NYC Students in Temporary Housing: Special Populations Research Project

Summary of Work for Drs. Hope Harvey and Zitsi Mirakhur (University of Kentucky): Drs. Hope Harvey (Assistant Professor, Martin School of Public Policy and Administration) and Zitsi Mirakhur (Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation) at the University of Kentucky, will serve as Co-PIs on this project. They will partner with Dr. Kathryn Hill (at the Research Alliance for New York City Schools at New York University) in managing all aspects of this project. They will provide guidance for the data collection and analyses, and review them for quality control. In addition, they will write reports, academic articles and other public materials, based on the findings from this research. This project will begin on March 1, 2024, and end by June 30, 2024. The timeline is as follows: • March-April: The first phase of work will include designing, administering, and analyzing a survey fielded to NYC school staff, both in schools with higher and lower proportions of doubled-up students. The survey will ask questions about how schools identify and support doubled-up students; what resources (including professional development materials) staff use in their work; what additional supports and resources are needed for school staff to improve the supports offered to double-up students and families; and what staff want to learn about this population of homeless students to better support them. • May: The second phase of work will involve conducting and analyzing data from focus groups with school staff. School staff focus groups will examine the topics asked in the survey more deeply to elicit detailed descriptions and examples of what additional supports from the New York City public schools could look like (particularly in professional development materials). • June: The third phase of work will involve synthesizing results, and disseminating findings.