Craven has left; Hills now chairing
speaking on this, per the memo: Rob Curtin, Deputy Commissioner, Matt Deninger, Associate Commissioner of Planning and Research, and Kendra Winner, Research and Evaluation Coordinator
Deninger: as a former high school English teacher, it is always good to be back in a high school
Deninger opens by noting that we used to drill holes in people's heads to rid them of headaches
research matters
high level overview of research and evaluation: why it matters, how they do it, research of use recently, "any good research paper has a limitation section"
"consequential decision-making benefits from adopting a researcher's mindset"
"one of the ways the Department tries to do its work responsibly"
"useful, methodologically sound, and legally and ethically responsible"
DESE publicly posts priority research topics
transparency about the data itself: researcher's guide to MA state education data
"making good educational research possible"
"open, rolling research proposal process"
"the real magic happens in project management...and learn through structured collaboration"
new research request portal: providing one place for data requests
"one of the most vibrant and active educational research portals in K-12 in the country"
example of some research in process
links of research to Board work: "the role this kind of work takes place in policymaking"
"grounds these conversations in evidence"
Winner: vulnerable student groups
desire of program staff to understand what practice and programming look like on the ground
conducted in collaboration with program offices
"highly mobile" MA students outcomes, how to support, key facilitators, challenges and recommendations
rising numbers of K-12 students experiencing homelessness, in foster care, in migrant worker families, and in military families
historically underserved populations overrepresented in highly mobile groups
"while the findings were not necessarily a surprise" findings were widely distributed to shine a spotlight on the challenges students face
inform planning, work with districts, influence of factors on academic outcomes
High quality instructional materials implementation grant
Teachers became more positive over implementation
decreased satisfaction in supports for multilingual learners
leadership support mattered
Limits: funding, research available, questions aren't mattered to data
can't rigorously evaluate everything
quantitative data can't answer fully every question
sharpen focus on how research can inform and shape major initiatives
expanding dissemination and transparency
"testing what we think we know"
"part of how we go about better serving students"
Q: technical assistance to all districts
all districts, all regional liaisons aware of training
district consultancies
will get more information
rural grants not finding accessible to them
Hills; this is really good stuff, a stand alone agenda item
what you do to improve outcomes
how research "moves the needle" for districts
Martnez: how do we focus this work so it has the most impact, how do we inform the decision makers?
you might start by having any conversation about who the decision makers are...
research about MassCore influenced discussion at graduation council
how strong the correlation is with students attending college, persisting in college
West relates that he just automatically drove to Everett and so is remote
linking DESE data with higher ed and workforce data
Deninger: progress on cross agency work: data leads get together regularly
working to add others to the portal
recent data sharing agreements with early ed, longtime one with higher ed
West: 21st century education trust fund, resource to fund innovative efforts to serve students but also to support research?
is that fund still operating? how used?
Deninger: evidence-based practices grant
work to improve practices with what we know are evidence based
Stewart: improving, recruitment, belonging on educator diversity?
Winner: Influence 100, grants...they have this long list of projects, and she's asking about specific conclusions, which isn't really fair
work on waiving MTEL requirements, broadening access
Martinez: want you to get the breadth of what is going on
building that plan, tying it to this
make sure the research is informing priorities
align priorities next year for strategic plan, reports to show what we're learning
Hills: you'll know you're successful when this group is speaking about specific priorities and not the work in general
Smidy: particularly because we are local controlled state: getting this research to districts
Martinez: when we make changes in regulation, in guidance, everything should be backed by evidence
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