After years of planning, education officials in New York City announced last week the formation of an independent, nonpartisan research center that will study the city’s schools.
The Research Alliance for New York City Schools, housed at New York University, will be run by James Kemple, the former director of K-12 education policy at MDRC, a national social-policy research organization in New York City.
The alliance aims to provide scholarly research that is relevant to policy and practice, in a fashion similar to the Consortium on Chicago School Research, according to a news release from NYU. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided $3 million in initial funding, and the Ford Foundation contributed $500,000.
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein has committed to giving the center access to the city department of education’s databases on student, personnel, and school characteristics. The city department also will collaborate on evaluations of initiatives aimed at improving schools.
