Research and Policy
School-Wide Practice Change
Research-Practice Partnerships 101: From Evidence to Action in Education
A Q&A with Dr. Paula Arce-Trigatti of the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships (NNERPP)
Educators, policymakers, and community leaders face important questions every day: How do we improve student learning? How can we make better use of our data? How do we know which strategies really work?
At the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning (CELL) at the University of Indianapolis, we’ve recently expanded our services to offer research support, including research-practice partnerships (RPPs). These partnerships are a powerful way to align research with the challenges schools and communities face. RPPs have proven success across the country and are now taking root in Indiana.
To help explain what RPPs are and why they matter, we sat down with Dr. Paula Arce-Trigatti, director of the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships at Rice University in Houston.
Q: What is your background and how did you become involved in RPPs?
Dr. Arce-Trigatti, director of the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships
Arce-Trigatti: My PhD is in economics, but I knew I didn’t want to spend my career writing papers that only a handful of people might read. I wanted my work to matter in the real world.
I took a postdoc at Tulane University with the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans. At the time, I didn’t even know what an RPP was, but their work was all about serving the community and creating touchpoints with schools and organizations. That felt right for me.
In 2015, I attended a meeting at Rice University where about 15 RPPs came together to talk about and learn together on how to enact RPPs. There is no “cookbook” for doing this work—it's complex and very context-dependent. It was at that meeting that NNERPP was born, as folks realized the benefit of learning regularly through a network. I’ve been leading it since. It aligned perfectly with my values of producing knowledge that can make a real difference.
Q: In simple terms, what exactly is a research-practice partnership (RPP)?
Arce-Trigatti: RPPs are long-term, formalized agreements between organizations—usually involving a research partner and at least one practice, policy, or community partner. At their core, they’re about working collaboratively across these organizations to identify, study, and answer questions that matter for real-world decision-making.
RPPs have a few key features:
- Collaboration – All partners engage in joint work.
- Diversity of perspectives – RPPs intentionally bring together organizations that don’t typically collaborate—like universities, school districts, nonprofits, state agencies, and community organizations. This cross-sector mix ensures the right people are at the table to tackle challenges and develop solutions.
- Flexibility – There is a whole host of research and inquiry questions that an RPP can take up. The research can range from randomized control trials to testing a new curriculum or evaluating a policy. It is highly dependent on the organizations involved and the priorities within the partnership.
- Trust and power-sharing – The partnerships address power dynamics directly so all voices—whether academic, practitioner, or community-based—are valued and trusted.
"RPPs, on the other hand, are designed for real-world decision-making."
-Dr. Arce-Trigatti, director of the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships
Q: How are RPPs different from traditional research studies?
Arce-Trigatti: Traditional academic research usually involves researchers working with other researchers within the same discipline. The goal is often to test theories or build frameworks, which has value, but it’s not always immediately useful for educators or policymakers in the field.
RPPs, on the other hand, are designed for real-world decision-making. They produce timely, practical insights that can help a district leader, principal, or policymaker take action.
Another difference is how we think about expertise. In traditional academic research, researchers are deemed experts who can exclusively generate new knowledge. In RPPs, we also recognize experiential knowledge—what practitioners and community members know from lived experience. Multiple people with diverse types of expertise touch the work. This broader definition of “expert” informs and legitimizes the research in a way traditional academic research typically does not.
Q: How do these RPP agreements offer improvements for organizational decision-making?
Arce-Trigatti: By collaborating with an external researcher, districts can view their own data in new ways, uncover insights they might have missed, and make more informed choices to advance their improvement goals. RPPs enhance, and sometimes accelerate, knowledge-gathering, helping leaders respond to challenges more effectively.
Here's why:
- Extended research capacity. Many schools and districts don’t have the staff or resources to conduct robust research. An RPP gives you that support.
- Tailored insights. Instead of relying on Google, you have what we refer to as “a researcher on speed dial” — someone who knows your local context and history to provide evidence on important topics.
- Credibility. Even for districts with in-house staff analyzing data, an external partner can sometimes be seen as more objective, which adds authority when sharing results with boards, legislators, and the community.
- Innovation. Having a trusted partner allows schools to test new ideas with confidence, knowing they’ll get real feedback on what works and what doesn’t.
Even for school leaders with limited time to engage in the project, there are benefits from having a research partner to call on and collaborate with when critical questions arise.
"By collaborating with an external researcher, districts can view their own data in new ways, uncover insights they might have missed, and make more informed choices to advance their improvement goals."
-Dr. Arce-Trigatti
Q: Can you share some examples where RPPs made a measurable difference?
Arce-Trigatti: There are many examples of RPPs across the country doing important work—both inside of schools and within the larger community.
A few that stand out are:
- Oakland Unified School District–University of California, Berkeley: This RPP expanded the district’s capacity to use data for decision-making. Findings led the district to revise its professional development sequence for more than 150 new teachers annually, increasing access to peer observations of experienced educators.
- Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC): HERC is a partnership between Rice University and eight area school districts. The RPP addresses topics spanning all schools. Most recently, HERC conducted a study on pre-K to help districts understand who they were not reaching with their early learning programs and to develop evidence to advocate for additional state funding.
- Policy Research in Missouri Education (PRiME) Center: The PRiME Center’s RPP includes two universities, a regional education laboratory, nonprofit organizations, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and several public and private schools in the St. Louis area. The collaboration’s most recent work embedded researchers within schools and districts to work side-by-side with educators on research projects. The most significant outcome is the creation of a comprehensive data system to empower educators with actionable insights to identify learning gaps and tailor interventions to meet specific student needs.
- Chicago Consortium on School Research: One of the earliest RPPs, this partnership between the University of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has generated decades of research. In 2024, the Consortium published a series of family playbooks offering context, data, and research insights to help parents and caregivers make better decisions. The partnership’s research also informed the CPS Whole School Safety Policy, which removed school resource officers and shifted focus to physical safety, emotional safety, and relational trust.
These examples show how RPPs can influence everything from daily practice to districtwide policy. For additional stories of RPPs in action across the country, readers can visit the 2024 NNERPP Yearbook.
Q: Beyond student outcomes, what other impacts have RPPs had?
Arce-Trigatti: We’re seeing RPPs play a greater role in informing statewide policy. To me, the North Carolina Collaboratory is the gold standard for this. Funded directly through the state budget, it serves as a hub that connects legislators’ questions with researchers across the University of North Carolina System. Lawmakers identify what they want to know, the Collaboratory funds and manages the research, and results are reported back directly to policymakers. This model ensures research is both relevant and useful. It’s a model that could benefit every state, including Indiana.
The Tennessee Education Research Alliance used surveys and labor market research to influence state and district policies on teacher recruitment, mental health services, and professional learning. Another great example is the Office for Education Policy in Arkansas which has influenced many major changes in statewide education policy, including identifying and rewarding effective teachers.
Q: What does the process of an RPP typically look like for a district or school?
Arce-Trigatti: It varies. Some leaders only have time to define the research questions and meet quarterly to check in on findings. Others are deeply involved, even co-directing the partnership. Both approaches can work. You get out of it what you put into it.
What matters most is building trust. We often say, “The work moves at the speed of trust.” If partners trust each other and care about the same outcomes, they can dive into projects quickly. Without trust, things move more slowly because you need to build that foundation first.
By working together, educators and researchers can uncover insights that lead to better decisions, stronger policies, and improved outcomes for students and teachers alike.
Q: What are the ingredients for a successful long-term RPP?
Arce-Trigatti: Like I said, there is no single “cookbook” for this work. At the same time, we know there are some important factors to consider as one develops an RPP. Through conversations with our members, we’ve identified several year-one milestones RPPs should consider:
- Cultivate trust and address power dynamics. Without trust, the work stalls. Naming and addressing power imbalances upfront helps all voices contribute.
- Co-create a shared vision. Everyone needs to agree on the “north star”—why the work matters and what you’re trying to achieve.
- Develop learning priorities. These are the questions or topics that matter most to the practice or policy side, ensuring the research is useful.
- Create feedback loops. Regular check-ins help monitor progress and provide the opportunity to adjust when needed.
- Establish data infrastructure. Clear agreements on data access and management keep the work moving smoothly.
- Recruit key personnel. Even a small role, such as a project manager, can make a significant difference in keeping work on track.
- Discuss funding early. Funding impacts capacity. Even if money isn’t immediately available, conversations about sustainability should start early.
Q: What advice would you give to schools worried about cost, time, or resources?
Arce-Trigatti: Be honest about your limitations. RPPs are flexible. Even if you only have limited capacity, you can still make it valuable.
Think of it as finding the overlap in a Venn diagram—what’s important to you and what’s important to the researcher. That’s the space where you can both accomplish your goals. Money helps, but it’s not always required to get going.
Getting Started with RPPs
Research-practice partnerships aren’t just about generating data. They’re about building relationships that connect evidence with the daily realities of schools, districts, and communities. By working together, educators and researchers can uncover insights that lead to better decisions, stronger policies, and improved outcomes for students and teachers alike.
CELL is excited to expand the impact of RPPs in Indiana. If you’d like to learn more—or want to explore a project idea—we invite you to learn more or connect with our team at cell@uindy.edu. Together, we can turn evidence into action.
