DESIGN, BUILD, LAUNCH, SUSTAIN TEXAS EDUCATION RESEARCH-PRACTICEPOLICY
PARTNERSHIP (RP3) NETWORK:
The Texas Education RP3 Network is a dynamic and growing network of existing regional partnerships between researchers and practitioners who are dedicated to accelerating and amplifying collaborative education research. Through ongoing commitment to address urgent and timely problems of practice and policy, the Network co-generates knowledge, tools and resources necessary to drive equitable improvements for students, schools and communities across the entire state.
OUR APPROACH
Built around collaborative education research, the Texas Education Research Practice Policy Partnership Network is rooted in authentic engagement with community members and focused on urgent and timely problems of practice and policy identified locally.
Over the next three to five years, the RP3 Network aims to:
• Emerge as a vital and trusted source for actionable evidencebased products and experiences that teachers, school and district administrators, policymakers and other education advocates can quickly access, easily understand, and effectively use to advance improvement efforts locally and across the state.
• Flexibly and swiftly mobilize partners on policy priorities to position the state to be responsive to future crises like the pandemic that pose a threat to sustained student success, and to accelerate efforts to scale practices and policies that will allow students to thrive.
• Cultivate and grow the community of researchers who adopt this inclusive and collaborative research model to ensure Texas leads the nation in translating research to practice in ways that propel students and communities to bright and prosperous futures.
The Texas RP3 Network
Is Guided by 5 Key Principles:
1. Committed to longterm collaboration.
2. Directed toward education improvement or equitable transformation.
3. Engaged with evidence and research as a leading activity.
4. Intentionally organized to bring together a diversity of expertise.
5. Dedicated to shifting power relations in research to ensure that all participants have agency and influence.
RP3 | 5
VALUES Student Voice
We center the assets and needs of students and communities.
Collaboration & Learning
We value collaboration and learning across people, organizations, and communities.
Equity
RP3 strives to promote equitable outcomes across the state.
Systems Transformation
We seek to transform systems to improve outcomes for Texas students across their lifespan.
WHY A TEXAS EDUCATION RESEARCHPRACTICE-POLICY-PARTNERSHIP?
The idea to develop a statewide education-focused researchpractice-policy partnership (RP3) emerged during the pandemic, as researchers and constituents sought to address gaps in research and support educational change.
The pandemic disrupted education in many ways, disproportionately affecting vulnerable students. The pandemic widened existing gaps in academic achievement and long-term life outcomes, and this threatens the well-being of our Black, Latinx, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and Emergent Bilingual students, as well as students with disabilities.
In response, UT College of Education Dean Charles Martinez and Texas 2036 CEO Margaret Spellings convened a half-day summit in March 2021. The summit brought together researchers and education stakeholders from across Texas to discuss resources and approaches to ensure Texas students could recover and thrive in a post-COVID world, and develop recommendations for educational policy and practice.
They concurred that developing a statewide partnership focused on the nexus of research, practice and policy would be a crucial step to identify and address gaps in research and promote equitable transformation.
RP3 | 7
SHARED LEADERSHIP & ADMINISTRATIVE HOME AT UT AUSTIN
The Network operates under a shared governance model which includes its members in monitoring and assessing the direction, activities, and health of the Network.
The College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin serves as the administrative and operational home and supports the day-to-day activities of the Network. The Network embraces consensus decision-making to effectively surface existing concerns, understand different needs and perspectives, and generate solutions that garner active support by all Members.
NETWORK STRUCTURE & DYNAMICS
NETWORK MEMBER ENGAGEMENT
Network members collectively engage in activities to shape research, practice and policy to improve student outcomes and drive system change in both their local communities and across the state.
Build Community
Support and grow a statewide professional community of institutional leaders and researchers committed to advancing collaborative education research to improve practice, reform policy and transform systems.
Amplify Voices
Elevate and amplify research findings and evidence-based interventions from across the Network to promote and achieve equitable outcomes through changes in both practice and policy.
Improve Conditions
Champion conditions that will expand and accelerate collaborative education research as a vital tool to identify, understand and address urgent student and community needs.
Collaborative Research
Mobilize multiple Network Members on collaborative education research students to identify solutions to student success and well being.
RP3 | 9
NETWORK AUDIENCE & IMPACTS
The Network will communicate findings in multiple formats to reach audiences critical to local and system change. The Network will share research products with key audiences in intentional ways to support learning, improve experiences and outcomes, and promote system change.
GET INVOLVED
The Texas RP3 Network aims to include partners who engage in long-term, mutually beneficial collaborations that promote the production and use of research and data to solve educational problems of practice in their regions.
For more information on how you can connect and support the Network, contact:
Carolyn Landel
Director of the Texas RP3 Network
carolyn.landel@austin.utexas.edu.
RP3 | 11 LEARN MORE
rp3.education.utexas.edu
