Nebraska partnering for national research center on advanced education

The Nebraska Department of Education will join two other state education departments as partners in a new National Research Center on Advanced Education.

Experts at Johns Hopkins University will lead the five-year initiative and work with researchers at the American Institutes for Research, Texas A&M University and the University of Calgary in Canada, along with the Nebraska, New Jersey and North Carolina education departments. The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences is funding the center.

Those involved will look at ways to help teachers, policymakers and families of advanced students “through research-informed tools and implementation support,” according to a press release.

In Nebraska, researchers will look at ways to improve local identification of high-ability learners and create tools for educators to support those students. Sheyanne Smith, high-ability learning specialist at the Nebraska Department of Education, will lead Nebraska’s involvement in the initiative as a co-principal investigator.

“This partnership reflects Nebraska’s commitment to ensuring that all high-ability learners are recognized and served,” Smith said in the press release. “Our collaboration with Johns Hopkins and other partners will help translate research into practical strategies that support educators statewide.”

In an interview with Nebraska Public Media News, Smith added this research will ensure districts of all sizes can find what will work best for their schools.

“There are just so much variation in the state in terms of what our districts look like and what our students look like,” Smith said. “Having these toolkits developed by researchers and piloted in Nebraska, and being able to tweak them and change them and make them specific to our state, is going to really beneficial because Nebraska is unique, and so having this work done in our state is really good in terms of what practices work in Nebraska.”

Smith said NDE is finishing the process to update its policies on high-ability learners, which were last updated in 1998. These new policies outline a process using both data and teacher input to better identify advanced students. The policies are currently waiting for the governor's approval as of October.

Jonathan Plucker, one of the researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Education leading the center, said in the release he’s looking forward to working with Nebraska as part of this initiative.

“Collaborating with the Nebraska Department of Education is especially exciting, given the state’s reputation for being at the forefront of efforts to support curriculum and instruction efforts,” Plucker said. “Pairing a great research team with Nebraska leaders and educators who continue to push the envelope should benefit both Nebraska and the country.”