The Research on Education Strategies to Advance Recovery and Turnaround (RESTART) Network focuses on identifying and disseminating evidence-based strategies aligned with the needs of policymakers, leaders and educators who are serving and supporting accelerated student recovery efforts. The network also identifies critical needs of the field and supports the research community in developing coherent and coordinated research strategies that build evidence for practices that ensure student recovery – especially among students who have disproportionately struggled in the pandemic context. The RESTART Network will achieve this by need sensing, synthesizing evidence, and building a community that makes meaningful connections between the research community and policymakers, leaders, and educators.
The network seeks to assist PreK-12 public school systems in their recovery efforts and to inform broader research and practice, by:
- Elevating emerging issues and priorities in the field through conducting needs assessments of to examine the evolving needs and share these with the research community.
- Identifying, sharing and amplifying evidence-based strategies that respond to the needs of the students and schools.
- Providing actionable guidance and recommendations that can be easily implemented across different schools and are customized based on need.
- Creating digital tools that school leaders and educators can use to adapt to their circumstances.
- Serving as a clearinghouse for the recovery efforts underway at organizations around the country.
- Connecting researchers and building consensus through convenings and solutions working groups that address challenges to conducting research in the pandemic context.
- Empowering research teams to build studies that align with needs in the field by coordinating with policymakers, leaders, educators and other members of the research community.
- Supporting engagement and preparation of early career researchers through trainings.
Network Lead
AMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH
The American Institutes for Research (AIR) serves as the network lead for the RESTART Network. As the network lead, AIR facilitates the collaborative activities of the research teams by organizing convenings, overseeing solutions working groups, and more. AIR also is conducting research activities to complement the studies and is working to ensure the teams’ findings reach policymakers, school leaders, and educators.