Our Mission

SPARC is a call to schools and others to embark on a search. A search for a better understanding, better school curricula, better family practices, better community policies - to offer boys and girls a better world.

The Center is committed to helping schools engage in research in the service of action. Our participatory action research (PAR) model is rooted in several principles. First and foremost, PAR is fundamentally democratic and constituency-based. This principle means we want to help schools look at problems that administrators, teachers and students care about and believe are important. Second, we make every effort to conduct research that is rigorously empirical. The third principle underlying our approach to PAR is that the school projects are both reflective and interpretive. Fourth, PAR should lead to action. By this, we mean the findings of our joint research efforts should result in practical outcomes that matter to the people involved (boys, girls, teachers, administrators, parents).