Strengthening School Safety Through Governmental Research-Practice Partnerships: the Arizona School Safety Program

Government research-practice partnerships (GRPPs) can bridge the gap between empirical research and policy implementation. However, it remains unclear precisely how state-level governmental agencies navigate evidence-based policymaking. The ongoing collaboration between the Arizona Department of Education and the research team at Arizona State University began as a need for an annual evaluation of the School Safety Program, which aims to improve school safety by providing funding and training to school resource officers and school mental health professionals throughout the state. Unique to this relationship is the structure of the power dynamics between the university and the state. Specifically, this partnership inverts the typical arrangement in which the research team traditionally controls funding, deadlines, and data access. This partnership exemplifies how GRPPs can bridge research and policy by integrating collaborative evaluation frameworks and co-created logic models that serve as boundary objects, facilitating shared language, trust, and sustained engagement across organizational boundaries. The manuscript details operational challenges, including navigating divergent institutional timelines, complex data governance, and dissemination demands, while highlighting mutual capacity-building that enhances both research rigor and policy relevance. Perspectives from both government and academic partners underscore the bidirectional benefits of the partnership, while the GRPP faces opportunities and tensions in responding to legislative audits and expanding its role beyond evaluation to support program implementation and policy adaptation. This case study advances theoretical and practical knowledge on sustaining mature, equitable GRPPs that promote evidence-based policymaking, continuous program improvement, and knowledge mobilization in complex governmental contexts.