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Policy, Advocacy, and Government Relations (PAG)

National Alliances and Memberships

State Organizations

ACT uses policy research to shape and influence the environment in which it operates

ACT State Council Summer Webinar Series

Pay Attention to the People Behind the Curtain:

Policy Research at ACT and Co-Constructing a

Role for State Councils Kurt Burkum

Director, Policy Research

Michelle Croft

Principal Research Associate

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• You will automatically be muted when you enter the

meeting.

• Questions are encouraged! Ask in the chat box.

• Questions will be addressed during transitions and at the

end.

• Once your question is being addressed, you will be

unmuted to converse with the presenter.

• You may be unmuted upon request in the chat box.

Webinar Reminders

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Kurt Burkum

Director, Policy Research

kurt.burkum@act.org

319.341.2301

Michelle Croft

Principal Research Associate,

Policy Research

michelle.croft@act.org

319.341.2526

Presenter Information

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• What are the issues and policies?

• How?

• Who’s involved?

• Where are we going next?

• What role is there for State Councils?

Webinar Topics

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Questions or Comments?

Ask in the chat box – you will be unmuted when the question is

addressed.

Others may be unmuted upon request.

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• Welcome and webinar reminders

• Overview & purpose

• Introductions

• Parking lot

• PR and the PAG context

• ACT Policy Research basics

• Improving ACT PR

• Q & A

• Wrap-up

Webinar Agenda

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• You will automatically be muted when you enter the

meeting.

• Questions are encouraged! Ask in the chat box.

• Questions will be addressed during transitions and at the

end.

• Once your question is being addressed, you will be

unmuted to converse with the presenter.

• You may be unmuted upon request in the chat box.

Webinar Reminders

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• Purpose

– Learn the basics of policy research at ACT

– Create a role for State Councils in ACT policy research

• Intros – type info into webinar interface

– Name

– State

– Organization

• Parking lot questions – type questions

Purpose, Intros, & Parking Lot

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Policy, Advocacy, and Government Relations (PAG)

National Alliances and Memberships

State Organizations

ACT uses policy research to shape and influence the environment in which it operates

Policy Research: Kurt Burkum

Policy Development: Gretchen Guffy

Advocacy: Chris Kratzer (State); Tom Lindsley (Federal)

Public Affairs: Liz Farrell

State Organizations: Suzanne Conquest

National Alliances and Memberships: Gary Nolan

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1. Position ACT solutions with federal/state policymakers

and national thought leaders

2. Inform and advance sound federal/state policymaking

through sound education and workforce policy

development

3. Advance the policy discourse through effective policy

research that enhances ACT reputation as a thought

leader in education and workforce issues

4. Maximize ACT’s position as a national thought leaders

through strategic and purposeful public engagement

activities.

PR and the PAG context—corporate alignment

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1. What questions do you have about PAG?

2. What questions do you have about how PR fits into

PAG?

Questions

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PR Basics—Who

Kurt Burkum, Director; Ph.D. in Higher Education

• DC, national, and state experience; GEAR UP; college readiness, college administration

Dick Buddin, Principal Research Associate; Ph.D. in Economics

• national and local experience; RAND; teacher effectiveness, charter schools

Michelle Croft, Principal Research Associate; J.D., Ph.D. in Measurement

• DC, national, and state experience; Brookings Institution; measurement and state law/regulations

Greg Kienzl, Senior Research Associate; Ph.D. in Education Economics*

• DC, national, and state experience; IHEP; PSE finance, financial aid, regionalism

Tracy Wilkinson, Research Associate; Ph.D. in K-12 Special Education Policy

• DC, national, and state experience; special education policy

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PR Basics—What

• Missionally-driven

• Strategically-aligned

• Future-oriented Principles

• Inform & Influence

• Position & Lead

• Convene Goals

• K-career continuum

• Readiness, testing, & related

• Federal & state Kinds

• Federal & state policymakers

• Those that influence them Audiences

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PR Basics—How

Methods

• Empirical Evidence

• Logical Arguments

Approach

• Meaningful

• Accessible

Platforms

• Policy reports

• Working papers

• Issue briefs

• Info briefs

Hallmarks

• Landmark research

• Condition reports

• State policy analysis

• Info briefs

www.act.org/research

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1. What policy research outputs have you used in the

past? Which have been most useful to you?

2. What reporting platform are we missing that you think

would be very helpful to you?

3. Can you find our policy research output on the ACT

website?

4. If you are not now, do you know how to sign up to

receive ACT’s policy alerts? Media alerts?

Questions

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Improving ACT PR—Growing our hallmarks

• Partnerships

• Spin-offs

Condition reports

• Broadening topics

• Expanded dissemination Info briefs

• Issue identification system

• Scalable and sustainable

State policy analysis

•Convening function •New dissemination methods

Landmark research

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Improving ACT PR—Landmark research

Domain Title/topic

K-12 Non-cognitive factors of readiness and success

K-12 STEM Gaps: What, where, who, when, subject differences

K-12 Rigorous Courses and Readiness Gaps

K-12 2014 Building Momentum

K-12 Reverse Drop-Out Factories

All National Condition policy implications

All Career vs. College Readiness vs. Blended

K-12 How much testing is enough/too much

K-12 High quality test primer for parents

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Other current work

Publish Title/topic

5/22 Chasing the College Dream in Hard Economic Times

6/5 Catching Up to College and Career Readiness: The Challenge is Greater for At-Risk Students

6/12 Hispanic Condition

6/24-26 Communicating College and Career Readiness through Proficiency Standards

7/8-10 Recent Validity Evidence for Teacher Value-Added Measures

7/21 Low-income Students Condition

TBD Missing the Mark: Students Gain Little from Mandating Extra Math and Science Courses

TBD Linguistically Diverse Students Condition

TBD State Approaches to Read Aloud Accommodations

TBD Accommodated Students Condition

TBD The End of Erasures: Updating Test Security Laws and Policies for Computerized Testing

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• ECO study and intervention on low-income, high

achievers

• Upward Bound evaluation

• HOPE Lab study on scholarship effectiveness

• America Achieves study on efficacy of virtual advising

• Effects of WorkKeys on labor market outcomes

• KeyTrain validity evidence

Other current work

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1. How do you see ACT policy research being valuable to

your work? To informing issues in your state/context?

2. Which projects are most relevant to your

situation/state?

3. What one critical issue/topic in your state are we

missing?

Questions

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Role of State Orgs—Co-creating a role

1. What role(s) do you think State Orgs should have with

ACT policy research? Should not have?

2. Assuming that we co-create a role for State Orgs in ACT

policy research, what would success look like?

Means • Topics

• Dissemination

• Feedback

Ends • Meaning

• Clarity

• Reach

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1. What are next steps in your mind as we co-create a role

for State Orgs in ACT policy research?

2. How/when/how frequently would you like to

communicate with the ACT policy research team?

Receive information about ACT policy research?

3. What immediate follow-up would you like from this

webinar?

4. What questions remain?

Wrap-up

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Kurt Burkum

kurt.burkum@act.org

319.341.2301

Michelle Croft

michelle.croft@act.org

319.341.2526

Thanks for attending!

Questions or comments?

Ask in the chat box – you will be

unmuted when the question is

addressed.

Others may be unmuted upon

request.

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