Session: Building and Sustaining Research-Practitioner Partnerships in Education (Society for Prevention Research 24th Annual Meeting)

Research and practitioner partnerships have garnered the attention of policy-makers and funders as critical leverage points in facilitating the adoption and sustained implementation of effective programs and practices. The goal of this symposium is to describe a set of innovative partnerships between researchers and schools, health, city, county, and state agencies to support implementation of effective educational practices.  The proposals describe three integrated efforts to scale up academic and behavior support initiatives, each at varying stages of implementation. The symposium will provide a forum for describing strategies for initiating impactful and durable partnerships.  

The first paper, “Scaling-up Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports in Maryland Schools Using a Partnership Approach,” describes a 14 year partnership between researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, school districts throughout the state of Maryland, the state Department of Education, and Sheppard Pratt. The partnership has created an infrastructure for sustaining high quality implementation of the behavior support initiative and demonstrated impact on student learning and behaviors.

The second paper, “Scaling-Up Evidence Based Practices in Education Through State-Wide Collaborations,” provides an overview of the Effective Behavioral and Instructional Support Systems (EBISS) initiative that successfully supported integrated systemwide academic and behavior support programming in 25 school districts in Oregon. That authors describe the partnerships among state education departments, local educational agencies, schools, and researchers that led to sustained implementation and improvements in student behavior and academic performance.

The third paper, “Creating a Comprehensive Data-based Coordinated System of Care for School Districts to Promote Youth Academic Success and Social Emotional Development,” describes the formation of and initial evidence supporting the Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition (the Coalition). The  Coalition is a multidisciplinary, collaboration among Boone County’s six independent school districts, Boone County, and researchers from various departments at the University of Missouri funded by a county-wide sales tax designed to support mental health services for youth.

Dr. Brian Bumbarger will serve as Discussant using his extensive experience in dissemination and replication of evidence-based practices, particularly related to community coalitions, to frame the discussion.