A new education research initiative, supported by Team PA and Heinz Endowments, will provide objective policy briefs to lawmakers on timely education issues.
Editor’s Note: The first research brief can be read here.
Team Pennsylvania Foundation is launching an unprecedented initiative to deliver highly objective research on timely education issues impacting the commonwealth to policymakers, state officials and stakeholders.
Created in partnership with the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Endowments, the PA Clearinghouse for Education Research (PACER) will develop six to nine policy briefs per year on current and emerging education issues critical to Pennsylvania.
Matt Zieger, President and CEO, Team PA, said the briefs will focus on education issues that are on the radar screen of education stakeholders.
“We felt PACER is the best way to provide timely and relevant information so policymakers can have the best data available at their finger tips as they are making decisions,” Zieger said. “These briefs will help provide policymakers with the information they need to craft policy that benefits all of our school children and prepares them for the workforce or the next step in their academic career upon graduation.”
“Rather than advance a particular policy agenda or make policy recommendations, PACER seeks to inform state education policymaking through objective, timely issue briefs that draw on recent, rigorous, unbiased research and the experience of states and major school districts nationwide,” said Adam Schott, Senior Policy Analyst, Research for Action (RFA). RFA is the independent, Pa.-based research organization that administers PACER.
The first brief, which can be read in its entirety here, addresses the Team PA-administered Teacher and Principal Evaluation program. Zieger noted the briefs are an informational tool for legislators to use to obtain relevant and unbiased information about issues impacting Pennsylvania schools.
“Briefs will be based on the most rigorous, peer-reviewed research. The goal is to provide pertinent information that will assist policymakers during the decision-making process,” Zieger said.
RFA will choose the focus on each policy brief based on input from educators, policymakers, Corbett administration officials, business groups and other stakeholders on topics that require additional study to inform policy action.
“It’s important to underscore that the policy briefs will not take policy stands or tell legislators to vote yes or no; rarely are issues in education that black or white,” Schott said. “We’ll look at the available evidence, choose the most rigorous and unbiased studies and information, and present it clearly and concisely. It will then be up to the legislators to decide how they use that information.”
Once a brief is released, key stakeholders will be invited to policy forums held at sites around the state to discuss the research results. As part of that process, time will be set aside to gather input regarding other issues on the policy horizon that would benefit from study, Schott added.
“We want to know what other issues are on the horizon and how RFA can help stakeholders grapple with those questions,” Schott said.
Future briefs may include such issues as: charter schools; teacher compensation models and student achievement; promising practices for the implementation of common standards; labor-management relations; recruitment and retention of alternatively-prepared teachers; and costs and savings associated with school district consolidation, Schott added.
