The Houston Education Research Consortium is a research partnership between Rice University and several Houston-area school districts, including the Houston Independent School District, to guide data-driven, equity-minded policy.

The Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) aims to produce research that is relevant, timely and useful for school district decision-making to address educational inequality in Houston and beyond.
Diverging from the traditional academic research model, HERC uses a partnership research model with the following features: a jointly developed research agenda that involves both university researchers and district leaders; a long-term, rather than project-based, collaboration that works to solve longstanding problems; a research agenda based on local questions and embedded in the local context and a focus on informing education decision-makers directly.

To access the HERC homepage:
http://herc.rice.edu/

To access research conducted by HERC:
https://herc.rice.edu/research

To learn more about the OECD Study of Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) in which HISD is participating through HERC: OECD Study