Bronwyn Bevan is Senior Research Scientist at the University of Washington, College of Education, USA.William R. Penuel is Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Colorado, USA.

"W. Edwards Deming once pilloried the field of education as ‘miracle goals without methods.’ One of the field’s fondest goals is using collaborative and cooperative work to achieve improvements for everyone—especially the most disenfranchised—but, at best, our track record has been spotty. Connecting Research and Practice for Educational Improvement is a giant step forward in helping us understand how to construct more equitable educational working arrangements within research-practice partnerships. No doubt, this volume will become a valued resource for developing know-how to advance improvement collectively. It will be an inspiration for all of us, from the front lines of practice to the halls of the academy." —Louis Gomez, Professor of Education, UCLA, USA"This volume provides a much-needed window into the everyday work of individual research-practice partnerships. Case studies illustrate how the humility and collaboration required by research-practice partnerships, combined with scholarly creativity and respect for a variety of expertise, can result in important new scientific insights and genuinely useful resources for classrooms."—Ruth Neild, Director, Philadelphia Education Research Consortium, USA

• Section I: Rethinking the relationship between research and practice Chapter 1 Democratizing Evidence in Education Vivian Tseng, Steve Fleischman, and Esther Quintero Chapter 2 Learning, Generalizing, and Local Sense-Making in Research-Practice Partnerships Bronwyn Bevan, William R. Penuel, Philip Bell, and Pam Buffington Section II: RPPs that impact practice Chapter 3 Sustaining Research-Practice Partnerships: Benefits and Challenges of a Long-term Research and Development Agenda M. Suzanne Donovan and Catherine Snow Chapter 4 Figuring it out together: A Research-Practice Partnership to Improve Early Elementary Mathematics Learning with Technology Josephine Louie and Pamela Buffington Chapter 5 The Evolution of a Multi-Stakeholder Research-Practice Partnership on Equity in School Discipline Yolanda Anyon, Jessica Yang, Katherine Wiley, Eldridge Greer, Barbara Downing, Ricardo Martinez, and Daniel Kim Section III: Expanding models of RPPs Chapter 6 Rethinking "The Community" in University-Community Partnerships: Case Studies from CU Engage Ben Kirshner, Jennifer Pacheco, Manuela Sifuentes, and Roudy Hildreth Chapter 7 Messy, Sprawling and Open: Research-Practice Partnership Methodologies for Working in Distributed Inter-Organizational Networks Rafi Santo, Dixie Ching, Kylie Peppler, and Chris Hoadley Section IV: Designing for equity in RPPs Chapter 8 Five Equity-Related Tensions in Project-Based Learning: How Research-Practice Partnerships Can Spread and Sustain Deeper Learning Angela Haydel DeBarger and Marc Chun Chapter 9 Configurations in Co-Design: Participant Structures in Partnership Work Ashley Seidel Potvin, Rebecca G. Kaplan, Alison G. Boardman, and Joseph L. Polman Chapter 10 But what does it actually look like? Representations of Teaching Practice in the Work of Research-Practice Partnerships Vera Michalchik and Jennifer Knudsen Chapter 11 Our House Could be a Very, Very, Very Fine House: The Tensions and Disenchantment of Collaborative Digital Tools Within Partnerships Antero Garcia and Bud Hunt