ROUND TABLE 10 | DAY 1 | 2:45pm-3:45pm | BALLROOM H

| SIOMARA VALLADARES (Chapina/Mestiza), Associate Director, McREL International

| CHRISTINA TYDEMAN, Executive/Program Director, McREL International

| SINTON SOALABLAI (Ngesiliong, Ngerdelolk, Peleliu, Palau), Regional Advisor, McREL International 

| BRADLEY RENTZ, Senior Researcher, McREL International

Education leaders in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific region actively seek to balance priorities within local cultural ecosystems that exhibit a wide range of values, assumptions, and practices in education. Service providers therefore can use community-based approaches in research and other partnership work that seeks to advance local education priorities. The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Pacific––a service provider for the Institute of Education Sciences––seeks to be a valued partner with Pacific education systems as they move toward their goals for their education systems. Particularly in the three independent nations of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, educational goals include developing data system infrastructures and data governance that exhibit local cultural values. In this panel discussion, REL Pacific staff representing diverse backgrounds and experiences in the region will share about the REL’s approach for engaging in true partnership with Pacific education leaders. REL Pacific will reflect on how we, as a service provider of education training and research, engage in collaborative processes to co-design projects that meet the priorities of the education systems.