Leveraging Education Advanced Research Now (LEARN)

Overview

<p>Assessment for Good (AFG), under the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF), is a research and development program focused on improving the conditions for the social and emotional wellbeing and positive academic outcomes of Black and Latinx learners. Led by Dr. Temple Lovelace, AFG seeks to improve outcomes for Black and Latinx learners, with and without disabilities, through a series of investments that produce solutions in support of a relevant, responsive, and accessible system of asset-based formative assessment. Successful prototypes created under this program have the following outcomes for Black and Latinx learners aged 8 - 13:</p> <ul> <li>the reduction of negative or segregated learning experiences,</li> <li>more informed caregiver and educator decision-making,</li> <li>improved academic outcomes, and/or</li> <li>improved learning environments that support the social and emotional health of learners and educators.</li> </ul> <p>AFG will concentrate its efforts on solutions that lead to the precise identification of the social and emotional needs of Black and Latinx students or their educators in order to generate actionable knowledge for use in data-based decision-making. This includes solutions that incorporate improved assessment formats (i.e., ecological momentary assessment, embedded assessment, and/or rapid assessment) and assessment that links directly to intervention (i.e., dynamic assessment). </p> <p>Leveraging Educational Advanced Research Now, or LEARN, is a means of identifying innovative, rapid response research proposals that will advance solutions in support of AFG’s central hypothesis. AFG hopes to advance research projects that reflect state-of-the-art practices or tools that support the assessment of the social, emotional, and educational needs of culturally diverse populations. LEARN is intended to be broadly accessible to communities who would not otherwise participate in advanced educational research and development. We encourage proposals that deeply reflect our priority populations of Black and Latinx learners and projects that include outcomes that will benefit Latinx or Black learners and their educators. Proposers should consider creating deep collaborations with community-based organizations and school districts in order to meet the stated goals of this funding opportunity. Proposals submitted under LEARN may be used to fund any stage of research (i.e., exploratory, mid-stage, or products approaching implementation). LEARN will be leveraged through two mechanisms, a competitive external award process and in-house research and development. Through each of these pathways, the most promising solutions will support future work in an upcoming request for proposals under a separate call entitled Bridging Unifying Innovations for Learner Diversity, or BUILD.</p> <p>BUILD will consider proposals for technology-enhanced assessment prototypes that can be used across multiple contexts, enabling educators and caregivers to utilize an assessment across instructional types (e.g., self-directed learning, computer-mediated learning, or hands-on learning). Individuals can apply to BUILD if they have been supported under LEARN or can directly apply to BUILD as new proposers to AFG. Additional information for BUILD will be released in 2022. Twice per year, AFG will seek LEARN proposals that advance new information in support of the creation of asset-based assessment prototypes. Successful projects under LEARN may be used to create, components for future prototypes under BUILD. For each application cycle, the topics under which proposers will submit will change.</p> <p>The Summer 2021 topics of interest are:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Learner Development</strong>: Assessment tools for understanding identity development (special focus on the dynamic properties of a child’s multiple identities, such as racial identity development, academic identities [e.g., math or reading identities], and other social or cultural identities) and how it impacts pre-adolescent and adolescent development for Black and Latinx children and adolescents.</li> <li><strong>Learner Variability:</strong> Assessment tools, processes, or frameworks that assist educators and parents in understanding the continuum of learner variability to address the multiple identities of Latinx and Black children and adolescents (e.g., race, dual disability diagnoses, gender, complex learner profiles, academic identities [i.e., math learner identity]).</li> <li><strong>Learning Science:</strong> Assessment frameworks or tools that reflect emerging horizons in learning science that capture asset-based social development and/or emotional development competencies in Black and Latinx learners and/or educator social and/or emotional development in schools.</li> <li><strong>Educator Development:</strong> New social and emotional learning assessment models and tools for educators of Latinx and Black children and adolescents.</li> <li><strong>Embedded Assessment:</strong> Assessment tools that probe for social development and/or emotional development in multiple environments (i.e., home, community) or across a variety of contexts throughout a school day. NOTE: Funding can be requested to explore this topic area with a current assessment tool that can be improved to achieve this goal.</li> <li><strong>Rapid Assessment:</strong> Assessment models and tools that allow for reduced administration time, reduced time between administration cycles, or reduced time for analysis to aid in generating actionable knowledge faster for students, caregivers, and educators. NOTE: Funding can be requested to explore this topic area with a current assessment tool that can be improved to achieve this goal.</li> <li><strong>Dynamic Assessment:</strong> Assessment tools that produce data that reflect current levels of functioning for students or educators and provide predictive capabilities to recommend asset-based instruction or intervention. NOTE: Funding can be requested to explore this topic area with a current assessment tool that can be improved to achieve this goal. </li> </ul> <p>BUILD, an upcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) release for AFG, will support assessment prototypes that are rapid; are able to be embedded in a learner’s school, community, or home context; and result in reducing the role of bias in the decisions affecting learners and educators. Therefore,<br>proposed projects under LEARN that lead to solutions in this space are highly encouraged. LEARN was created to guide the AFG team’s research and development path in the assessment of educator and learner social and emotional learning (SEL). As such, additional topics have been suggested in this application cycle that will strengthen the creation of prototypes under the BUILD phase or build the SEL field in general. Successful projects under LEARN will be used to advance larger assessment prototypes under our BUILD RFP. Proposers do not have to participate in LEARN in order to be funded under BUILD.</p>