The Unexpected Benefits of a Research-Practice Partnership’s Efforts to Strengthen Budgetary Decision-Making

Abstract

Our research-practice partnership (RPP) focused on developing and testing metrics and tools to foster improved evidence-based budgetary decision-making. We expected our research findings to directly influence decisions about program expansion, contraction, or elimination. Instead, unexpected findings led to unexpected uses: changes in program implementation, administrative data collection processes, and the kinds of information provided to inform budget and program improvement decisions. We conducted a content analysis of two rounds of interviews with senior district budget decision-makers to identify recommendations for improving the budget decision process and document changes in the budget process over time. Our study highlights the sometimes unanticipated ways that RPPs can inform educational decisions.