A New Year to Inform, Inspire, and Improve

by Kristen C. Wilcox

Happy New Year! 2021 was a busy year for NYKids and we hope that 2022 will bring the spread of new innovations to tackle the many challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed to all children, families, and educators in New York state and beyond. In this blog we offer a few project highlights from our last year, provide a preview into what NYKids has in store for 2022, and invite all those who support New York’s kids to follow us and join our research-practice partnership work.

Recapping 2021

Study of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education workforce completed in 2021

NYKids completed a study of an issue of great importance to policymakers, school and district leaders, educators, and community members in New York state: we explored the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education workforce. In this study we gathered responses from over 900 educators through a survey focused on educators’ experiences of stress, job satisfaction, and adaptation in the face of pandemic challenges. We also conducted follow up interviews with a subset of principals. The findings are available in presentations and blogs and soon will be published in reports and articles.

Partnerships for continuous improvement begun and extended

Through NYKids direct support services and partnering with the Capital Area School Development Association, in 2021 we brought our research and COMPASS school improvement tools to 18 schools in Whitesboro, South Colonie, Voorheesville, and Chatham, providing both overview and intensive institutes to school-based improvement teams. We also published and presented our research findings to both researchers and practitioners in national and state venues.

A preview of 2022 plans

Our future course of action at NYKids will be determined in large part by our advisory board comprised of a variety of stakeholders all focused on the academic development and health and well-being of young people in New York state. As we convene with the NYKids advisory board in the coming months we will explore future study ideas as well as find new ways to provide research support to practicing professionals in PreK-12 schools across the state and nation.

Performance Tracker Enhancements

Our Performance Tracker provides any user the capability to compare and assess their schools against higher-performing schools in New York state. On the existing Find Your School page, the database has been updated with the most recent data from 2019-20, which includes basic school demographic data such as school name, location, grade span, number of students, and where the opportunity gaps might be. By using the tool, educators, parents and school leaders can generate a tabular/graphic display for a comparison of any school or set of schools they choose. We invite you to use this resource in your improvement journeys. Stay tuned to this website as we refresh the displays and integrate new data sets.

Research in the Queue

As we begin 2022, we have several ongoing and new research projects— they include:

• With some extra seed funding from the Minority Health Disparities fund at the University at Albany, we will begin to engage in collaborative research on the pandemic’s effects on children and their caretakers in schools in the Capital District.
• We will continue to gather data in a number of schools identified as positive outliers based on our educator responses to the pandemic survey. This research focuses specifically on what we can learn about adaptation and innovation during times of crises.

Partnerships

• We are delighted to start 2022 with a new partner. The American Institutes of Research (AIR) Equity in Education initiative is supporting research-practice partnerships (like NYKids) to work on high leverage problems of practice such as chronic absenteeism. In 2022, we begin our work with Tech Valley High and Chatham in addressing important issues affecting kids and families.
• We look forward to offering continuous improvement support in the summer of 2022 and will be sharing details about where to sign up to engage in our unique positive outlier-based continuous improvement process called COMPASS. 

As always, we thank you for your interest in NYKids and encourage you to sign up for our newsletter for updates or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for announcements. Please reach out to nykids@albany.edu for further insights and direct school improvement needs in 2022!