Education practitioners at the newly formed Arkansas Consortium on School Research (ACSR) have embraced the opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking “community of practice”. The Consortium, initiated by REL Southwest at Edvance Research, was developed with the goal of improving student outcomes through the utilization of data.  State education leaders and practitioners from Arkansas collaborate with education researchers on strategies to build their local research capacity and facilitate the use of data in real world scenarios.  The Consortium membership currently includes superintendents, principals, literary and math coaches, as well as leaders from the Arkansas Department of Education, the Regional Cooperative Service Centers and the Arkansas Public School Resource Center. The Consortium focuses on the issue of college and career readiness, a topic of state and national interest.

District leaders view the Consortium as a venue where participants can improve outcomes by using their own student data to assess, intervene and monitor progress in a timely manner.  The Consortium nurtures peer connections and provides a support network, especially for a majority of participants located in rural and high poverty areas.  These members will be able to attend on-line meetings and communicate in a dynamic environment with other ACSR colleagues to examine similar challenges and share successes.

In a recent meeting held in Monticello Arkansas, the Consortium discussed the use of On-Track Indicators to improve high school graduation rates.  A “How-To Guide” from the REL Southwest study, Applying an On-Track Indicator for High School Graduation was reviewed.   An overview of the study and the development of the “How-To Guide,” specifically the importance of practitioner input, illustrated the benefits of research in practice.  An interactive session, using Arkansas data, allowed participants the opportunity to delve into the data and examine how the On-Track Indicator can be adapted in Arkansas.

Andrew Tolbert, Superintendent of Warren ISD reflected, “The hands-on activity of having us do a step by step process using Arkansas data and the On-Track How-To Guide supplement were really good ways to show us how to identify the criteria that may be relevant to using the On-Track Indicator.  I can see the value of working with REL not only on the issue of early predictors for on-time high school graduation, but also on the issues in our district that more directly address our gaps in student achievement”.
 
ACSR is an action-oriented Consortium managed by the REL Southwest at Edvance Research, a national leader in forming consortia on school research with active participation from school districts.  The REL also manages the Texas Consortium on School Research (TCSR) and has worked in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Education to form the Louisiana Consortium on School Research (LCSR), which is currently planning their main area of focus with over 40 school districts and charter schools scheduled to participate. Recently, Dr. Dean Nafziger, Laboratory Director and Dr. Laural Logan-Fain, Associate Director of TCSR presented at the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) Institute, Conducting Research to Build the Capacity of Urban Educators which brought together experts across the country to collaborate on best practices around the building of education research consortia.