Amy Gerstein, Executive Director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, presented new research at the American Educational Research Association 2015 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. In a symposium about university-community partnerships, Gerstein presented and co-authored Fostering Collaboration Within a Professional Learning Network: A University-Community Research Partnership in an Out-of-School Time Setting. The paper examines the Gardner Center’s technical assistance work in an out-of-school-time initiative in nine cities and explores implications for data use and sharing when engaged in collaborative research-practice partnerships. Collaborative member Cynthia Coburn participated in the symposium as a discussant. Several additional Collaborative members also contributed new research findings and perspectives at the conference. These included:
- Mike Kirst: The Increasing Role of For-Profit Colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Joan Talbert: Getting Small: A Design for School Improvement Through Strategic Inquiry
- Aida Walqui: A Vision for Building Expertise for Teachers of English Language Learners in the 21st Century, Assessing the Development of Teacher Expertise to Work With English Language Learners in Ambitious Ways, and Teacher Expertise and English Learners: Theoretical and Practical Considerations
George Bohrnstedt, Coburn, Kenji Hakuta, Jennifer O’Day, Warren Simmons, and Mike Smith also contributed to additional presentations as session discussants or chairs.