What is NCRPP?

The National Center for Research in Policy and Practice studies how educational leaders—including school district supervisors and principals—use research when making decisions and what can be done to make research findings more useful and relevant for those leaders.

“We know very little about how people in district offices and schools actually use evidence from research studies to inform their decisions,” said CU-Boulder School of Education Professor Bill Penuel, lead investigator for the project.

NCRPP aims to change that by focusing on three areas: studying current research use in districts and schools, identifying what conditions affect when research is used, and determining ways that research could be made more meaningful for educational leaders through long-term partnerships between researchers and practitioners. The center’s approach will be guided by what is known already about research use by educational leaders—that opportunities for leaders to interact with colleagues and researchers are critical.

Research use is an incredibly timely issue as policymakers and funders increasingly call for school and district leaders to use research in their decision making. We see this as an opportunity to contribute to the national discussion of research use.

Cynthia Coburn, Northwestern University

Project Timeline

Year 1

Measurement study

  • Develop construct maps
  • Create pool of survey items
  • Cognitive piloting of survey items
  • Finalize pilot survey
  • Identify and roster school and district leaders in states participating in CCSS
  • Development of observation protocol

Leadership and outreach

  • Center start-up: staffing, supplies, hiring
  • Website development and outreach
  • Advisory board special meetings

Year 2

Measurement study

  • Field test of 1000 district leaders in national sample
  • Field test of 12-15 district leaders in largest 30 urban districts
  • Analyses to produce final measures
  • Internal and ED review of measures
  • Develop technical materials for web distribution

Study 1: District research use

  • Identify candidate districts and negotiate access
  • Data collection in four district central offices
  • Select school sites

Leadership and outreach

  • Share findings at research and practitioner conferences

Year 3

Measurement study

  • Analysis and writing

Study 1: District research use

  • Data collection at four district central offices
  • School level data collection
  • Analysis and writing
  • Feedback to district partners

Study 2: Research practice partnerships

  • Identify population of partnerships
  • Select case study sites, negotiate access
  • Data collection in partnerships

Leadership and outreach

  • Share findings at research and practitioner conferences

Funder Information

The Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education awarded $5 million to the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, and the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy to create a center that studies how educational leaders use research when making decisions and what can be done to make research findings more useful and relevant for those leaders.

IES’s “mission is to provide rigorous and relevant evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and share this information broadly. By identifying what works, what doesn’t, and why, we aim to improve educational outcomes for all students, particularly those at risk of failure. We are the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, and by law our activities must be free of partisan political influence.”