The multi-year partnership between six Boston-area charter schools or charter management organizations (CMOs), CEPR, MIT, and TransformEd, focuses on research and practice to support students’ cognitive and social-emotional development. The project, which began during the 2014-2015 school year, to identify and test promising measures of students’ cognitive skills (such as processing speed, working memory, and fluid reasoning) and social-emotional competencies. Collaborative members have also worked together to test the effectiveness of school-based interventions that aim to improve students’ cognitive and social-emotional outcomes.

As we do our work, we draw from research, best practice, and the input of diverse stakeholders; then we apply and share what we’re learning around three key questions:

1. How can the practices, systems, structures, and environment of a school foster students’ social-emotional development?
2. How can researchers and practitioners learn from one another in order to accelerate improvements in student outcomes?
3. What are the most effective ways to prompt a paradigm shift towards schools developing the whole child?

Publications

Centering Educators' Expertise: Learning About Innovative Approaches to Social-Emotional Learning from School Partners in the Boston Charter Research Collaborative

Mindfulness in the Classroom: Learning from a School-based Mindfulness Intervention through the Boston Charter Research Collaborative [Practitioner Brief]

Insights from the Field: Facilitating Dialogue and Learning within a Research-Practice Partnership on Social-Emotional Learning [Working Paper]

Patterns in Student Self-Report and Teacher Report Measures of Social-Emotional Mindsets, Skills, and Habits [Working Paper]

Launching a Multi-Year Research-Practice Collaborative: Lessons Learned from Year One [Working Paper]