The Portland-based Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) and the University of Portland have announced a grant of $1.5 million by NWEA to the School of Education to establish the Multnomah County Partnership on Education Research. The partnership will support research that informs educators and policy makers on issues related to best practices that enhance student learning and improve teacher practice.
The partnership will engage with local school systems in research projects to support research-based and data driven decision making on their implemented models of educational change. The partnership will bring together local schools, NWEA researchers, and University of Portland education faculty and doctoral students to conduct research in the areas of educational outcomes and best practices. The grant will support these efforts with $250,000 per year for six years, for a total of $1.5 million. The partnership has the following goals:
- Enhancing student learning for the nearly 84,000 students enrolled in Multnomah county public, private and parochial schools;
- Establishing the University of Portland School of Education at the forefront of education research;
- Securing Portland’s identity as a center of excellence in educational research.
The University of Portland’s School of Education, which celebrated its 50th anniversary with a gala reception and dinner on June 27, has graduated more than 7,500 teachers since 1962. Education students annually serve more than 140,000 hours in schools in the local community.
The NWEA grant is part of the University’s RISE Campaign, which was announced in December 2010 and seeks to raise $175 million by 2014. The RISE Campaign, which has raised more than $161 million to date, is one of the largest development campaigns ever for a Pacific Northwest private college or university. For more information contact the development office at 7395.