Happy Holidays from NYKids! Our 2024 Year in Review

Yet another eventful year is in the books for NYKids! We are thrilled to share highlights from the past year, as well as a preview of what is in store in 2025!

NYKids Embarks on New Study of Persistent and Emergent Positive Outlier Schools

In celebration of our 20^th year of pursuing our mission to inform, inspire, and improve in service of New York state’s youth and families, we designed a unique study exploring schools we have previously worked researched. These schools were categorized as persistent positive outliers (schools which continue to demonstrate positive outlier status) and emergent positive outliers (schools that were typically-performing and have emerged as positive outliers). Our team investigated innovations and adaptations in leadership, curriculum, instruction, and youth, family, and community engagement strategies.

Bridging Accountability and Improvement with NYSED

In 2024, NYKids Director Dr. Kristen C. Wilcox partnered with the New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) Office of Accountability staff associates in learning to use continuous improvement approaches to support identified schools. Dr. Wilcox was the instructional designer of a micro-credential course in Improvement Science for Organizations in collaboration with Theresa Billington at NYSED. The aim of this partnership was to help build capacity in continuous improvement on a state-wide scale. Billington and Wilcox had the opportunity to share their work at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Annual Summit. Read more about this work here!

NYKids Research Collaborator, Dr. Maria I. Khan, Discusses Student Agency and Empowerment in Lahore, Pakistan

We are grateful for our research collaborators around the world! In a special guest blog, Dr. Maria I. Khan along with Sumaiya Zohaib, Head Facilitator at Leo’s Workshop, shared what nurturing student agency and empowerment looks like in a school in Lahore, Pakistan. Key strategies used there include:

• Co-establishing classroom norms and expectations.
• Involving students in decision-making processes related to classroom activities and project outcomes.
• Seeing yourself as a co-learner in the classroom.
• Fostering a classroom culture where student voice is respected and encouraged.
• Engaging with students through effective two-way communication.
• Integrating breaks for students to reflect on their learning progress and set goals for improvement.
• Providing students with choices to exhibit their understanding of concepts or completing tasks through flexible educational pathways.
• Building community through culturally responsive practices.
• Collaborate and communicate with your colleagues so you know what works for whom, and under what circumstances.

Announcing NYKids’ 20^th Anniversary Study of Emergent and Persistent Positive Outlier Schools Cross-Case Report!

The moment we have all been waiting for is here! NYKids 20^th Anniversary Study of Emergent and Persistent Positive Outlier Schools: Cross-Case Report is now live! We welcome you to access our report through our website and read about the major themes we found among the schools we studied:

1. Building and Rebuilding Positive Relationships
2. Enhancing Competency-based and Affinity-based Curriculum and Instruction
3. Flattening, Steadying, and Stabilizing Leadership
4. Structuring Components of a learning Organization into the Fabric of the School

American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2024 Meeting Highlights

NYKids presented at AERA in 2024! In Philadelphia, PA, Dr. Wilcox and doctoral student and research assistant Jessie Tobin shared findings from NYKids’ Research-Practice Partnership collaborative. This presentation focused on a case study with our partner school, Tech Valley High School, and described their school improvement journey focused on student belongingness.

NYKids Team Updates

Dr. Wilcox, NYKids Director will be on sabbatical this spring and will be working on a co-edited volume with from the University of Virginia on the teaching and learning of Collaborative Continuous Improvement in Education (CCIE).

Throughout the spring Kristen will be working on getting the word out about what NYKids does and learning from colleagues engaging in CCIE from around the world. During the week of February 4^th, 2025, and at the invitation of the Singapore National Institute of Education Office of Education Research and the Ministry of Education, she will offer workshops, lectures, and engage in mutual learning discussions centered on the following topics:

• “Collaborative Continuous Improvement in Education (CCIE): A Workshop on the What, How, and Why of CCIE”
• Roundtable Discussion: “Collaborative Continuous Improvement and Research Impact: Field-Building and Paradigm-Bridging”
• Frameworks and Processes Discussion: “Models and Modalities for Measuring and Disseminating Research Impact”
• “NYKids: A Model for Research-centered Collaborative Continuous Improvement in Education”

From there our Director will head to the International Congress on School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) to offer a paper with Dr. Elizabeth Zumpe “The teaching and learning of collaborative continuous improvement in education” and a workshop on the use of improvement science in university-school partnerships with entitled: “Leveraging university-school improvement hubs as equity champions: Workshopping approaches to building improvement infrastructure across the P-20 pipeline.

Thank you for your continuing support of NYKids! Keep following our journey on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Reach out to us with questions or comments by email at nykids@albany.edu.

Please have a safe, warm, and happy holiday season!