Building Bridges in Education R&D: Developing an Educator Engagement Strategy for AERDF

Abstract

Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to research and development (R&D) in the public education sector. Launched in July 2021, AERDF implements ambitious and inclusive R&D programs that have the potential to generate groundbreaking impact in public education. With a focus on addressing persistent teaching and learning challenges that disproportionately affect Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty, AERDF takes an “inclusive R&D” approach that places educators at the forefront of the R&D process. As such, engaging educators as leaders is a critical operational feature of their R&D teams.

During this residency, the primary objective was to formulate an educator engagement strategy at the central level that would support both current and future programs of AERDF. To accomplish this, a comprehensive discovery process was undertaken, which involved conducting interviews with members from all three current programs and the executive team. Through this process, the distinctive requirements, strengths, and risks of various stakeholders were examined and evaluated. Once the discovery phase was completed, the next step was to enter a strategy development phase, during which a plan for developing an AERDF level educator engagement system was assessed and formulated. Following this, implementation of different components of this system were initiated.

The findings from this process underscore the need for a dynamic and comprehensive system that can address the diverse needs of the various programs. Furthermore, it is imperative for AERDF to specify the scope of resources it will commit to engaging educators, as this will enable the organization to enhance its value proposition to partner districts. The analysis indicates that the tendency for programs to operate in silos is a cultural issue that warrants attention, and measures have been initiated to begin addressing this.

The learning from this residency has several important implications for the burgeoning education R&D sector. First, there is a need to invest in greater collaboration among key stakeholders in order to maximize the knowledge base and innovative potential. Second, there is a need for a backbone organization to emerge in the education R&D sector, which can serve as a hub for collaboration and help maximize collective impact. Finally, education leaders should actively seek out new types of partnerships with the R&D field in order to facilitate the development and dissemination of innovative solutions to persistent educational challenges.