Massachusetts Institute for College and Career Readiness (MICCR): Creating Working Alliances among Researchers, Policy Makers and Education Officials

During the three year training grant, MICCR will recruit a national cohort of established education researchers to form working partnerships with teams of local decision-makers in Massachusetts' Gateway Cities, defined as historically thriving manufacturing communities with 50,000 to 250,000 residents, which lack the college educated workforce needed to compete in the knowledge-based economy.

Each working group will consist of a Gateway City team representing the school district, city administration, and the local community, as well as a national education researcher selected by MICCR to provide technical/research assistance to the Gateway team members. MICCR will select and partner the local teams and researchers based on the local team's specific research interests within the broader topic of career and college readiness (e.g., early warning systems, academic remediation, individualized learning plans, workforce readiness, and whole school reform) and the researcher's expertise.

The working groups will each identify a specific research question that addresses the local team's needs. MICCR trainers will support the working groups' research goals by providing different types of scaffolding. This scaffolding will consist of content knowledge (e.g., information about early warning systems), practical knowledge (e.g., helping researchers to communicate with non-researchers), and continuous research support. After the working groups determine their research question(s) of interest, the Gateway City teams will collaborate on a research project with the assistance of their education research partner and MICCR staff.

Key programmatic features include: locally-determined research projects, annual two-day conferences to facilitate networking and collaborations across Gateway City communities; a webinar symposia to support project implementation through continued explorations of best practices; and bimonthly project meetings to discuss progress. Supplementary activities, such as quarterly policy forums and the publication of new research and policy briefs, will communicate the MICCR's work to the broader policymaking community.