Welcome to the Carnegie Alpha Lab Research Network

The Carnegie Alpha Lab Research Network is an initiative of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and is supported in part by the National Science Foundation. Headquartered at UCLA, the Carnegie Alpha Lab Research Network is one component of the Networked Improvement Community that Carnegie is developing to support its community college Pathways project. Our goal is to engage academic researchers from diverse fields in helping to improve community college students' success in developmental mathematics learning. 

How the Network Works

In contrast to the normal workings of academic research, researchers working within the Network are working on priorities set by the community of practice. Researchers who join the network are expected to collaborate with a community college site, conducting at least some of their research in situ. The site will likely be implementing one of the Carnegie Pathways, but it does not have to be. We anticipate that researchers in the network will work on two types of projects: ones designed to deepen our understanding of the problem, both theoretical and empirical; and projects designed to develop and test theory-based solutions to network challenges.

Why Researchers Might Join the Network

The main reason researchers will join the Network is to bring their expertise to bear on solving some of the most challenging education problems of our time. In addition, the Network hub at UCLA will provide the following services to member researchers:

  • Help in facilitating relationships with partner community college sites,
  • Access to data, collected as part of the Pathways projects, that may be helpful in the research,
  • Help in identifying possible funding sources, and assistance in writing research grant proposals, and
  • Settings – both virtual and face-to-face – for sharing research findings with other researchers in the network and with practitioners and program designers/developers.

How to Join the Carnegie Alpha Lab Research Network

If you are a researcher interested in understanding and improving education, we encourage you to explore joining the Network. If you are not yet ready to join the Network, sign up for our email list and we will keep you informed of the latest developments.

Questions?

If you have questions, feel free to contact us. Or, check out our Q & A Forum. You can post questions there, which Hub staff will answer, or browse other questions, answers, and comments.