Topic 0808 Evaluating Partnerships for Improvement and Impact

The field has begun to develop a shared understanding of the broad goals that RPPs share. The RPP Effectiveness Framework developed by Henrick and colleagues in 2017 was a critical starting point, reflecting the perspectives of a wide range of partnerships and RPP leaders of the time. In 2019, a new group came together for a project focused on designing, developing, and testing tools to understand and support RPP effectiveness aligned with the 2017 framework. Through engaging in this work, it became clear that as the field develops and grows over time, so too must our ideas about what is important to attend to when considering RPP effectiveness. As a result, the team not only identified tools to support RPPs’ effectiveness goals but also engaged in an iterative process to revisit the 2017 framework itself.

This RPP Effectiveness and Health Tool Kit is designed to help RPPs understand and support the health of their partnership and work toward their effectiveness goals. The tools can be used to help partnerships reflect on their joint goals, consider possible next actions, and drive improvement within their partnerships in ways that will fuel educational change and the transformation of systems more broadly.

This paper outlines the common goals that cut across diverse types of RPPs and provides guidance on where to look for evidence that these goals are being met. The resource comprises a unified framework for assessing partnerships and includes a section on using and customizing the tool.

This post provides a frame for thinking about the role and effectiveness of RPPs by highlighting three approaches that can illuminate the uptake of research ideas.

This article provides a review of available evidence of the outcomes and dynamics of RPPs in education and related fields. It also outlines a research agenda for the study of RPPs that can guide funders’ investments and help developing partnerships succeed.

This report presents results from phase two of a descriptive study of RPPs, with researchers collaborating with practitioners from state or local education agencies on a research project examining a problem of practice and identifying strategies to respond.

Part of the Research + Practice Collaboratory Forum series, this livecast centers on how RPPs measure whether their partnerships are working well and what kinds of outcomes they can look for and measure.

This PowerPoint from the U.S. Dept of Labor Chief Evaluation Office addresses a special type of RPP discussed in Tseng, Easton, and Supplee—the relationship with research/evaluation and program offices within a government agency. While that paper discussed one in Health & Human Services, this one is in the Department of Labor.

One of the few examples of evaluating RPPs, this Chicago Consortium example is a quarterly metrics report cataloging the Consortium’s publications, presentations, influence via media coverage, and social media analytics over a quarter.

This survey is designed for use by researchers studying RPP outcomes focusing on key areas of research use. The instrument also includes a measure of organizational culture and open-ended reports of research that educational leaders find useful.