What is the Research Alliance’s relationship with the New York City Department of Education?

While maintaining its independence, the Research Alliance collaborates with the New York City Department of Education (DOE) to identify important research questions and disseminate research findings to help solve problems and build capacity in NYC public schools. A formal data sharing agreement between the NYC DOE and the Research Alliance allows our staff and its partners to conduct studies consistent with the research agenda.

What is the governance structure of the Research Alliance?

The Research Alliance exists as a center housed at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. While NYU is legally responsible for all Research Alliance activities, its operations, financial status and research agenda are guided by a Founding Charter and an independent Governance Board, which includes the Chancellor of the New York City Schools and the Provost of New York University as ex officio members.
The Executive Director of the Research Alliance is responsible for all of its operations and activities, including its budget, financing, research agenda, research projects, dissemination activities, data, and relationships with individuals and organizations inside and outside of NYU.

What is the scope of work to be undertaken by the Research Alliance?

The Research Alliance conducts research and evaluation studies of problems and promising practices in New York City public schools. The studies examine policies and programs aimed at improving outcomes for the city’s students and educators. This includes secondary analyses of existing data and studies that involve collecting additional data to augment the data provided by the DOE. The goal of the work undertaken by the Research Alliance is to help the DOE and other stakeholders in the city’s education system continue to move toward evidence-based policies and practices.

What topics will the Research Alliance study?

The following are four general areas of research that have been approved by the Governance Board and serve as the starting points for review and guidance from the Research Alliance advisory committees.

• High School Achievement, Attainment, and Post-Secondary Preparation 
• Achievement and Development in the Middle Grades
• Contexts That Support Effective Teaching
• Data Use for Practice and Policy

These topics are specific enough to help set priorities for data requests from the DOE and to establish the Research Alliance's data management systems. The Research Alliance's staff and its partners develop individual studies that help to illuminate these topics.

How is the Research Alliance funded and how will it be sustained in the long-term?

Long-term sustainability is enhanced by support from the major research universities in New York City, the private sector, the philanthropic community and the consensus and organization of the city’s leading educational researchers. The Research Alliance is loosely modeled after the Consortium for Chicago School Research, an entity that has accumulated two decades of rigorous high profile research for the Chicago Public Schools and the nation.

Can the Research Alliance share data with other researchers?

The terms of the data agreement between the Research Alliance and the NYC DOE allow Research Alliance staff to use data for the purposes of studies conducted by its staff and collaborators. The Research Alliance is not authorized to distribute data received from the NYC DOE. Therefore, researchers working on projects independent from the Research Alliance must acquire data from the NYC DOE.