Back RPPs in Practice
Learn more about what RPPing looks like in practice –from getting started to going deeper to evaluating and improving RPPs– and what kind of impact partnerships are making. RPPs in Practice
Back Our Network
Meet our members and hear about their success stories, find your specialized learning community in one (or more!) of our subnetworks, and learn more about joining the NNERPP community. Our Network
Back Events
Find out about recurring events at NNERPP, including the Annual Forum and current and previous workshops and learning opportunities. Events
Back About NNERPP
Learn more about who we are, what we do, and why we do what we do. About NNERPP

What are the services and benefits for NNERPP members?

In creating a professional learning community among research-practice partnerships across the country, NNERPP seeks to provide members with a range of services and benefits related to our four objectives:

  • Participate in the annual meeting — Be part of a peer-to-peer annual gathering to develop and share best partnership practices through workshops, breakout sessions, and supported dialogues among practitioners, researchers, and other relevant constituent groups involved in RPPs.
  • Contribute to and access NNERPP’s online hub for resources — This includes the RPP Knowledge Library, RPP job openings, requests for proposals, and other opportunities as they arise.
  • Have fellow RPP leaders on speed dial — In addition, participate in surveys and interviews across NNERPP to support cross-fertilization of knowledge among partnerships.

  • Gain access to information on current research conducted by RPPs in the network — through members-only virtual brown bags and the NNERPP Yearbook, which highlights the work and findings of NNERPP members as well as their impacts on a variety of outcomes.
  • Be alerted about opportunities to connect with other RPPs on research — through social media promotion and coordinated panel sessions at several conferences throughout the year.

  • Engage in cross-partnership collaborations — and have NNERPP address possible roadblocks such as handling cross-partnership IRB issues, MOUs, or data access.
  • Receive support developing comparative research projects with other NNERPP members — These include peer-reviewed journal articles or practitioner-friendly briefs, and the facilitation of joint grant proposals, organization of conference panels and joint presentations, and internal sharing of research.
  • Gain access to a members-only website portal — Connect, ask questions, and share resources with the NNERPP community at any time in the private member forum.

  • Participate in activities promoting the importance of RPPs — including to national leaders in policy and philanthropic communities.
  • Help build strategic relationships in a variety of sectors to build support for RPPs.
  • Provide information on significant research findings from RPPs — which may be of interest to policymakers and/or research being used by practitioners due to RPP work.

Who is eligible to join NNERPP?

NNERPP offers three types of membership:

  • RPP membership: Education research-practice partnerships joining as a full partnership.
  • Organizational membership: Practice-side, research-side, or community-side organizations engaging or interested in RPP work joining as individual organizations.
  • Individual membership: Individuals engaging or interested in RPP work joining as individual members.

 

To help potential members gauge their fit with our community, here is how NNERPP defines RPPs:

We have chosen to adopt and adapt the updated definition of RPPs put forth in the 2021 “Research-Practice Partnerships in Education: The State of the Field” white paper.

In particular, Farrell and colleagues define RPPs as: “A long-term collaboration aimed at educational improvement or equitable transformation through engagement with research. These partnerships are intentionally organized to connect diverse forms of expertise and shift power relations in the research endeavor to ensure that all partners have a say in the joint work.”

 

Using this definition as a starting point, we have developed the following guidelines for RPPs:

  1. Partnerships must have an intention of being long-term.

    Research-practice partnerships are different from research-practice projects in that partnerships are collaborative formations that make an explicit effort to work beyond a single project. Research-practice projects, on the other hand, typically consist of research-, practice-, and/or community-side members coming together for a predetermined amount of time and separate once the work is completed. Note that partnerships can often form around a particular project, but change the scope or type of work once they’ve decided to become an RPP.

  2. Partnerships must be intentionally organized to connect diverse forms of expertise and shift power relations in the research endeavor to ensure that all partners have a say in the joint work.

    These types of collaborations require all sides of the partnership to have a commitment to co-developing the research agenda, research questions, and overall research process. There is intentional recognition of important expertise that is held by participants from all sides of the partnership; furthermore, this complementary expertise is valued and thoughtfully incorporated into the work. A diversity of perspectives is prioritized in the work, and the partnership is careful to actively dismantle existing power hierarchies of all kinds that may prevent some from contributing.

  3. Partnerships must be organized to identify practice-centered candidates for improvement, to investigate these topics, and to work collaboratively to develop solutions for improving outcomes.

    A key feature of research-practice partnerships is that they center the needs of those in education practice. In an effort to produce research that is relevant and useful, partnerships typically only take on questions that have been co-developed between partner members from the various participating organizations. Additionally, partnerships make a special effort to also address engagement with research findings, a crucial step that goes beyond a research-practice project or traditional research done solo.

What is the membership fee?

The annual fee is waived for the first year of membership.

After the first year, the annual membership fee for the three types of membership is as follows:

  • RPP membership: $1000/year. Included in this fee are two free registrations to the NNERPP Annual Forum, our annual gathering of members and friends.
  • Organizational membership: $1000/year. Included in this fee are two free registrations to the NNERPP Annual Forum.
  • Individual membership: Graduate students: $75/year | Everyone else: $150/year. This includes preferred registration for the NNERPP Annual Forum.

How do I join NNERPP?

The steps below outline the process for NNERPP membership:

Step 1

As a first step, please fill out the Membership Application Form to help us learn more about you (please select the appropriate form below):

Step 2

Next, we will reach out to you for a quick call or email exchange to get to know you better and address any remaining questions.

Step 3

Your application will then be discussed with the NNERPP Steering Committee, which will make a final call on membership.

How can we stay connected?

Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter to stay up to date on all things NNERPP.