The Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) recently completed its second year having made valuable contributions to education policy and practice in its home state and beyond. Among the highlights of the past academic year:
Influence
TERA conducted analyses of principal preparation programs, the school leader labor market, and school turnaround efforts.
- It shared information impacting policymaking by the Tennessee State Board of Education, the Office of the Governor, and the Department of Education.
- TERA conducted the eighth annual Tennessee Educator Survey, the state’s most comprehensive tool for gathering educator feedback.
- Working with the Tennessee Department of Education, TERA produced a new podcast, “The TNth Period,” which features discussions of education research in Tennessee.
Productive Research
TERA produced 7 research briefs. Topics include teacher professional learning, turning around low-performing schools, teacher recruitment and retention, and effective school leadership. In addition, researchers
- published 6 peer-reviewed journal articles
- produced 4 dissertations
- presented 13 times at major annual conferences
Ongoing Collaboration
Knowledge sharing is central to TERA. In the past two years, it has shared data with colleagues at Temple University, University of Kentucky, Brown University, and Harvard University. TERA has also partnered with Vanderbilt faculty in Health Policy, Law, Pediatrics, Physics and Astronomy, and Sociology to understand the available data and discuss possible research projects. And TERA hosted the annual meeting of the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships, as well as topic-oriented gatherings of Tennessee and regional education policy leaders.
Learn more about TERA.