Launched this summer, the Delaware Education Research Alliance (DERA) is a multi-institution partnership designed to facilitate collaborative research that uses teacher, student and school administrative data to answer important questions with implications for improving preK-16 education across the state and beyond. DERA is a collaboration between the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE), Delaware State University (DSU) and the University of Delaware’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and is modeled after several other research-practice partnerships nationwide that seek to improve the relevance and use of research for addressing the complex challenges facing our schools and communities. Through its work, DERA aims to inform evidence-based decision-making for Delaware students, teachers, and leaders, while simultaneously contributing to the larger body of knowledge guiding education policy.
Dr. Laura Wallace has recently joined UD as the Director of the Data Sharing Alliance, under which DERA is housed. Dr. Wallace recently served as a post-doctoral fellow at Iowa State University, leading Iowa’s Integrated Data System for Decision-Making. She currently serves as a faculty member in Human Development and Family Studies as well as serving as the founding Director of the Alliance. For more information about DERA, you can reach Dr. Wallace at lwalla@udel.edu.