The grant will support the development of two papers that distill lessons from the William T. Grant and Spencer Foundations learning community of awardees of the federal Investing in Innovation (i3) program. The papers will bring practitioners’ perspectives to bear on conversations between policymakers, evaluators, and philanthropists as they consider future initiatives to build and use rigorous evidence in programs. The first paper is targeted to a broad audience of policymakers, innovators, philanthropists, and others interested in education and social innovation. The second paper targets an academic audience of education researchers. In both papers, Peurach will draw on the i3 learning community meeting materials, the initial i3 proposals, interviews with learning community participants and funders, as well as the broader research literature on social and educational innovations.
This project will leverage opportunities created by the i3 Learning Community to bring the perspectives of practicing educational reformers to bear on conversations about the use of evidence in educational and social innovation.
