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Focus Areas

The UERC creates reliable, usable knowledge in seven core areas. Click on the tiles to learn more about specific areas of our work or scroll down to the bottom to see a full list of our projects.

Adult Learners
Career Pathways
Essential Skills/SEL
Pre-K-12 Education
Postsecondary Education
STEM Education
Teachers Work
Search Active Projects

Below is a list of our active projects, studies, and more.  If you are interested in viewing our archived projects, click here.

Authentic Intellectual Work Initiative Study

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) initiative on student engagement, student achievement and teaching practice.

Focus Areas: Teachers Work, Essential Skills/SEL

Year: 2015-Present

Bloch Scholars Program Evaluation

This evaluation examines how the Bloch Scholars Program, a full tuition scholarship helps students persist in college and graduate.

Focus Areas: Postsecondary Education, K-12 Education

Year: 2026-Present

DeBruce Foundation Higher Education AWP Study

The Higher Education Study examines the integration of the Agilities Framework and the Agile Work Profiler (AWP) assessment across higher education settings.

Focus Areas: Career Pathways, Postsecondary Education

Year: 2024-2026

Johnson County Community College S-STEM Program Evaluation

This evaluation examines the impact of a scholarship and comprehensive support program on the academic engagement and postsecondary success of community college STEM students.

Focus Areas: STEM Education, Postsecondary Education

Year: 2023-Present

Junior Achievement Program Evaluation

This evaluation examines the impact and implementation of the Junior Achievement of Greater Kansas City’s programming, which includes multiple touchpoints to engage K-12 students in learning about financial literacy, community-level economics, work and career readiness, and business management.

Focus Areas: Essential Skills/SEL, K-12 Education

Year: 2022-Present

KC STEM Alliance PLTW Enrollment Data Project

This annual project involves collecting and analyzing enrollment data for Project Lead the Way (PLTW) in the Kansas City area.

Focus Areas: STEM Education, K-12 Education

Year: 2021-Present

KU School of Medicine Pre-College Program Evaluation

This evaluation examines the impact of an extra-curricular enrichment program engaging middle and high school students in hands-on STEM learning experiences and exploration of STEM careers.

Focus Areas: STEM Education, K-12 Education

Year: 2023-Present

MIDE Harvesting Innovation Project Evaluation

This evaluation examines the implementation and outcomes of a new multi-institutional undergraduate certificate program.

Focus Areas: Adult Learners, Postsecondary Education

Year: 2024-2028

MOCAN-KCCAN Advising Program Evaluation

This evaluation focuses on the implementation of the KCCAN Advising Program within six Kansas City Public School high schools.

Focus Areas: Postsecondary Education, K-12 Education

Year: 2025-2026

MOCAN-KCPS Postsecondary Outcomes Dashboard

This project designs, builds and pilots a data dashboard intended to help educators help students get into college.

Focus Areas: Postsecondary Education, K-12 Education

Year: 2026-Present

Rockhurst University SMART-STEM Program Evaluation

This evaluation examines the impact of a scholarship and support program on the academic engagement and postsecondary success of university students pursuing degrees (B.S.) in Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, or Physics.

Focus Areas: STEM Education, Postsecondary Education

Year: 2023-Present

SchoolSmartKC Core Metrics Project

A regional convening to explore data, outcomes, and opportunities in the Kansas City Public Education System.

Focus Areas: K-12 Education

Year: 2024-Present

Teacher Instructional Time Use Study (TITUS)

The survey developed for this study will provide a fine-grained portrait of teachers’ work, how they feel about their work and how their work context affects what they do and how they feel.

Focus Areas: Teachers Work

Year: 2019-2022