At HGSE, there are many research centers, projects, and initiatives that contribute to advancing improvement and innovation in education. We asked members that work at these centers to share more about the type of research they conduct and how people can get involved. Raina Hall is the Senior Program Coordinator at the Education Redesign Lab. See her responses about the research center’s work below:
What is the Education Redesign Lab?
The Education Redesign Lab (EdRedesign) believes that every child should have access to the services, supports, and opportunities – from cradle-to-career – that enable them to thrive in education and in life. Lead by Paul Reville, former Massachusetts Secretary of Education and Professor of Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, EdRedesign partners with mayors, superintendents, and civic and community leaders in redesigning and integrating systems of education, child development, and health to accelerate positive outcomes for all children. To advance this new vision of education, we focus on fieldwork, action research, and movement building. Through these three strategies, EdRedesign seeks to disseminate groundbreaking practices for building new systems, partner with communities to implement innovative education models, and advance this new paradigm for public education through coalition building and policy change.
What do you do there? Describe your responsibilities.
I support EdRedesign’s fieldwork operations and its two initiatives, By All Means and Local Children’s Cabinet Network. I get to work closely with our communities and help municipal leaders in creating cross-sector systems of child well-being and education. To help accelerate the work, I help run our fieldwork programming in which we convene mayors, superintendents, and other community-based leaders and provide access to leading experts and tools for improving systems-level governance and cross-sector collaboration.
Describe a project or initiative that you find particularly impactful.
Launched in 2016, our signature fieldwork initiative, By All Means (BAM), is making lasting impact in rethinking education and child development systems in partnership with local communities. BAM seeks to create collaborative, cross-sector solutions to address the comprehensive needs of all children. This initiative supports nine local communities in utilizing children’s cabinets, action bodies composed of agencies, inside and outside the government, interested in seeing children thrive in school and in life. The cabinets are used as a mechanism for building a stronger system of comprehensive supports and opportunities. Another core component of this initiative is that we host national convenings assembling policymakers, educators, and community leaders to re-envision public education and its governance. Check out more of EdRedesign’s community impact here!
What is your advice to people that want to get involved with Education Redesign Lab?
To get involved, I encourage you to visit our website and sign up for our mailing list. Joining the mailing list will give you access to our newsletter which shares recent publications, tools, and opportunities to get connected. When we convene mayors, superintendents, and community leaders for our fieldwork initiatives, we invite current HGSE students to attend the events. These events are a great chance to learn from municipal leaders working on systems change in their communities. Additionally, we offer research assistant positions at the beginning of each semester. Currently, we have 7 HGSE students doing exciting work for our communities and action research efforts!
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