Nearly 75 researchers, educators, and non-profit leaders from across North Texas gathered for the second annual Consortium on Educational Research and Improvement (CERI) Conference, a joint effort which included Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), and several non-profit community partners.
The conference focused on key topics such as college and career readiness, integrating literacy and STEM for early learners, and the impact of after-school programs on student achievement and attendance. Educators and researchers from SMU and Dallas ISD presented research and insights across a wide range of additional subjects. Community partners, like Big Thought, Read Up, Catch Up and Read, Dallas Afterschool, Jubilee Park and Community Center and Vickery Meadows Youth Development Foundation, presented research to share their findings on the effectiveness of funding high-quality non-profit organizations that provide services to children and young adults across the DFW Metroplex.
Dr. Annie Wright, a co-lead for CERI and executive director of The Addy Foundation Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE), said the goal of the event is to identify effective strategies to learn “what works best in education.”
“Some attendees and presenters work in the classroom, some work in educational research, and others work in community-based learning settings; this offers us an opportunity to learn from one another what works best across all of the places and spaces where students learn and develop,” Wright said.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Christopher Hu, assistant professor of social and cultural studies in education at the University of Alabama, spoke about rethinking the relationship between research and practice.
“Collaborating and learning to dialogue across different organizations and priorities is more important than ever,” Hu said. “The need to build relationships is essential so that all parties involved in a research project can communicate their different priorities and goals.”
Hu emphasized that research projects are more successful when expectations are clearly communicated and understood among all team members.
Dr. Larry Featherston, chair of the Dallas ISD Research Review Board, said the educators who attended helped make the conference a success.
“It’s a great opportunity to get people from different backgrounds together to build relationships and break down walls, which results in some very exciting collaborative work,” Featherston said.