The DC Education Research Collaborative held its fifth meeting of 2025 on October 7. Meetings are an opportunity for the Collaborative’s Advisory Committee of educators, family and community members, school and city leaders, and researchers to share findings from ongoing projects, understand DC students’ needs and priorities, and collaborate on community-centered action-oriented research. At this meeting, the new representative from institutional member Washington Teachers Union was introduced, the Committee gave insightful feedback on selecting a Career Development Opportunity program for a deep-dive study, and researchers gave updates on projects from the Collaborative’s robust research pipeline.

Meeting minutes, slides, and recordings can be found on our website.

Membership

Collaborative cochair Aysha Keisler introduced the new representative from institutional member Washington Teacher’s Union, Laura Fuchs. Aysha Keisler also shared upcoming term limits of Advisory Committee members and plans for recruitment for 2026. 

Research Pipeline Update

Collaborative director Dara Shaw provided updates on current Collaborative research projects and processes, including how an idea is turned into a research project. She gave brief updates on the status and timeline on all projects in the Collaborative’s research pipeline. Discussion then focused on the ongoing project Career Development Opportunities for DCPS Students. As the project moves from its wide landscape analysis to a deep-dive study of a single career development program, Collaborative members gave detailed and insightful feedback. Researchers will use their insights to select a program for future study that is aligned with community goals and is ripe for investigation. 

Collaborative members and the public were invited to the upcoming winter convening on December 12 for a presentation of the key findings from the first year of the study, a panel discussion on innovative career opportunities and partnerships with DCPS educators and schools, and a data walk to explore further ideas.

Partner Spotlight and Community Updates

With a partner spotlight presentation, Josh Boots of EmpowerK12 shared findings from DC Bold Performance Schools, which serve a large population of priority students (economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities) with significantly better academic outcomes than schools that serve similar student populations. The findings included how Bold Performance Schools break stereotypes, commit to high academic expectations, provide socioemotional support, offer opportunities for family engagement, and focus on continuous data-driven improvement.

Other members briefly shared recent successes and updates:

• Trinity Washington University shared the launch of the Advanced Technical Center in partnership the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to support career pathways for high school students. 
• The State Board of Education celebrated a high turnout of students at the year’s first meeting of their Student Advisory Committee. 

Looking Ahead

The next Collaborative meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 10, 2025. In the meantime, the Collaborative will continue sharing updates via our website and LinkedIn page. Members and community members are encouraged to submit ideas for spotlights, blog posts, or research questions they would like to see explored.

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