An experiment began in 2003 to fuel innovation in education.
A National Academies committee proposed a new organization whose processes would parallel those that support innovation in medicine, agriculture, and engineering: collaborative, practice-initiated, problem-solving research and development.
"Education research is too slow."
"Researchers are too narrowly focused."
Many said it could not be done.
"Practitioners are too impatient."
"District leadership is too unstable."
Enter SERP.
With initial, small-scale support, the nonprofit SERP Institute was established to carry out that ambitious experiment: to generate innovative, scalable solutions to our schools’ most pressing problems through sustained collaborations among researchers, practitioners, and designers.
U.S. Dept of Education • National Science Foundation • Carnegie Corporation of New York • S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation • Spencer Foundation • Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation • Chan Zuckerberg Initiative • Goldman Sachs Foundation • Haan Foundation for Children • Koshland Foundation • Leon Lowenstein Foundation • Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation • National Academy of Sciences • Robert Noyce Foundation • John S. and Catherine L. Reed Foundation
SERP LISTENS TO PRACTITIONERS.
Since 2003, SERP has worked on problems prioritized by practitioners in partnerships with researchers and designers in locations throughout the U.S. Researchers willingly joined practice-based projects with urban districts, with districts in smaller cities and towns, and with rural districts.
PROBLEMS SERP IS SOLVING
Products developed through these partnerships are different.
The SERP product design cycle coincides with and is framed by the collaborative investigation of the problem.
SERP products are the outcomes of partnerships.
SERP PRODUCTS WORK...
because we continue to address barriers until they work.
They also are rigorously tested for effectiveness, often in randomized trials across multiple districts.
Teachers embrace the newly-developed SERP approaches and marvel at how capable students are when engaged as bona fide thinkers with genuine agency.
Word of SERP’s contributions has spread around the country (and to other countries as well).
Thousands of teachers
access SERP materials which are provided online at no cost.
More than 25,000 downloads monthly!
Not only does research change practice in SERP partnerships...
PRACTICE
CHANGES
RESEARCH.
SERP partnerships fundamentally change the research dynamic as well. Prestigious senior university faculty delight in the direct connection with practitioners.
And perhaps even more importantly, SERP enables junior faculty to focus research on relevant and urgent problems by clearing hurdles that typically prevent access to school districts.
Like the opportunities doctoral students have in other fields, SERP enables graduate students in education to join vibrant projects that contribute to practice-focused scholarship—a win-win opportunity and a sea change.
The need for innovation in education has never been greater, as we try to educate our children for a world that is so rapidly changing.
When the SERP Institute was a vision at the National Academy of Sciences, many said that it could not be done.
But the proof of concept has been a success.
We no longer have to guess about how to create change that matters.
Stay connected to discover more about SERP!
Strategic Education Research Partnership
SERP Institute
1100 Connecticut Ave NW
Suite 1310
Washington, DC 20036
SERP Studio
2744 East 11th Street
Oakland, CA 94601
(202) 223-8555
Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 30-0231116