Early Care and Education Grants
PROFESSIONALIZING THE ECE FIELD
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Denver, CO
$400,000 over two years to support state legislators in increasing their knowledge of ECE workforce issues in their state. NCSL staff will provide five state teams with intensive technical assistance to develop state-specific goals and strategies, along with implementation action plans, to improve the workforce.
National Louis University, Wheeling, IL
$180,000 over a year, on behalf of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership, supporting research to examine whether consensus recommendations in a unified professional framework for program directors promote or reduce racial inequity. The research also aims to identify the challenges, supports, and policy changes needed to implement the recommendations in ways that promote equity.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ
$100,000 over nine months, on behalf of the National Institute for Early Education Research, to plan the development of a comprehensive research initiative to collect and link state representative data on ECE policy, the workforce, and classroom quality in all 50 states. Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners will convene to address existing, complex questions related to this work as they define the purpose, scope, scale, design, and logistics of the intended research initiative.
IMPROVING PREPARATION AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Third Sector New England, Inc., Boston, MA
$2,000,000 over three years to continue the fiscal sponsorship of the Early Educator Investment Collaborative.
ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Research Foundation of the City University of New York, New York, NY
$408,000 over three years to support the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute to continue to grow and manage the New York City Early Childhood Research Network. Also, new research, co-designed with the New York City Department of Education, will investigate potential racial and gender bias present in ECE teachers’ initial referrals to special education, special education program placements and process, and in teachers’ inclusive classroom practices.
Young Scholars Program
Bank Street College of Education, New York, NY
$225,000 over two years to investigate the professional learning and classroom practice of Latine preschool teachers working with children who are dual language learners using the Self-Evaluation of Supports for Emergent Bilingual Acquisition tool.
Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc., Statesboro, GA
$225,000 over three years to examine pathways of professional preparation for entry into the ECE profession through a technical credential, an early child care diploma, an associate’s degree, or a bachelor’s degree. The study will investigate student enrollment, dropout, and degree completion in relation to college admissions criteria, degree program requirements, ECE market conditions, and student characteristics.
Regents of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
$30,000 over one year to support the provision of technical assistance to Young Scholar Program applicants to help them strengthen the quality and rigor of their proposed mixed-methods research designs in YSP full application submissions.
Trustees of Boston University, Boston, MA
$29,000 over one year to support members within the Researchers Investigating Sociocultural Equity and Race Network to conduct an instructional webinar and a one-day virtual convening explaining the importance of and provide guidance for conducting asset-based research. The goal is to heighten awareness of such a research approach for the Foundation’s scholars and the broader research community.
University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
$225,000 over two years to explore the usefulness of a series of professional development sessions focused on improving ECE teachers’ literacy instruction using multicultural books to foster children’s critical thinking around race-related themes in K – 2nd grade classrooms.
Promising Scholar Awards
Promising Scholar Awards
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
$15,000 over one year to further develop a research proposal to examine racial and geographic inequities that exist within North Carolina’s ECE preparation system.
Georgia Southern University Research and Service Foundation, Inc., Statesboro, GA
$15,000 over one year to further develop a research proposal to investigate how professional development programs on equitable teaching practices can support early educators in creating equitable early learning experiences for students of color.
Research Foundation of the City University of New York, New York, NY
$15,000 over one year to further develop a research proposal to examine the impact that a credit bearing Child Development Associate Certificate program has on the career pathways of Latine family child care providers.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
$15,000 over one year to further develop a research proposal to explore implicit bias within ECE lead teachers’ disciplinary responses in relationship to student race and teachers’ own emotion regulation practices.
SUPPORTING A FOUNDATION PRIORITY POPULATION
National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC
$250,000 over two years for a new consensus study within the Board on Children, Youth and Families to examine and define opportunity and achievement gaps, and the relationship between them, for young children from birth to age eight. The consensus study committee will make recommendations for future research and for policy on how to improve conditions and promote success for children — at home, in communities, and in schools.
National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC
$150,000 over three years to support a consensus study to examine strategies, policies, and programs that have the potential to reduce intergenerational poverty and address inequality for youth. The committee will make policy recommendations for federal investment in anti-poverty programs and policies.
COVID-19 RAPID RESPONSE GRANTS
Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), Washington, DC
$25,000 to further promote the policy recommendations in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2019) report, A Roadmap to Reducing Childhood Poverty. This grant enables BPC to engage in the development work of assessing policymakers’ interests, concerns, and aims to devise effective advocacy approaches encouraging identified Congressional leaders to implement the poverty reduction strategies identified in the report.
National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI), Washington, DC
$30,000 for general operating support to NBCDI for their racial equity efforts to achieve positive outcomes for Black children experiencing the dual harms of poverty and racial discrimination.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ
$30,000 to support the National Institute for Early Education Research’s national survey of 1,000 parents to examine preschool program participation, home learning environments, and remote learning supports for children ages three to five during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yale University, New Haven, CT
$30,000 to the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy to support a national occupational epidemiology study of nearly 100,000 early educators to better understand the spread of COVID-19 in ECE programs and to examine the health, mental health, and economic impact of COVID-19 on the ECE workforce.