Data Research and Development Center (DRDC)

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This proposal requests support to plan and develop a Data Research and Development Center (DRDC) at National Opinion Research Center (NORC) and the University of Chicago. The mission of this Center would be improving the research capacities of individuals engaged in the conduct of interdisciplinary work in the areas of learning, instruction, and achievement. Substantive and methodological changes over the past five years in conduct of research are challenging researchers as they design, analyze, and disseminate their results. Investigators must produce findings that are generalizable to populations beyond small purposive samples and that are replicated across other data sets. Investigators are often unaware of how their findings relate to work in other areas or how their findings are consistent or inconsistent with larger samples. Creating a center where investigators are provided with information on other data sets and opportunities to learn how to access and analyze such information accomplishes two important objectives. First, it would be possible to link results across several data sets to produce more robust compelling evidence than if we had to rely on the results of a single study. Second, it would increase the capacity of individual investigators to replicate their findings more systematically and efficiently using a variety of data sets and methods. To accomplish these goals, we envision our Center as having four main objectives: (1) training, (2) research, (3) dialogue, and (4) data archiving and dissemination.