Special to Iredell Free News

RALEIGH — Sixteen North Carolina public school districts, including Iredell-Statesville Schools and the Mooresville Graded School District, have been selected to join the North Carolina Recovery Practitioners Network, where they will work together with education researchers to develop recovery-focused interventions and evaluation plans to tackle some of the most pressing issues impacting schools and districts.

The NC Recovery Practitioner Network is a new partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education, as well as NC Collaboratory, Harvard University and Georgetown University. The partnership is aimed at providing opportunities for building research and evaluation capacity with local leaders.

“Pandemic recovery must be rooted in thorough research. The NC Recovery Practitioners Network will give these districts access to unique resources and research as they join with our university partners,” said N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt. “Utilizing evidence-based decision making is the best way to ensure our students are receiving support that is proven to move the needle on pandemic recovery.”

The 16 districts selected are Cabarrus County Schools, Caldwell County Schools, Chatham County Schools, Cleveland County Schools, Cumberland County Schools, Edenton-Chowan Public Schools, Guilford County Schools, Harnett County Schools, Iredell-Statesville School District, Mooresville Graded School District, Pender County Schools, Rockingham County Schools, Rowan-Salisbury School System, Union County Public Schools, Wake County Public School System and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

Over the next few months, the districts will participate in five workshops, as well as engage in regular coaching meetings with faculty partners. By the summer of 2024, districts will develop a recovery-focused intervention and evaluation plan that outlines how to collect and analyze data to answer guiding questions, generate key findings for all areas of focus, develop and prioritize recommendations and communicate and sustain the work. District leaders and faculty partners will finalize a research and evaluation plan to examine local recovery-related interventions and submit for funding to implement the study plan in the 2024-26 academic years.

The NC Recovery Practitioner Network is actively recruiting faculty partners and content experts from public and private universities from around the state to work alongside school district leaders to build capacity for using data and research to guide local investments in interventions aligned to their local context.

“North Carolina is home to so many institutes of higher learning, and we’re excited to be able to tap into the wealth of knowledge that they bring to the table,” said Jeni Corn, NCDPI’s director of research and evaluation. “The NC Recovery Practitioner Network provides an exciting opportunity for school districts across the state to continue their recovery from the learning loss of the COVID-19 pandemic based on evidence and research-based practices.”

The North Carolina Recovery Practitioner Network received $450,000 in funding from ESSER III and $500,000 from NC Collaboratory.