NCARE Launches Four New Rural District Partnerships
The Northwestern Collaborative for Applied Research in Education (NCARE), a research-practice partnership that uses data to support students and teachers, is expanding its statewide reach through four new partnerships with Illinois school districts.
NCARE, formerly known as E4, is housed within Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy and will be working both individually and collaboratively with Harvard Community School District 50, Sparta Community School District 140, Chester Community School District 139 and Vienna High School District 133.
Teaming up with district leaders, NCARE will research the issues that matter most locally, like keeping teachers from leaving, getting kids to show up to school, supporting students learning English, and improving economic opportunity.
“By bringing together researchers, district leaders, teachers, and education technology experts, the partnership will produce practical guidance that schools can use to strengthen digital instruction,” Goren said.
Outside of Illinois, NCARE will be working with the Washoe County School District in Nevada, a collaboration supported by an Advancing Innovative Math Solutions EduData Initiative Grant from Digital Promise.
Through the grant, the team will partner with a leading digital math platform to investigate student and teacher motivation, engagement, and persistence in math learning.
Education policy researcher Amy Auletto, assistant director of NCARE, is leading a study on how Washoe County middle school students engage with online lessons: how well they stay focused, how fast they go, when they stop to take breaks, and whether they finish. The goal is to see how those habits connect to how well the students learn math and how much they improve over time.
“We’ll analyze lesson logs, clickstream data, and assessment outcomes alongside teacher interviews from five schools,” Auletto said. “Our findings will inform digital learning platform design, usage recommendations, and instructional practices to help maximize student learning and promote equitable math outcomes.”