Engaging in a Research-Practice Partnership: Insights from a North Carolina state agency

Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs) have recently grown in popularity as they provide a formal framework for collaborative research between researchers and practitioners. Moreover, there is a plethora of guidance for executing effective RPPs. However, there is a continuing question of whether partnerships are practical and useful; thus, our study poses the following research question: Does a grant-based RPP evaluating educational outcomes, with constituents of various governmental entities, facilitate positive outcomes for practitioners? Researchers performed an inductive thematic analysis using data from a sample of five individuals at a state agency. The researchers then used deductive methods to align themes with Henrick’s Five Dimensions of Effectiveness and, in this paper, described the three deemed most relevant to practitioner knowledge and capacity building to answer the proposed question. Findings suggest that positive benefits of participation to practitioners include programmatic insights, dissemination tools, and increased comfort with research. However, the findings also highlighted challenges to practitioners, such as using the findings to inform policy and practice and meeting added time demands of this partnership. Results of this analysis can inform other educational institutions and state agencies looking to build effective RPPs.