracts will include funds to support Center personnel time, regardless if this time is purely consultative or involves provision of direct research and evaluation services, and will include a small overhead to the NNER (10% of overall budget) to support continued administrative expenses for Center operations. All service contracts will also include, as appropriate, an agreement that allows the NNER to use data, results, and other services information to be included in NNER-wide proposals, publications, and/or technical reports. Of course, this agreement will comply with any IRB confidentiality conditions associated with all individual research and evaluation projects.

The long-view benefit to the NNER is that information from the various projects can be used by the Network as goals are set, help determine where resources are needed, celebrate advances, and disseminate successes.

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