Early Care and Education Grants
PROFESSIONALIZING THE ECE FIELD
Center for Community Change, Washington, D.C.
$400,000 over two years to support grassroots community organizing of community-based organizations to increase ECE compensation through the provision of technical assistance and on-the-ground work with early educators, particularly educators of color. The grant will also enhance innovative digital organizing tactics designed to mobilize and directly impact a base of early educators and parents who will also drive policy change.
Education Writers Association, Washington, D.C.
$240,000 over two years to develop multimedia content, including meetings and webinars, and provide one-on-one coaching to equip journalists with the knowledge and skills needed to produce high-quality coverage of ECE, particularly of the workforce, and to better inform the public and policymakers.
National Association of Elementary School Principals Foundation, Alexandria, VA
$200,000 over one year to support the planning and execution of a virtual, multiday convening and half-day follow-up sessions, as well as the development of briefs and resources, to equip school leaders with the knowledge, tools, and strategies to be successful in leading prekindergarten – 3rd grade continuums in their schools. A year-round virtual community will also be created to sustain conversation and share lessons learned among a network of school leaders across the country.
National Association of State Boards of Education, Alexandria, VA
$100,000 over one year to support the continued implementation of strategic plans toward using the influence and authority of State Boards of Education to effect policy changes intended to strengthen the early care and education workforce, including increasing compensation. NASBE will provide technical assistance, resources, and content to further enhance and expand the ECE state cohort network and the national ECE networks.
National League of Cities, Inc., Washington, D.C.
$100,000 over one year to support municipal leaders in the continued implementation of their strategic plans toward achieving their identified ECE workforce policy goals, including increasing ECE financing and compensation. NLC will host two national roundtables, convene quarterly sessions on priority topics, provide technical assistance, and develop content for the 10-city cohort.
Regents of the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
$216,000 over one year for the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) to help prepare state administrators and budget officers to implement sustainable increased compensation, particularly for child care workers. CSCCE will organize and execute virtual convenings for five to seven state teams. Resource sharing, technical assistance, and peer learning will assist policymakers in developing and implementing strategies to increase compensation. Policy and issue briefs and infographics summarizing lessons learned will be publicly disseminated.
The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.
$222,000 over one year to conduct key stakeholder interviews to increase understanding of state decision-making in accessing federal funds to finance ECE systems and support the workforce. State policymakers will also be supported in virtual convenings to strategize how to better utilize federal and state dollars to increase ECE financing, with a focus on increasing workforce compensation. Summary papers will be produced to share insights and lessons learned.
ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Inc., Boston, MA
$573,000 over two years, on behalf of the Wiikwedong Early Childhood Development Collaborative, to establish a research-practice partnership examining strategies to improve home and family visits that build sustainable ECE knowledge and practices rooted in Ojibwe culture and systems.
Erikson Institute, Chicago, IL
$200,000 over two years to examine the challenges and opportunities present in the implementation of state initiatives to include family child care within state prekindergarten programs; provide insights and lessons learned using a rapid-response approach to answer policymaker questions; and facilitate peer learning among local, state, and federal policymakers.
Research Foundation of the City University of New York, New York, NY
$408,000 over two and a half 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. The grant will also support new research co-designed with the New York City Department of Education that will explore early educators’ understanding and awareness of race and racism and investigate how racism and bias influence implementation of anti-racist and culturally relevant practice in preschool classrooms.
Young Scholars Program
Evandra Catherine, Ph.D., Arizona State University Foundation for a New American University,
Tempe, AZ
$225,000 over two years to study the influence of early childhood mental health consultants on improving the quality of early educator practice in implementing cultural approaches in their interactions with children from racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Jayanti Owens, Ph.D., Brown University, Providence, RI
$225,000 over three years to investigate racial and ethnic disparities that exist in kindergarten – 3rd grade teachers’ discipline referrals and administrators’ disciplinary sanction decisions. Mechanisms within teacher and administrator practice that drive these disparities will be identified, as well as school contextual factors that exacerbate or ameliorate them.
Zoelene Hill, Ph.D., New York Academy of Medicine, New York, NY
$225,000 over three years to examine national and local characteristics of home-based providers unaffiliated with licensing, regulatory, or registration systems and the children for whom they care, as well as elevate the perspectives of such providers regarding improving policies to better support their work.
Ingrid Anderson, Ed.D., Portland State University Foundation, Portland, OR
$225,000 over three years to examine both the development and implementation of teaching practices in an online ECE teacher preparation program based on Indigenous knowledge to better prepare and retain Native teachers in online learning environments in Oregon.
Regents of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
$30,000 over one year to support the provision of technical assistance to Young Scholars Program applicants to help them strengthen the quality and rigor of their proposed mixed-method research designs in YSP full application submissions.
The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.
$222,000 over one and a half years to support the ongoing professional learning of the Foundation’s Young and Promising Scholar awardees. In partnership with Child Trends, planned opportunities will enable the scholars to engage in discourse with policymakers and practitioners, sharpen their implementation research skills, and enhance general knowledge regarding issues related to the early care and education workforce.
Promising Scholar Awards
Naomi Jessup, Ph.D., Georgia State University Research Foundation, Atlanta, GA
$15,000 over one year to further develop a research proposal to explore ECE teachers’ perceptions and mathematics teaching practices that foster a culturally responsive classroom and promote mathematical reasoning and equitable mathematics discourse in ECE classrooms.
Alison Hooper, Ph.D., The Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
$15,000 over one year to further develop a research proposal to study the characteristics and experiences of home-based childcare providers caring for a relative’s children in Alabama, as well as to identify ways to effectively engage providers in quality improvement efforts.
Katherine K. Delaney, Ph.D., The University of Toledo Foundation, Toledo, OH
$15,000 over one year to further develop a research proposal to examine the preparation and competency of ECE teachers in identifying young children with developmental delays or disabilities through early intervention referral systems in Ohio and Michigan.