Our Mission and Vision
At CAREI, our vision is to be the premier network hub that builds educators' data-based decision-making capacity through high quality technical assistance, professional learning, and program evaluation in education. We work to improve the quality of education for all learners. As applied researchers and evaluators, we believe we can have an immediate impact on our communities. Accordingly, we listen to and work with our clients and partners to understand their experiences. We do this through these service offerings:
Who We Are
CAREI is a research center that serves as the link between research and practice in Minnesota schools PreK-16 and other agencies interested in applied educational research.
We are experts in research, evaluation, and assessment with a wealth of diverse and interrelated experience.
We know education is about people
Learners enter the classroom from different backgrounds, and so do their teachers. We recognize that we all have strengths, skills, limitations, and challenges that make us all unique. This is what makes the educational enterprise so complex.
Improving learning and teaching is our greatest concern
The methods we use to understand and assess educational settings draw from rich research traditions across the social sciences. We believe that information from many sources and methods leads to the greatest understanding. Our findings are rarely summarized by a set of numbers, but rather are placed in context with interpretation and synthesis.
We recognize the complexity and importance of education
Our principal investigators have received PhDs in their fields: Educational Policy and Administration, Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Psychology, Psychology, or Organizational Leadership and Professional Development. Over half have taught in K-12 schools. We believe that our backgrounds and our connection to an urban, Research One university - the University of Minnesota - gives us a breadth and depth of understanding of educational context that is unparalleled.
Our Commitment to Diversity
Individuals experience the world differently because they come from different places and have varied experiences. At CAREI, we recognize that all people have strengths, skills, and challenges, so we work to understand these differences.
CAREI's mission is to improve education, and society as a whole, through research, development, and engagement. As applied researchers and evaluators, we believe that we can have an immediate impact on our communities. So, we listen to and work with our clients, partners, and communities to understand their experiences.
Our work requires us to actively reflect on how our methods and interpretations of data may perpetuate privilege and prevailing assumptions. We strive to prevent overgeneralization of majority culture and beliefs, especially when these beliefs bump up against our diverse communities, cultures, genders, races, ethnicities, (dis)abilities, lifestyles, and contexts.
CAREI is proud to be an operating organization of the Wisconsin-Minnesota Comprehension Center - Region 10 (WMCC10)
CAREI along with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative (WEC), and Education Analytics (EA) operate the Wisconsin-Minnesota Comprehension Center - Region 10 (WMCC10), which is one of 19 federally funded centers. The WMCC10 aims to improve the academic achievement of elementary and secondary school students in the two-state region by advancing the use of evidence-based practices.