Jason Leung, Unsplash
Earlier this week, MIT Blueprint Labs awarded funds to 11 research projects, the first to be funded through its Charter School Research Collaborative. Blueprint launched the Collaborative in the fall of 2023 to connect practitioners, policymakers, funders, and researchers to make charter school research more rigorous, actionable, and efficient. Through conversations with over 100 charter stakeholders, Blueprint developed an agenda to guide charter research.
In January 2024, the Collaborative launched its first request for proposals (RFP), calling for researchers to propose projects that address the research agenda. The response to the RFP exceeded Blueprint’s expectations. “Our Charter Collaborative RFP generated a truly spectacular response with many strong proposals for exciting new projects,” stated Blueprint Labs Co-Director Josh Angrist. Blueprint Co-Director Parag Pathak was “impressed by how many high-quality proposals we received across such a wide range of topics.”
Many proposals were policy-relevant, rooted in strong partnerships between researchers and practitioners. The Collaborative has hosted several matchmaking events to connect stakeholders looking for a new partner, many of whom submitted proposals with partners they met at the events. “Our efforts catalyzed many partnerships that may otherwise not have existed,” Pathak stated.
Eleven projects will receive funding from the Collaborative in this RFP cycle. These 11 projects span all seven of the Collaborative’s research agenda questions, studying topics ranging from the impact of KIPP charter schools in Atlanta on students’ long-term and non-test score outcomes to the effects of authorizer renewal and accountability policies on charter performance in New Orleans. The proposals will study eight of the sixteen geographic regions Blueprint has deemed high-priority. Projects range from short proposal development projects that scope the feasibility of larger studies to full projects that will answer large-scale questions.
The Collaborative will disseminate results to policymakers, practitioners, and the academic community over the next several years. Read more about the 11 funded projects.
Moving forward, Blueprint Labs will fund more promising new projects. “We are excited to support these leading minds in education policy research,” stated Blueprint Executive Director Eryn Heying. “I can’t wait to learn from their efforts and see how they influence public policy. However, we still have critical gaps in our funding agenda.” Going forward, Blueprint is particularly interested in applications that fill those gaps, such as those focused on students with disabilities, authorizing practices, and geographic areas of interest that are not studied by the funded projects from RFP 1, including California and Washington state.
The next funding cycle will open at the end of June. Sign up to receive more information about RFP 2.