Building Infrastructure to Improve Education Practice and Research in Evanston

With support of the Spencer Foundation, we propose to strengthen and deepen a long-term, mutualistic research-practice partnership between Northwestern University (NU) and the two public school districts in Evanston, Illinois, District 65 that serves pre-K through 8th grade, and District 202 that serves 9th-12th grades. NU and District 202 have had a strong joint research-practice partnership since the 1950’s. The research-practice partnership between NU and District 65 has been less robust, but it has grown stronger in recent years; District 65’s naming of a new Superintendent, Paul Goren, in 2014 created an opportunity to deepen this relationship. We propose to build upon the existing relationships between NU and District 202 and between NU and District 65, and to integrate the three institutions to create new infrastructure to improve education in the city and facilitate new scientific inquiry. We propose to do so by: (1) Strengthening the infrastructure to support data and information exchange; (2) promoting research activities aimed at understanding the state of education in Evanston; and (3) facilitating an ongoing exchange of information and ideas to benefit both research and practice