AIMS Subnetworks

The purpose of this subnetwork is to put practice partners and students at the center of the Collaboratory conversations, support them to take an active role in shaping the Collaboratory research and activities and to eventually help practitioners who are not in AIMS benefit from Collaboratory learning.

This subnetwork worked to establish two Collaboratory Advisory Groups (the AIMS Educator Council and the Youth Advisory Panel). These two advisory group provide a platform for practitioners and students to inform the Collaboratory’s work, given their expertise around priority students’ needs as well as issues of classroom implementation, and to support practitioners to maximize the benefit of the research.

The group also created opportunities for partners to learn how to engage in codesign with students and practitioners.

Culturally responsive pedagogy is a core strategy for meaningfully engaging students and nurturing their learning and development of positive learner identity. In mathematics, culturally responsive approaches to instruction and curriculum are emerging as key drivers in improving the learning experiences and outcomes for students of color and who experience poverty.

This subnetwork aims to develop a set of resources for teams in their efforts to center identity, culture, and equity in their educational products and practices.

Research-Practice partnerships (RPPs) hold great promise for integrating the voices of diverse constituent groups and responding to the needs of those in practice. Within the AIMS Collaboratory, teams are structured as partnerships among practice partners (districts), solution providers and researchers. Some teams are structured as formal RPPs.

Partnership is a tenet of AIMS R&D to ensure that a) technologies and instruction are responsive to the learning challenges, experiences, and outcomes for students of color and who experience poverty and b) the research conducted by teams addresses critical problems of practice, informing the teams and the broader field. Moreover, within AIMS, RPPs are critical to the careful and strategic development of R&D infrastructure that respects and answers to students, families, teachers, and school and district leaders, the ultimate consumers of all of the endeavors of the Collaboratory.

This subnetwork supports Research-Practice partnership development (initial and long-term) within AIMS project teams to ensure that they are effectively supported in pursuing their goals, especially in developing approaches to teaching and learning that prioritize the learning challenges of priority students. Participating teams will learn, within and across projects, how variation in the implementation of tools and instructional practices can more or less effectively encourage priority students' learning. Understanding this variation will inform scaling strategies relevant to all of the AIMS Collaboratory project teams.

The ability to share data securely and efficiently across research projects is essential to the ongoing work of the Collaboratory. However, accomplishing this goal is challenging because most districts require specific, exclusive arrangements with their research partner(s). These relationships take a great deal of trust and time to develop.

This subnetwork pilots initial ideas and processes to set the stage for data sharing within, across and ultimately beyond the Collaboratory for research and development.

This subnetwork is a space for AIMS Collaboratory members to share inquiry, learnings, and resources to advance the professional learning that supports improvements to teaching and learning.  This group connects solutions providers with district leadership to promote a deeper understanding of professional learning contexts, needs, possibilities, and structures.  

The Engagement Collaborative for Research & Equity (ENCORE) subnetwork explores the impact of product features and tools on mathematics teaching and learning. Grantees in this network conduct R&D on student-facing features that support student learning and aim to increase student motivation, engagement and persistence; and teacher-facing features that aim to improve teacher efficiency and effectiveness. All members of AIMS are welcome to engage with the ENCORE subnetwork, regardless of their specific area of focus or expertise, to foster broader collaboration and innovation.