Trusted, equity-focused, & community-engaged education researchers and policy experts.
Research for Action is a nonprofit education research organization. We use field-driven insights to advance equity in opportunities and outcomes for underserved students and their families along the early childhood to postsecondary education pipeline.
Unleash the Power of Data: Researching Education's Biggest Issues
RFA partners with a wide range of organizations to tackle critical questions in education. We evaluate programs, analyze policies, and conduct research on everything from early childhood development to the latest reform movements. Explore our current and past projects to see the impact we're making.
Internship Opportunities
RFA seeks 3-4 interns with diverse methodological experience, including mixed-methods, quantitative, and qualitative experience.
Educational Opportunity Dashboard
Built with data from the 2017-18 federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), this interactive tool from RFA allows users to compare disparities in access to educational opportunity for students in all 50 states and the nation. Visit the Dashboard to examine the data on your home state and review RFA’s reports about educational opportunity in the nation and in Pennsylvania.
Becoming a Community-Engaged Research Organization
We know that research is better and more impactful when communities are engaged throughout the research process. But how can research organizations become community-engaged? To document the “how,” Research for Action launched a Community Research Partnership, and after its first year, we’re documenting our learnings through a brief and an audio-doc, which share five key insights we’ve drawn from embarking on this transformative journey.
For 30 years, RFA has conducted research and evaluation to improve education policy and practice. Using culturally-responsive and equity-focused approaches to research studies, collaboration, and partnership, we work to advance racial and social justice so that all students, families, and their communities have the resources and supports to develop their potential and thrive.
Featured Projects
Personalized, competency-based learning in arizona.
Research for Action joined forces with KnowledgeWorks to examine personalized, competency-based learning in Arizona school districts. The goals were to deepen the data collection and analysis already underway through the development of summative implementation and outcomes analyses and case studies of a cohort of school districts in Arizona.
Out-of-School Time Coordination: Infrastructure for Supporting Healthy OST Ecosystems
The OST Ecosystem study examines how these systems responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the long-standing and new equity concerns in the OST system, as well as the value of these responses to other system-level leaders, OST providers, and caregivers.
Evaluation of the Relationships First Program at the School District of Philadelphia
Using mixed methods, RFA will assess the fidelity of the Relationships First program components, identifying key factors influencing implementation and sustainability. The goal is to provide SDP with actionable feedback for continuous improvement. Relationships First (RF) is a multi-tiered schoolwide restorative model that addresses disciplinary, academic, and social-emotional outcomes for K-12 students by fundamentally shifting relationships among and between adults and students in schools.
Our Approach
A hallmark of RFA’s research and evaluation work is our responsive and collaborative approach to partnerships. Our research directly addresses the information needs of our partners and key stakeholders, knowing that education policies and contexts can shift, and important decisions need to be made to seize the moment to improve policy and practice.
Latest Publications
Publication
Students Experiencing Homelessness in Pennsylvania: A 2024...
The When and How of Keystone Exams in the School District o...
Understanding Increases in Head Start Teacher Turnover Duri...
Examining the Effectiveness of Race-Specific Funding Strate...
“For the Good of the City” An Early Evaluation of the Catto...
Revisiting Research on School Closings: Key Learnings for D...
Responding, Reimagining, Realizing: Out-of-School Coordinat...
Personalized, Competency-Based Learning in Arizona: A Case...
Personalized, Competency-Based Learning in Arizona: A Preli...
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Get ready for #ARNOVA24!
The 2024 ARNOVA conference will be held in Washington DC, home to the US Federal Government and headquarters of many domestic and international nonprofit organizations.
ARNOVA Board of Directors Elections featured 13 candidates for 6 open positions:
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2023 Conference Recap 52nd ANNUAL ARNOVA CONFERENCE Nov 16-18, 2023 | Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista – Orlando, FL Advancing…
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Acceptance Comments: Richard Steinberg, November 16, 2023 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action 52nd Annual Conference, Orlando,…
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SPARC is a non-profit advocacy organization that supports systems for research and education that are open by default and equitable by design. We believe everyone should be able to access and contribute to the knowledge that shapes our world.
As a catalyst for action, our pragmatic agenda focuses on driving policy change, supporting member action, and cultivating communities that advance our vision of knowledge as a public good. From the local to the global level, SPARC works to address the ways in which our knowledge systems exclude people due to racism, colonialism, and other legacies of injustice.
SPARC’s membership includes about 250 libraries and academic organizations across North America. This membership is complemented by affiliated SPARC coalitions in Africa , Europe , and Japan as well as individual member organizations in Australia, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1998, SPARC operates as an independent project of the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. SPARC is known by its acronym, which stands for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.
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The Nonprofit Academic Centers Council is an international membership association comprised of academic centers or programs at accredited colleges and universities focused on the study of nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations, voluntary action, and/or philanthropy.
Our Mission Established in 1991, NACC is the first group entirely dedicated to the promotion and networking of centers and academic programs that provide research and education in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.
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As a companion to the NACC Indicators of Quality, the Curricular Guidelines provide model curriculum for degrees in nonprofit leadership, nonprofit organization management, nonprofit sector studies and philanthropy.
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Indicators of Quality
As a companion to the NACC Curricular Guidelines, the Indicators of Quality identify quality through reference points and benchmarks that can guide the development of academic centers and programs while enhancing the legitimacy of the field of nonprofit and philanthropic studies.
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Nonprofit organizations play an indispensable role in the lives of communities, groups, and individuals.
Embracing educational, artistic, religious, health, and community organizations, the nonprofit sector accounts for 10 percent of the United States economy, employs almost 10 percent of the workforce, and is assisted by more than 100 million volunteers.
At universities across the nation, dedicated students and nonprofit professionals are seeking the knowledge they need to make an impact on the nonprofit sector and the world. Responding to this demand, more than 255 colleges and universities provide at least one class in nonprofit management, including 157 schools that offer at least one course within a graduate department. On these campuses and others, centers for the study of philanthropy and nonprofit organizations are a focal point for diverse disciplines to combine thoughtful scholarship with practical applications.
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Research for Action is a nonprofit education research organization. We use field-driven insights to advance equity in opportunities and outcomes for underserved students and their families along the early childhood to postsecondary education pipeline.
RAND is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.
AIR applies its decades of workforce research in developing the knowledge, tools, systems, and programs needed to maximize human and organizational potential in the 21st century.
The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) is a diverse community of scholars, educators, and practice leaders that strengthens the field of nonprofit and philanthropic research in order to improve civil society and human life.
Learn where to get research funding to pay for your academic research. Knowing how to find grants can expand your research projects and enrich your studies.
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ), peer-reviewed and published bi-monthly, is an international, interdisciplinary journal for nonprofit sector research dedicated to enhancing our knowledge of nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, … | View full journal description.
SPARC is a non-profit advocacy organization that supports systems for research and education that are open by default and equitable by design. We believe everyone should be able to access and contribute to the knowledge that shapes our world.
Not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) are often described as organizations that focus on fulfilling a specific mission rather than generating profits to be returned to investors. They are often found in arenas in which public goodwill is important (Salamon, 1999).
The Nonprofit Academic Centers Council is an international membership association comprised of academic centers or programs at accredited colleges and universities focused on the study of nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations, voluntary action, and/or philanthropy.
The American Institutes for Research ® (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance to solve some of the most urgent challenges in the U.S. and around the world.