Creating and Evaluating a Research Practice Partnership: Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR)

As internal evaluators for a 3- year Research Practice Partnership (RPP), we are part of a Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) project between partners CSforALL, CodeCrew (TN), and CSEdResearch.org. The goal of the RPP is to increase the capacity, access, participation, and experiences of K-12 computer science (CS) students in Tennessee through the implementation of a CSforALL designed workshop, Strategic CSforALL Resource & Implementation Planning Tool (SCRIPT) (CSforALL, 2022). The goal to increase capacity, access, participation, and experiences stem from the defined problems of practice at the core of the RPP, which are: School leaders in TN need broad buy in to bring CS to their students. Leaders in TN want clear definitions of what high quality CS K-12 pathways look like. The RPP plans to address the problems of practice through the implementation of SCRIPT workshops. The SCRIPT workshop is a framework to guide teams of district administrators, school leaders, and educators to create or expand upon a CS education implementation plan for their students. This is accomplished through a series of collaborative visioning, self-assessment and goal-setting exercises that the educators engage in during the workshop, framing their plan on their individual community values and goals. Through this project, the CSforALL team, as the named researchers in the DBIR, aim to answer the two research questions: How does the strategic planning from SCRIPT tools, routines, and processes impact local buy-in, decision making, and action taken at the LEA level in TN? What direct impacts of the SCRIPT resources have on LEA’s capacity to provide access and encourage participation of students historically marginalized in CS? What indirect impacts are there on the CS experiences of students historically marginalized in CS? For this preregistration, however, the CSEdResearch.org team will conduct an internal evaluation of the effectiveness of the RPP, including how well the CSforALL team answered their research questions. As part of this evaluation, we will be using the Five Dimensions of Effectiveness framework for assessing our RPP (Henrick, Cobb, Penuel, Jackson, & Clark, 2017). CSforALL Script Workshop: https://www.csforall.org/projects_and_programs/script/ Henrick, Cobb, Penuel, Jackson & Clark. (2017). Assessing Research-Practice Partnerships: Five Dimensions of Effectiveness. New York, NY: William T. Grant Foundation.