As the superintendent for Iowa City Community School District, Mr. Stephen Murley recognized the need to have a third-party research partner validate the work being conducted by the district’s researchers. The district turned to Hanover Research to understand how to apply its research to the classroom, feel a higher level of confidence in the direction it was moving, and translate these plans to show its community the “why” of what it was doing.
Iowa City Community School District has recently completed two key projects with Hanover. When the community expressed concern by the prospect of changing the process of math instruction, Hanover provided a research base detailing how other districts and K-12 leaders were approaching math instruction to help them make informed decisions about how to best serve students. Additionally, as school safety has become top-of-mind for stakeholders, the district heard concerns about students feeling safe, and being safe, while at school. Hanover helped the district understand the actions it could take that would have the highest impact on stakeholder feelings and translate these plans for the community.