A primary goal of RPPs is to impact decision making in education through the use of research evidence (NNERPP, 2019).  However, at present, few studies point to what effective research use looks like and what conditions need to be in place in order to maximize the potential of effective research use (Gitomer and Crouse, 2019). Empirical evidence is needed to further understand how and in what ways using research evidence in RPPs is indeed impacting decision making in education and ultimately, improving outcomes for children. One way to do this is for RPPs to “articulate theories of action for research use, empirically test them, and then iteratively improve their work and refine their theories” (Tseng, 2017, pg. 10).

This study seeks to describe the practice of research use in a research practice partnership aiming to support Chicago Public Schools’ initiative to provide every student in the district with a high quality computer science experience.