The Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation (PRE) conducts applied research and evaluation studies focused on promoting positive educational outcomes for youth, and understanding the influence of both schools and communities on those outcomes. Its goal is to use research to inform educational policies and practices at federal, state, local, and programmatic levels.
Anti-Racism Training
NYU Metro Center's ongoing commitment to promoting educational equity and confronting anti-Black racism and white supremacy has spanned four decades. As we have pursued this work, a difficult truth has emerged: white people have internalized messages, attitudes, and beliefs about white supremacy, regardless of their intentions or awareness, and often act to perpetuate racial hierarchies in our schools and communities. As Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian descendant people work to disrupt systemic racism and challenge white people to act, many white people are seeking opportunities to expose supremacist ideologies and practice anti-racism. To support all these efforts, NYU’s Metro Center introduces an Anti-Racist and Critical Whiteness Initiative.
Research and Development
Our staff of social scientists, educators, and program directors develops and designs research-driven programs that focus on the collection of high-quality data and the implementation of accountability systems and evaluative measures.
Evaluation and Data Services
PRE partners with practitioners, school leaders and educators, CBOs, parents, and students to design evaluations and research tools to help them answer questions about education equity.
We provide a range of customizable evaluation and data services:
- Formative and summative evaluation designs, including experimental and quasi-experimental designs
- Participatory evaluation and research, for example, YPAR and CPAR
- Survey design
- Data disaggregation and analysis
- Equity audits
- Asset inventories
- Continuous improvement assessments
- Indicator systems
- Practice continuums
Partners have included school districts (e.g. NYC Department of Education, Boston Public Schools); non-profits (the Parent Leadership Training Institute; Third Sector New England; New Tech Network); schools (e.g. Florida Atlantic University High School), and foundations (e.g. Schott Foundation).
Review and Recommendations
We provide a framework and services for enabling organizations, community groups, advocacy partners, and others to engage in systematic review of their individual organizations' missions, goals, and strategies. This work is at the core of the organizations we support. We also provide toolkits that assist in addressing gaps in the assessment of the impact of an organization's current programs and offer strategies for developing constructs for improvement, further study, and research.