Testimonials

“Preparing effective leaders for our schools is a critical and crucial element in the current educational landscape.  Finding the right people with effective communication skills and sound, research-based strategies and approaches to lead the training is of upmost importance.  That is one reason I identified Erin Henrick to speak to our Leadership Academy participants at Union University.  Her work on continuous improvement science addressed specific identified needs in our curriculum for our leaders.  Erin’s presentation style is engaging, conversational and geared to bridge the gap between training and reality.  I highly recommend Dr. Erin Henrick for her professional approach to teaching, learning, and consulting.”

Dr. Michael C. Shackleford
Associate Professor of Educational
Leadership
Director, The Leadership Academy
Union University

“At Silkeborg Gymnasium we have been working systematically with whole-school learning projects for a number of years, for example a three-year project on visible learning (Hattie). We are now in the process of developing professional learning communities with the ambition of transforming our strong tradition for professional collaboration to collaborative professionalism.

A seminar with Erin Henrick for our 150 teachers was an immensely important stepping-stone in this process. Danish high-school teachers, who all have a master’s degree in their subject, and on top of that a one-year pedagogical course (practice and theory), are hard to impress. But everyone felt that they had a very fruitful and inspiring day with Erin.”

Erik Olesen
Principal, Silkeborg Gymnasium, Silkeborg, Denmark

“Partner to Improve – and Dr. Erin Henrick – have been dream evaluators  with the Wind River Elementary Computer Science Collaborative. Dr. Henrick and her team, over the last few years, have been excellent collaborators with the project team to ensure we are using evidence to inform the ongoing evolution of the Collaborative. Drawing from a variety of researcher practitioner partnership types, the Collaborative has appreciated many facets of Partner to Improve’s work: clear communication, regular check-ins, virtual sidebar conversations, flexible yet rigorous approach to formative evaluation, suggestions for dissemination opportunities, and connections to related projects and experts. Dr. Henrick and the Partner to Improve team really lean into the “Partner” part of their name, and we are grateful for their expertise and guidance.”

Joseph P. Wilson
Principal Consultant
Computer Science & STEM Education
American Institutes for Research®

“Working with Partner to Improve is like a master class in high quality evaluation. Dr. Henrick and Dr. Kern consistently provide important insights into our research practice partnership, while also giving us a best-practice framework for working together, checking in with ourselves and our commitments, and staying the course with what we’ve promised our funder and our practice partners. I have learned so much from this process, and it’s brought out the very best in our team. I also have the added comfort on knowing I can rely on them to give us what we need to make sure our work is the very best it can be. They are remarkable professionals and collaborators.”

Diane Levitt
Senior Director of K12 Education for Cornell Tech

“Partner to Improve has been the CAFÉCS external evaluator for the last 5 years. We feel blessed to have someone with Erin’s experience as a critical friend to our work. Erin has run an RPP and has studied RPPs across a variety of disciplines. That insight has been valuable in our continual improvement as an RPP. She has been able to document our strengths and make concrete recommendations for improvement. Through addressing her recommendations, CAFÉCS has strengthened as a partnership and been able to continue to adapt to support the Chicago Public Schools in expanding equitable access to computer science across the whole district.”

Steven McGee, Ph.D.,
President of The Learning Partnership

“We are grateful to have Partner to Improve as the external evaluator for our research-practice partnership (RPP) with the New York City Public Schools’ Computer Science for All initiative. Both Dr. Erin Henrick and Dr. Emily Kern have been insightful collaborators and thoughtful partners in our RPP work. They have been invaluable in strengthening the work of our RPP, including educating our team on the critical dimensions of RPPs and how best to enact them, leading collaborative conversations that help the team reflect on key goals and priorities, and supporting evidence-based planning and decision-making.”

June Mark
Education Development Center
Principal Investigator, Equitable Computer Science Implementation in All NYC Schools

“Improving computer science education access is critical to improving economic success in an area lacking diverse career options. We knew an RPP was the best way forward. Partner to Improve has been crucial in making this possible. Erin provided resources to help our team learn as we worked to prepare our proposal in 2020, and she and Danny have been the critical friends we need to launch this partnership and continue to improve. We continue to learn as Danny continually adapts to where we are in our journey and ensures we have the formative evaluation (even in the form of weekly advice) we need to continue to improve as an RPP. In addition to providing literature and resources, Partner to Improve has helped us identify appropriate avenues for dissemination, develop partner activities, and is helping us to prepare to sustain the work post-funding.”

The SUCCESS RPP
West Virginia University