TEACHED films bolstered by $50,000 grant from TFA

Posted on May 19, 2013 by coreeducation

Teach For America (TFA) announced the winners of its annual Social Innovation Award, including education advocate-turned-filmmaker Kelly Amis, who was one of the first 500 college graduates to be accepted into this national teacher recruitment program.

Amis will receive a $50,000 grant from TFA’s Social Entrepreneurship Initiative to support TEACHED, an innovative series of short films documenting the causes and consequences of education inequality in America, particularly as experienced by urban students of color.

Based on Amis’s twenty years of teaching, research and advocacy in K-12 education, TEACHED is intended to provoke thoughtful discussion on challenging issues, remind viewers of the civil rights struggle behind many of today’s education battles and motivate more people to engage in urban education reform. Amis explains, “The short film format is designed to be more conducive to interactive screenings–the films can be easily interspersed with guest speakers and heightened audience participation–and also intended to reach a larger, more diverse audience through online streaming and social media.”

The first three TEACHED short films, collectively titled “TEACHED Vol. I,” premiered at the Napa Valley Film Festival in November 2011 and have since won “Outstanding Achievement for Short Documentary” at the Williamsburg International Film Festival and the jury prize for “Spirit of Independence” at the Amsterdam Film Festival. They are currently available for online viewing via SnagFilms and for community-organized screenings.

Teach for America received 87 applications for two tracks within the Social Innovation Award: an Overall Track for alumni entrepreneurs like Amis who have already tested their idea and a Pre-Pilot Track for those who are in the early planning and development stage. The awards were made possible with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Doris & Donald Fisher Fund, and Joyce and Larry Stupski. Full results for this year’s awards are available at http://www.tfasocialinnovationaward.com/2013-award-winners.html.

TEACHED is a non-profit film project fiscally-sponsored by the International Documentary Association. TEACHED Vol. II and Two Boys, a feature-length documentary being filmed in Washington, DC, are currently under production.

Synopses of the TEACHED Vol. I films:

The Path to Prison (7 min.)

A former gang-member from South Central, Los Angeles helps explain how so many capable and intelligent young men-especially African-American males-end up uneducated and incarcerated in the ‘land of the free.’

The Blame Game: Teachers Speak Out (16 min.)

Public school teachers speak candidly about their profession and the consequences for students-especially urban minority students-of policies that treat all teachers as equal and make it difficult to fire a teacher even in the most extreme circumstances.

Unchartered Territory (17 min.)

Featuring some of the most successful pioneers of this still-developing frontier, Unchartered Territory explains what charter schools are, why they were created and why some are performing so well and others…not so much.

For more information, please contact info@teached.org or visit this website: http://www.tfasocialinnovationaward.com/

Education Department seeks Applications for Student Test Fee Waivers

Posted on May 13, 2013 by coreeducation

The Department is currently seeking applications for the Advanced Placement (AP) Test Fee Program and the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program.

The AP Test Free Program awards grants to states to enable them to pay all or a portion of AP test fees on behalf of low-income students. Applications are due June 3. The grants can also apply to International Baccalaureate (IB) tests.

The Department makes awards to State educational agencies to enable them to cover part or all of the cost of test fees of low-income students who are enrolled in an Advanced Placement class and plan to take an Advanced Placement test. Funds from the Advanced Placement Test Fee program subsidize test fees for low-income students to encourage them to take Advanced Placement tests and obtain college credit for high school courses, reducing the time and cost required to complete a postsecondary degree. In determining the amount of the grant awarded to a State for a fiscal year, the Secretary considers the number of children eligible to be counted under the ESEA Title I Basic Grants programs.

The Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program, which awards four types of grants, is designed to effect long-range improvement in science and engineering education at predominantly minority institutions and to increase the flow of underrepresented ethnic minorities, particularly minority women, into scientific and technological careers. Applications for this program are due May 31.

This program assists predominantly minority institutions in effecting long-range improvement in science and engineering education programs and increasing the flow of underrepresented ethnic minorities, particularly minority women, into science and engineering careers.

The program funds are generally used to implement design projects, institutional projects, and cooperative projects. The program also supports special projects designed to provide or improve support to accredited nonprofit colleges, universities, and professional scientific organizations for a broad range of activities that address specific barriers that eliminate or reduce the entry of minorities into science and technology fields.

For more information, please visit:

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/apfee/

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iduesmsi/

ED Launches 2013 i3 Competition

Posted on April 14, 2013 by coreeducation

The U.S. Department of Education announced the start of the $150 million 2013 Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition with the release of the program’s invitation for pre-applications for the i3 “Development” grant category and the notice of final priorities for the i3 program overall. The announcement incorporates several improvements the Department has made to the grant competition in its efforts to support school districts and nonprofit organizations in partnership with schools to pursue innovative ideas that increase student success.

“Over the past three years, we have seen a lot of promising projects from the field. At the same time, we need to continue to build a broad and deep portfolio of solutions that address persistent challenges in education, particularly for disadvantaged students,” said U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Jim Shelton. “As we begin the fourth i3 grant competition, we look forward to supporting innovative practices in communities across the country that improve student learning.”

The i3 program aims to develop and expand practices that accelerate student achievement and prepare every student to succeed in college and in their careers. The i3 program includes three grant categories: Development, Validation and Scale-up. The Department plans to announce applications for the Validation and Scale-up categories later this spring.

This year’s notice of final priorities for the i3 program reflects the Department’s continued commitment to improving education for all students. While the Department continues to focus on broad priorities for the i3 program, the 2013 i3 competition, for the first time, includes subparts under each priority that target specific areas of need. This approach enables the i3 program to build a portfolio of solutions that addresses specific challenges in education. This year’s priorities for the Development grant category are: Improving the Effectiveness of Teachers or Principals; Improving Low-Performing Schools; Improving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education; Improving Academic Outcomes for Students with Disabilities; Improving Academic Outcomes for English Learners (ELs); Improving Parent and Family Engagement; Effective Use of Technology; and Serving Rural Communities. The Department has also revised the program’s evidence standards and definitions so that applicants can better understand i3′s evidence requirements.

The Development category, which funds grantees with promising but relatively untested ideas, has been the most popular of the three grant categories throughout the previous three i3 competitions. Last year, the Department used a pre-application to reduce the burden on potential applicants and encourage a wider range of applications. Following the positive response from last year’s process-in which more than 650 potential grantees submitted a pre-application, the Department is once again using the simplified process.

In addition, this year the Department has modified the competition to assist grantees in building meaningful private-sector support. The i3 competition requires all grantees to secure private-sector matching funds; i3 Development grantees must secure a private-sector match comprising 15 percent of their budget. Each highest-rated applicant, as identified by the Department following peer review of the full applications, must submit evidence of 50 percent of the required private-sector match prior to the awarding of an i3 grant by the end of the year. The i3 grantees must then provide evidence of the remaining 50 percent of the required private-sector match no later than six months after the project start date.

The deadline for the pre-application is April 26, 2013. Following the peer review process, the Department will announce a list of the highly rated pre-applications. These entities will then be invited to apply for the Development competition and given additional time to complete their full application.

To learn more about the i3 grant program and the pre-application process, please visit the i3 site:

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/innovation/index.html

Spencer Foundation: “Evidence for the Classroom” Request for Proposals

Posted on April 11, 2013 by coreeducation

The Spencer Foundation, an organization that investigates “ways in which education, broadly conceived, can be improved around the world,” is seeking research studies to inform the current push for data-based educational reforms.

Here is more from the press release:

We announce a second-round Request for Proposals (RFP) to promote research that examines the assumptions underlying these reforms by investigating whether, when, and how student performance data informs instruction in K-8 classrooms. In an educational environment in which all kinds of decisions are expected to be “driven” by data, we are eager to learn more about how K-8 teachers use student performance data for instructional decisions and how organizational and individual factors affect that use. We take a broad view of the types of student performance data that could form the basis of fundable studies, and we think that a collection of well-designed research studies can advance current conceptions of the role data can play in efforts to improve education. In our first round of funding under this call, we awarded grants to five projects; project summaries can be found here. We plan to fund up to five more projects in this round.

The Spencer Foundation has always “been dedicated to the belief that research is necessary to improvement in education. The Foundation is thus committed to supporting high-quality investigation of education through its research programs and to strengthening and renewing the educational research community through its fellowship and training programs and related activities.”

Currently, the Spencer Foundation is accepting preliminary proposals for the second round of the “Evidence for the Classroom” project. The deadline is June 11, 2013.

The current Evidence for the Classroom RFP includes information on eligibility criteria and how to apply. For remaining questions on the RFP or for other Data Use related questions, please email datause@spencer.org.

For investigators interested in data use questions that fall outside the scope of the RFP, the Foundation continues to welcome proposals within the broader focus area, Organizational Learning in Schools, School Systems, and Higher Education Institutions.

Further information about the RFP and the process to apply can be found at:

http://www.spencer.org/content.cfm/data-use-and-educational-improvement

Education Department Demands more Evidence

Posted on February 19, 2013 by coreeducation

Big changes may be coming in the way the Department of Education selects grant recipients. Last year, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo to federal agencies requiring them to demonstrate the use of evidence in their fiscal 2014 budget requests. This new requirement signals a shift of emphasis toward the use of “evidence and rigorous evaluation in budget, management and policy decisions.”

The Department of Education has made a number of proposed changes to EDGAR, or the Education Department General Administrative Regulations, which reveal the way in which evidence may play a larger role in education funding.The full text of the proposed changes is available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-12-14/pdf/2012-29897.pdf

Proposed changes would have the following effects:

The extent to which grantees meet performance targets would be considered in making continuation grants.
Procurement processes would be simplified to allow for the section of implementation sites, implementation partners, and evaluation service providers during the preparation of an application.
The prohibition on subgrants would be lifted in some cases.
New selection criteria would be approved, including two new selection factors regarding the extent to which the proposed project is supported by evidence of promise or strong theory. In addition, new selection factors would address the extent to which the methods of evaluation would, if well-implemented, produce evidence about the project’s effectiveness that would meet the What Works Clearinghouse Evidence Standards.
A priority would be established for projects that can cite and build upon an existing base of strong or moderate evidence of effectiveness. The Secretary could either establish a separate competition or give a competitive preference to applications supported by strong or moderate evidence of effectiveness.
A project may be able to receive an extension of the funding period for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and reporting performance data.
The following terms will be defined and integrated into future notices: ‘‘ambitious,’’ ‘‘baseline data,’’ ‘‘evidence of promise,’’ ‘‘large sample,’’ ‘‘logic model,’’ ‘‘moderate evidence of effectiveness,’’ ‘‘multi-site sample,’’ ‘‘national level,’’ ‘‘performance measure,’’ ‘‘performance target,’’ ‘‘randomized controlled trial,’’ ‘‘regional level,’’ ‘‘relevant outcome,’’ ‘‘quasiexperimental study,’’ ‘‘strong evidence of effectiveness,’’ and ‘‘strong theory.’’

So, what does all this mean for grant seekers? For those who seek a portion of the more than $2 billion in competitive, non-formula grants from the Department of Education, it means that evidence will play a much larger role in one’s ability to be funded and keep funding. More of the Department’s grants will take on the flavor of the Investing in Innovation or i3 competition, in which applicants compete in tiers based on the level of evidence supporting their proposed intervention. Only those projects with the most solid evidence basis are eligible to compete for the largest pots of money.

Final EDGAR regulations should be released within the next few months. In the meantime, it’s a good idea to ramp up data collection and begin cultivating a relationship with a project evaluator.

To access the OMB’s memo, see http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-14.pdf

For the proposed rulemaking, see http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-12-14/pdf/2012-29897.pdf

BetterLesson offers Stipend for Master Math Teachers

Posted on December 19, 2012 by coreeducation

BetterLesson has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to offer a two-year program for master math teachers to develop Common Core aligned math curriculum that they would share with other teachers. For those skilled teachers selected, BetterLesson is offering a stipend of $30,000 paid out over the course of 1.5 years for contracted, part-time, virtual work.

In the first year of the program, teachers would craft their curriculum and collaborate with other master teachers, and in the second year, teachers would hone the curriculum. Over that time, the teachers will further develop their mastery as teachers and, through the unique BetterLesson platform, be able to share this work with thousands of other teachers online.

Requirements include being a current math teacher in grades 6-12 with extensive teaching experience, as well as planning to stay in the classroom for at least the next 2 years.

BetterLesson is an interactive networking and content website “founded by a group of teachers from Atlanta and Boston public schools to connect educators and help them create, organize, and share their curricula. [They] are focused on aggregating and scaling the most innovative content and practices from high-performing teachers across the country.

The deadline for application is January 8, 2013.

The following link includes full details for the application:

https://betterlesson.recruiterbox.com/jobs/12017

16 Race to the Top District Winners Announced

Posted on December 12, 2012 by coreeducation

On December 11, 2012, the Education Department announced the 16 winners of the Race to the Top school district grants (RTTD). 61 Finalists had been announced recently out of an original 372 districts that turned in applications in November. A total of $400 million was due to go out, and winners ranged from $10 million to $40 million for a period of four years, depending on the population of the given district. The winners included urban and rural districts, small districts and large consortia, and public and charter schools. The only large, urban school district to win was Miami-Dade (FL), which also just won the Broad Prize.

The winners, by order of total mean score, are as follows:

Carson City, NV (208.33)
New Haven Unified, CA (207.67)
Miami-Dade, FL (207.00)
Puget Sound Consortium, WA (205.33)
Guilford County, NC (205.33)
Metropolitan School District of Warren Township in Indianapolis, IN (205.00)
IDEA public schools, TX (203.00) [charter schools]
Charleston County, SC (201.67)
Harmony Science Academy consortia, TX (201.67) [charter schools]
St. Vrain Valley, CO (200.33)
Galt Joint Union, CA (199.67)
Iredell-Statesville, NC (199.67)
Middletown City, NY (199.33)
KIPP, DC (199) [charter schools]
Green River Regional Education Cooperative, KY (197)
Lindsay Unified, CA (196.33)

The rankings were based on the evaluations of “independent peer reviewers.”

The grants are designed specifically to target and “support locally developed plans to personalize and deepen student learning, directly improve student achievement and educator effectiveness, close achievement gaps, and prepare every student to succeed in college and their careers.” The Education Department also released a more detailed explanation of what the grant money will address:

Race to the Top-District plans are tailored to meet the needs of local communities and feature a variety of strategies, including: using technology to personalize learning for each student; giving students opportunities to learn beyond the traditional school day and environment; supporting students’ transitions throughout their education, including from high school to college and careers; expanding partnerships with community organizations to provide students with targeted social services like crisis intervention, individual counseling and life enrichment opportunities; and providing professional development and coursework options to deepen learning in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

The education department was very enthusiastic about the results, especially concerning how diversified the school districts were that won. Arne Duncan, education secretary, commented, “Districts have been hungry to drive reform at the local level, and now these winners can empower their school leaders to pursue innovative ideas where they have the greatest impact: in the classroom. The Race to the Top-District grantees have shown tremendous leadership though developing plans that will transform the learning environment and enable students to receive a personalized, world-class education.” Duncan also tweeted his opinions shortly after the results were released: “Race to the Top sparked as much reform in some states that didn’t receive funds as in those that did-a trend we want to see continue. We had many more great RTTD applicants than money. We hope districts will move aggressively forward with their RTTD blueprints.”

Questions certainly remain, however, especially about the process by which the decisions were made.

Several districts that had been listed in the previously released top 61 finalists did not finish in the overall top 61 when each of the scores is ranked. The Education Department has not yet explained if the finalists were re-scored before a final determination was made. In particular, Baltimore, which had been one of the 61 finalists, finished in 109^th place. Lane County School District 4J, OR wasn’t a finalist but ended in 52nd.

Of the 16 winners, only 5 are from states that originally won Race to the Top money, and nearly all of the large, urban school districts lost. Some of the city districts that applied and lost include Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Nashville, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Finally, the only two districts that won top dollar ($40 million) were for consortia of schools.

For more information, please visit these two links from the Education Department:

http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-announces-16-winners-race-top-district-competition

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-district/awards.html

Also see these three links for further commentary:

http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/2012/first-take-on-race-to-the-top-district-results.html

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2012/12/race_to_the_top_district_winne.html

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/12/12/14rtt_ep.h32.html

NBPTS and edTPA partners to Create Online Video Library for Teacher Preparation

Posted on November 30, 2012 by coreeducation

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a $3 million “Investing in Innovation” grant to a partnership of educational organizations that will aid in two major educational initiatives: better preparing new teachers and bolstering math and science instruction.

The project will operate under the leadership of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and with the cooperation of faculty from Stanford University, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC). These organizations are responsible for the creation of edTPA, “a performance-based assessment tool to help determine if student teachers are ready for the classroom.” edTPA is “based on standards developed by the National Board to identify the most accomplished teachers among experienced educators” and therefore attempts to merge the best practices of experienced teachers with what is taught to and expected of new teachers.

The grant itself allows for the creation of “an online repository of classroom videos and accompanying written materials that illuminate how master teachers go about the job of challenging and stimulating students to learn.” The repository will be known as ATLAS, or Accomplished Teaching, Learning and Schools, and will be constructed through a project the National Board calls “Building a Pipeline of Teaching Excellence.” Building a Pipeline of Teaching Excellence will focus on teachers in seven local school districts in New York, Tennessee and Washington along with six universities in those three states. The five-year project will attempt to prove that ATLAS has improved beginning-teacher instruction in the areas of math and science for grades 3-6.

Eventually, ATLAS will include all 25 National Board certificate areas, “including thousands of cases addressing all areas of the curriculum and every developmental level of pre-K-12 education.”

Work on the grant will begin before the end of 2012 and will require NBPTS to raise $450,000 in matching funds. Furthermore, NBPTS will “disseminate findings from this project through research and policy briefs, presentations to their memberships, research monographs, postings on websites and social media” to “all of the nation’s schools, colleges and departments of education; state education agencies; and the National Board’s network of 100,000 accomplished teachers and policy partners.”

Linda Darling-Hammond, a co-principal investigator of the grant and the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education who helped develop edTPA, summed up the importance of the grant: “This is cutting-edge work at the nexus of the nation’s two most important educational challenges: promoting educator effectiveness and strengthening science and math teaching and learning. The integration of the National Board’s repository of master teacher certifications into teacher preparatory programs will be extraordinarily beneficial.”

For more information, please visit the following websites:

http://edtpa.aacte.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/National-Board-Press-Release.pdf

http://www.nbpts.org/about_us/news_media/press_releases?ID=933

Race to the Top-District Finalists Announced

Posted on November 27, 2012 by coreeducation

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that 61 applications have been selected as finalists for the Race to the Top-District (RTTT-D) competition. The 2012 RTTT-D program will provide close to $400 million to support locally developed plans to personalize and deepen student learning, directly improve student achievement and educator effectiveness, close achievement gaps, and prepare every student for success in college and careers.

The 61 finalists, representing more than 200 school districts, were selected from 372 applications the Department received in November to demonstrate how districts could personalize education for students and provide school leaders and teachers with key tools that support them to meet students’ needs.

“These finalists are setting the curve for the rest of the country with innovative plans to drive education reform in the classroom,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “This competition was designed to support local efforts to close the achievement gap and transform the learning environment in a diverse set of districts, but no matter who wins, children across the country will benefit from the clear vision and track records of success demonstrated by these finalists.”

Consistent with the Department’s plan to select high-quality proposals from applications across a variety of districts, the finalists represent a range of districts, both rural and non-rural, from both Race to the Top states and non-Race to the Top states.

The Department expects to select 15-25 winning applications from the Race to the Top-District competition for four-year awards that will range from $5 million to $40 million, depending on the population of students served through the plan. Awards will be announced no later than Dec. 31, 2012.

To access the list of finalists, please visit http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-61-applications-finalists-400-million-race-top

Grant Funding for PreK-12 and Higher Education

Posted on October 29, 2012 by coreeducation

CDW-G has launched an easy to use website that is a relevant and reliable source of active grants and awards to help offset budget challenges in PreK through grade 12 and higher education institutions.

GetEdFunding is a curated collection of more than 750 active grants and awards. Only funders that are willing to accept Letters of Inquiry and unsolicited applications are included.

There are funding streams for curriculum, programs and technology. Users may search by state, type of institution, grade level, focus area, content area, and 21st century theme/skill.

To access the free repository, see www.getedfunding.com

The "Core" of Education

Tag Archives: grants