Spring 2021
Dear CRESP Community:

Many tumultuous events of the past year have seen evidence eventually triumph, and our research center continues its mission to generate and mobilize evidence to inform policy and practice. In this issue of the newsletter, we highlight a virtual conference we hosted focused on increasing the efficiency of education research moving into schools. We hope that you will have a chance to view videos shared at this conference. Throughout this year, we have continued to present at (virtual) conferences and publish. We are pleased to be able to share this information with you.

We hope that you and your loved ones are healthy, safe, and doing well. As we enter the spring, we share in a spirit of solemn gratitude for what has been accomplished in this past year and hope for what is to come.

Sincerely,
Co-Directors: Henry May, Ph.D. & Allison Karpyn, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Director: Sue Giancola, Ph.D.
Associate Director: Jeff Klein, Ed.D.
Focus on Gap between Research and Education Communities

After surveying over 4700 educators and more than 400 researchers, staff from the Center for Research Use in Education share what has been learned about the role of brokers in bridging the gap between research and educational practice.

The Center for Research Use in Education (CRUE) within CRESP is a research center that is devoted to “Rethinking Research for Schools” (R4S). Our mission is to expand the study of research use and produce a clearer picture of what drives it, from the production of knowledge by researchers to the application of research in school-based problem-solving and decision-making processes. We also seek to identify strategies that can make research more meaningful to classroom practice. The Center is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. For more information about CRUE's activities, visit the website at Research4schools.org.
Leveraging Links:
Networks for Educator and School Use of Research
Where are educators getting research?
Dr. Elizabeth Farley-Ripple, a principal investigator at CRUE, analyzed data on the individuals, organizations, and media sources that educators reported as sources research and influencing their educational practice. More than 9,000 resources were identified by the 1238 respondents, including more than 4,000 unique organizations and media sources! To view the presentation, click on the image to the left.
Mapping how Research moves into schools and classrooms
How long does it take for research to move into practice?
Dr. Samantha Shewchuk, a post-doctoral researcher at CRUE, tracked research backwards from being used in the classroom to the original research to identify the channels through which research-based resources make their way into schools. She is able to answer the questions related to how does the research move into schools and classrooms and how long it takes. View the presentation by clicking on the image to the right.
From Practice to Research: Pathways that Promote Relevance
Problems and Decisions Faced by Educators
More attention needs to be paid to ways in which the needs and experiences of educators influence research. Kati Tilley, graduate assistant, has spent several years analyzing the data educators provided on the wide range of recent organizational decisions educators reported that were being made in their schools and districts. How do these align with research that is available and research that is being performed now. Click on the image to the left to view the presentation.
Upcoming Events
CRESP Presentations and Workshops
July
26-29,
2021
Dr. Gail Headley CRESP Research Associate, will present a paper to the Educational Research & Methods Division of the American Society for Engineering Education. It describes the methodological challenges of developing a tool for collecting multi-faceted and meaningful data about how students contribute in the context of a team-based learning (TBL) design project. Such a tool is necessary to support research aimed at understanding how TBL relates to the emerging identities of undergraduates majoring in engineering.
Published in Journals & Effective Evaluations
UD CRESP team evaluated Lori’s Hands, a service learning organization based in Newark, Delaware, founded in 2009. Each year, over 100 community members are served by Lori’s Hands with the help of college student volunteers. These community members live at home with a chronic illness and share their experiences with the student volunteers.The evaluation highlights findings for both the students and clients . A.Karpyn, J.Kim, J.Larock, T.Silberg, T.Tracy, M.Seibold

"USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Vendor Criteria: An Examination of US Administrative Agency Variations"

"Neural Networks to Estimate Generalized Propensity Scores for Continuous Treatment Doses"

"Topical Review: Crowdsourcing as a Novel Approach to Qualitative Research"

"Restaurant kids’ meal beverage offerings before and after implementation of healthy default beverage policy statewide in California compared with citywide in Wilmington, Delaware"
Dr. Samantha Shewchuk, Ph.D. is a Post Doctoral Researcher at the Center for Research Use in Education. Prior to joining CRESP, Dr. Shewchuk was the program manager of RIPPLE: Research Informing Policy, Practice, and Leadership in Education—a program of research aimed at learning more about improving linkages between researchers and decision makers in education across Ontario. Currently, she is using data collected by CRUE to map the network of actors, relationships, and processes in the ‘third space’ between education research and practice. Dr. Shewchuk specializes in qualitative data analysis applying this to knowledge mobilization (KMb) efforts to address the research-policy-practice gaps across public service sectors.
Kati Tilley is a doctoral student in the School of Education at the University of Delaware specializing in educational statistics and research methods. She has been with the Center for Research Use in Education since the project started and has been involved in the development of the surveys, implementation of the surveys, and qualitative data analysis.   Her dissertation investigates the potential relationship between problem-framing and research use in school-based decision-making.
Darren Agboh, Ph.D. is a Post Doctoral Researcher at the Center for Research Use in Education. New to CRESP, Dr. Agboh previously was a researcher at the Data Collaborative for Justice. Currently, he is involved in the analysis of survey data collected from educators and education researchers and preparing publications reporting on the findings from the Survey of Evidence in Education. Dr. Agboh specializes in quantitative analysis applying his skills to translate scientific research to influence policy, particularly those policies that advance equitable outcomes for marginalized individuals. 
Scott Sheridan is a doctoral student in the School of Education specializing in learning sciences, with a focus on computer sciences education. In addition to his work with CRUE analyzing survey data, he is involved in planning and implementing professional development for computer sciences educators, data collection and analysis for National Science Foundation-funded grants to increase the technology proficiency of K-12 teachers in Delaware. His dissertation is a multiple case study exploration of how teachers employ pedagogical practices, computer sciences concepts and tools from University of Delaware's Summer Institute in their classroom practice with and without the follow up support of undergraduate computer science students taking part in a service-learning field placement course.
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CRESP is looking forward to times when we will all be able to work in the same space again and go to conferences beyond Zoom. The UD community and CRESP continues to work diligently on our center and community goals.
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Phone: 302-831-2928