Research
The initiatives undertaken by the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI) can be grouped in three categories. One of those is education research.
The IEI is committed to a robust and influential interdisciplinary research agenda encompassing a broad array of methods and purposes. The research seeks to create new knowledge to advance school reform and generate new ideas and practices to improve student learning.
Driven principally by research methods drawn from the social sciences, the IEI undertakes basic research aimed at making fundamental contributions to a fuller understanding about the factors that best explain improved student learning. How are schools best organized? How are children and families best prepared for school? What factors explain optimal learning opportunities? What difference does a faith-based education make? This research seeks to contribute to a larger national policy discussion concerning innovative school practices, student achievement, school governance, and other pressing educational issues.
The IEI also conducts systematic research that provides the basis for data-driven decision-making, quality assurance, program improvement, and accountability across programs and units of the Institute. The culture of research is inextricably linked with professional formation of teachers and principals and with service. Research directed toward internal goals of program effectiveness, quality assurance, impact, and program improvement lays the foundation for comparative research that informs broader disciplinary questions.
The work of generating new knowledge through basic and applied research spans the whole field of education. IEI research probes the efficacy of current educational practices in K-12 schools, prospects for the future of the field, and the challenges faced by children, families, and institutions related to success in learning and teaching. This interdisciplinary research is accomplished by IEI Fellows, their collaborators, and their students within these units of the IEI:
The US Department of Education is among the public and private funders of CREO research. The Center also supports the mission of ACE by recognizing a role in assessing the effectiveness of ACE programs.
Faculty, students, and staff at the Center have conducted research projects on a number of subjects that can affect learning, including adolescent parenting, marital aggression, lead poisoning, and autism.
ACE surveys lead to a better understanding of the challenges faced by Catholic schools.
* Study of Principals (forthcoming)
ACE action research, as conducted by candidates for the M.A. degree and presented at the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program's Annual Leadership Conference, focuses on answers to challenges faced by Catholic school leaders.
Internally published research, available through ACE Press, helps to disseminate leading-edge scholarship and other diverse resources for K-12 teachers and leaders. The research conducted by task forces convened by the University of Notre Dame has also been a driving force in generating awareness and the pursuit of change in K-12 education:
* Notre Dame Task Force on Catholic Education
The University’s 2006 report, “Making God Known, Loved, and Served,” generated new initiatives.
* Notre Dame Task Force on the Participation of Latino Children and Families in Catholic Schools
The 2009 report, “To Nurture the Soul of a Nation,” led to the Catholic School Advantage campaign.
- Education, Schooling, and Society (ESS) minor: Undergraduate research
Notre Dame undergraduates, as part of this academic minor, perform independent, first-hand education research.