Launched in fall 2006, BERC is a partnership among Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Morgan State University (MSU), and the Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) and was co-conceptualized and launched with support from several Baltimore-based non-profit agencies. BERC is designed to be a constructive part of the efforts and public conversation surrounding the education of children in Baltimore. Modeled loosely on the Consortium on Chicago School Research, BERC pursues both long- and short-term data analysis and research, and then directs time and resources to sharing and interpreting the findings with school system leaders and other community partners and stakeholders.

BERC’s start-up phase was funded by grants from the Abell Foundation, Open Society Institute-Baltimore, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Fund for Educational Excellence (in cooperation with the Stupski Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

In 2007, BERC built organizational structure, developed shared understandings of purpose and procedures among the various partners and stakeholders, and pursued an initial demonstration research project. In June 2007, the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners approved a Memorandum of Understanding endorsing and guiding BERC’s organizational structure, leadership, data-sharing agreements, and research agenda. BERC created an Executive Committee and convened its first meeting in September 2007. The committee serves in both an authority and advisory role to guide BERC’s work and is made up of nine voting members representing the university partners, City Schools, and civic or community partners.

In 2008, BERC shared the results of a first analytic project (the Pathways Project), and prepared several briefings detailing the results of policy-driven analysis (“rapid response” briefings) for the Baltimore City Public Schools on attendance and college access. Through a collaborative process with its Executive Committee, BERC also identified and initiated eight research projects to investigate how to keep on-level students on track to educational success and decrease the dropout rate. BERC’s research and analysis on these projects between 2008 and 2011 will highlight school and classroom practices that equip students for success at the elementary, middle grades, and high school levels. A well-attended inaugural public meeting was held on the campus of Morgan State University in December 2008 to describe BERC’s goals and the emphasis of the eight projects.

During the first half of 2009, BERC’s leaders directed their attention to the strategic planning process, formalizing a charter for BERC’s Executive Committee and bringing the committee to full membership, expanding organizational capacity and staff, and executing both core analytic research projects and rapid response tasks to generate results to share with City Schools, other partners, and wider audiences in the second half of 2009. Additionally, a revised and updated Memorandum of Understanding between JHU, MSU, and City Schools covering the 24-month period from July 17, 2009 to July 16, 2011 was ratified by all parties.