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The demand to provide high-quality computer science (CS) education to K-12 students across the United States continues to grow due to societal transformations driven by AI and cybersecurity. However, the impact of state initiatives and mandates on district leaders’ decision making remains an under-explored area in the literature. In 2022, CSforALL began work in Tennessee, a state poised to enact CS education policy, as part of a Research Practice Partnership (RPP). This study investigates the first eight school districts who participated in the Strategic CSforALL Resource and Implementation Planning Tool (SCRIPT) workshops in 2022 and 2023, setting goals based on the SCRIPT rubric. The study takes a general qualitative approach underpinned by the Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience (CAPE) Framework [14] to develop a coding scheme analyzing the districts’ related rubric scores and goals, and to investigate the impacts on equity indicators. The districts participated in three SCRIPT workshops held in 2022 and 2023, and this study dives deeply into the initial goals as well as analyzing the ways the SCRIPT rubric aligned to the CAPE Framework to investigate how district leaders make decisions which impact teacher and student outcomes which lead to equitable high-quality CS education.
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This content will become publicly available on June 20, 2026
Agents of change? How district leaders shape absorptive capacity within research–practice partnerships
PurposeThis study explores how district leaders shape the absorptive capacity of research–practice partnerships (RPPs) when addressing local problems of practice. Design/methodology/approachDrawing from Farrellet al.(2019), we focus on three core partnership domains shaping absorptive capacity: (a) prior knowledge, (b) communication pathways and (c) strategic knowledge leadership. We then employ a mixed-methods, multiple-case study design (Yin, 2013), highlighting two districts participating in a five-year National Science Foundation grant (2019–2024) to improve math instruction and learning. Data collected include semi-structured interviews (N = 180), the Visions of High-Quality Mathematics Instruction Rubric (VHQMI), social network surveys, meeting observations (N = 80) and the effective teams rubric (ETR). FindingsData suggest that district leaders variably shape an RPP’s absorptive capacity to engage in joint-partnership work. Notably, these differences are related to the degree to which district leaders promote or hinder the assimilation of new knowledge among other stakeholders within the RPP network. Originality/valueIndeed, we do not yet know how district leaders moderate stakeholder involvement within a given RPP network and how such involvement might influence the partnership’s absorptive capacity to address local problems of practice.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1907681
- PAR ID:
- 10618893
- Publisher / Repository:
- Emerald
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Educational Administration
- ISSN:
- 0957-8234
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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