Data & Infrastructure Project

RPPL, in partnership with Dr. Ryan Baker and his team at UPenn and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is working to:

• Build and test a PL-focused data infrastructure repository for cutting-edge analysis and A/B tests for accelerating meaningful and impactful PL research, starting with work on shared measures, 
• Engage RPPL’s growing network of PL organizations, researchers, states, districts, and funders in the design, development, and testing of this data infrastructure, and 
• Facilitate access to this platform, along with toolkits, and reports on learnings to PL stakeholders.

This multi-year project that started in September 2022 aims to build several interconnected strands of work shared below along with the corresponding scope of work listed as sub-bullets: 

• Standardized Measures of Practice: Create standardized set of measurement instruments across PL organizations
  • Interviews with key members of PL organizations
  • Identifying a common set of relevant/useful measures
  • A repository of ready-to-use measures (questionnaires) for quick deployment across the project partner network
• Collective Use: Create systems and tools to broaden access among researchers and among PL organizations to shared standardized data in formats that promote more research and more data use
  • Broadening access among researchers and PL organizations to shared standardized data
  • Extending the group of researchers collecting and using RPPL data to build knowledge about PL effectiveness
• Secure Data Infrastructure: House data in common platform that allows for secure researcher and RPPL member access
  • Privacy protection tools that allow for easier and more secure sharing of video and transcript data at scale
• Innovative Measurement (long-term goal): Develop and validate innovative measures that will enable lower-cost, higher-quality research on PL

In order to facilitate bringing data together within Brown University’s Stronghold data system, we are also pursuing the development and execution of a suite of legal agreements: 

• The second amendment to the MOU that established RPPL was executed by all RPPL member organizations in June 2024. The amendment extended the role of the research team at Brown. 
• Next up, we will work to execute Data Transfer and Use Agreements (DTUAs) between Brown and each member organization. These will include a shared measures project description and list all data elements needed. 
• Last, RPPL developed the PL Org – District Contract Language document to offer sample legal language for members’ contracts with districts. Please reach out to us if any additional language would be helpful as you develop contracts for the upcoming school year.