Accelerating Community Innovation
Educator Diversity Research-Practice Partnership Lab—
National Center for Research on Educator Diversity (NCRED)
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Situation
The National Center for Research on Educator Diversity (NCRED) created the Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers, which was published in 2022. As a next step, the NCRED founder wanted to study how to put that research into practice. She began planning for a community of research-practice partnerships – school districts partnered with universities – focused on strengthening local educator diversity.
SDL was hired to facilitate the initiation of the Educator Diversity Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) Lab, from managing a selection process for Lab participants to co-designing a sequence of activities for partnerships to begin working together.
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Approach
LAUNCH ᐧ Hosted a series of meetings with NCRED to identify goals for the RPP Lab and specify design principles for the community. Together, we mapped out a detailed arc of the first year that would result in creating a shared learning agenda (research questions, measures) across participating RPPs.
ANALYZE CURRENT STATE ᐧ We examined research about the practices that lead to healthy RPPs. NCRED also had a hypothesis that RPPs focused on promoting diversity among educators must possess unique qualities. We used these insights to create a preliminary framework for educator diversity RPPs, and we tested it by using it as the basis of the Lab member application.
OVERARCHING DESIGN ᐧ Four RPPs were selected to participate in the Lab as a result of the peer-reviewed application process we managed. Then, we held 1:1 onboarding sessions with each team before shifting into a monthly cadence of Lab meetings. The monthly cadence is held together by a high-level design that blends SDL’s expertise in continuous improvement and networks with NCRED’s expertise in educator diversity research and running a local RPP.
MONTHLY CYCLE: DESIGN-DELIVER-DEBRIEF ᐧ We meet weekly with NCRED to both plan for the monthly Lab meetings and to do bigger-picture strategic planning and fundraising. For each Lab meeting, we bring a draft agenda to our weekly meeting so that we can make it stronger together. Then, we prepare materials and manage facilitation and follow-up.
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Impact
One of the criteria that emerged for the rubric was a “commitment to sustain the work through wellness and care of humans doing it.” Through the 8-month initiation process for the RPP Lab, we have prioritized this principle by focusing on building human connection before getting into the details of RPPs and their work. With our support, the emerging community crafted agreements for how they behave together that center wellness. They have also prioritized convening in-person to strengthen community identity, an event for which we are managing planning and design.
