Early Care and Education Grants
PROFESSIONALIZING THE ECE FIELD
Bank Street College of Education, New York, NY
$30,000 over one year to support the development of a communications toolkit for their report, Investing in the Birth-to-Three Workforce (January 27, 2020), to engage key stakeholders in building public will for increased investment in the preparation, compensation, and well-being of the ECE workforce serving infants and toddlers.
National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS-SDE), Greensboro, NC
$250,000 over two years to further build organizational leadership and capacity to implement the 2018 strategic plan and to maximize the collective impact of members improving local and national ECE policies.
National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), Alexandria, VA
$200,000 over two years to enhance efforts of state boards of education to refine and implement policies to support the ECE workforce through the provision of technical assistance to previously and newly funded states. Additionally, NASBE will expand the National ECE Network and develop materials and resources to amplify their work.
National League of Cities Institute (NLCI), Washington, DC
$200,000 over two years to enhance efforts of municipal leaders to refine and implement policies to support the ECE workforce through the provision of technical assistance to previously and newly funded cities. A specific focus will be on developing financial empowerment solutions to address current ECE system inequities, including financing stability and ECE workforce compensation.
National Louis University, Chicago, IL
$203,000 over one year on behalf of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership to support building consensus on clearly defined administrative and pedagogical leadership competencies, cohesive preparation pathways, and ongoing professional development of ECE program leaders and administrators.
ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
President and Fellows of Harvard College, Cambridge, MA
$500,000 over two years to support the research-to-practice partnership of the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood (BPS), the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the University of Michigan, and MDRC to examine the implementation of the expansion of the city’s prekindergarten program to include community-based organizations.
Research Foundation of the City University of New York, New York, NY
$245,000 over one year to continue support for the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute at the City University of New York to promote, grow, manage, and facilitate the New York City Early Childhood Research Network, as well as support the research funded within the Research Network.
Research Foundation of the City University of New York, New York, NY
$253,000 over three years on behalf of The City College of New York to extend the work of Dr. Beverly Falk in producing a set of online videos and professional development materials that demonstrate high-quality methods and techniques to enhance instructional practice across the birth-2nd grade continuum. The materials will also highlight best practices related to serving multilingual learners and children with special education needs.
William Marsh Rice University, Houston, TX
$75,000 over one year to form an Early Childhood Education Subnetwork within the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships membership to build expertise and advance collective knowledge around ECE-related issues.
Young Scholars Program
Child Trends, Inc., Bethesda, MD
$225,000 over three years to investigate the implementation of Maryland’s 2017 law banning suspension and/or expulsion as a discipline method in preschools. The extent to which the state and its districts have supported early educators to improve their discipline practices in compliance with the law will be examined.
The Curators of the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
$225,000 over three years to examine preschool teachers’ understanding of multilingual learners and the use of multimodal literacy instruction through a university researcher-early educator collaborative inquiry model designed to improve early schooling for racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse children.
New York University, New York, NY
$225,000 over three years to understand preschool teachers’ social-emotional learning (SEL) and examine associations between the teachers’ social-emotional competence and their classroom practices to support children’s SEL. Additionally, the study investigates how three different professional development interventions, varying in content and approach, promote teachers’ SEL practices.
The Urban Institute, Washington, DC
$263,000 over two years to support the ongoing professional learning of the Foundation’s Young Scholars Program. In partnership with Child Trends, the Urban Institute will organize opportunities for scholars to engage in dialogue with policymakers and practitioners, to sharpen their implementation research skills, and to enhance their general knowledge of issues related to the ECE workforce. Funds will also provide additional mentoring and professional learning supports for Promising Scholars.
IMPROVING PREPARATION AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Child Care Services Association, Chapel Hill, NC
$20,000 on behalf of Teacher Education and Compensation Helps (T.E.A.C.H.) to continue to support two previous and one new state teams in their efforts to implement a systems approach in reducing major barriers that early educators, especially those of color, face in accessing higher education.
SUPPORTING A FOUNDATION PRIORITY POPULATION
First Focus, Washington, DC
$50,000 over one year to disseminate the findings and recommendations of the 2019 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty. Through multimedia communications and technical assistance, First Focus will work to increase state policymakers’ understanding of the report and to implement policy solutions to reduce child poverty.