What is the Evidence Project?

In times of crisis, knowledge must flow freely and quickly. The Covid-19 pandemic created just such a crisis in K-12 education. 

At the onset of the pandemic, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) launched the Evidence Project to aggregate  research, data, surveys, and polls related to Covid-19’s impact on K-12 education, particularly school closures. We believed that without a coordinated approach, we risked overlooking major gaps in the available evidence and leaving essential questions unanswered. 

Under these circumstances, our research paid huge dividends. It helped practitioners and policymakers identify and assess emerging innovations. It helped decision makers anticipate conditions ahead—including multiple waves of closures, major cuts in school funding, and efforts to address varied and significant student learning losses—that would eventually force further changes. 

Now that schools have returned to in-person learning, the Evidence Project has refocused to follow the lasting effects of the pandemic on school systems, children, and educators. Our research tracker and survey tracker, designed at the start of the project, continue to aggregate data related to pandemic repercussions and recovery. 

The Evidence Project brought together researchers from around the country to narrow the gap between research and policy. 

In partnership with participating researchers, CRPE has and will continue to: 

  • Aggregate and coordinate existing national research efforts to make analysis and expertise accessible to the public.
  • Connect researchers, education leaders, policymakers, and funders to spur new collaborations.
  • Identify problems that need attention and incentivize researchers to address those gaps.
  • Conduct rapid-response research on urgent questions.
  • Call attention to critical work and findings with regular broadcasts to the field.
  • Synthesize lessons learned, emerging issues, and implications to ensure that practitioners and policymakers have timely access to useful information.
Get Involved
Subscribe to our Newsletter

Sign up for bi-weekly updates on the Evidence Project. We compile and comment on the latest research, publications, surveys, and news related to Covid-19’s lasting effects on K-12 education.

Join the Network

We invite researchers, policymakers, and education leaders to contact us if you have research ideas or are interested in collaborating.

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