With $28M+ in Grants Awarded in FY2018, NC State Education Faculty Set New Record

RALEIGH, N.C. — NC State College of Education faculty, including scholars within the college’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, were awarded 44 grants by external sources in the 2017-2018 academic year totaling $28,038,462. That is the highest total dollar amount in grants awarded to faculty in a single year in the college’s 91-year history.

“Our faculty are performing some of the top educational research in the U.S., and the amount in grants they were awarded this past year is national recognition of that,” said NC State College of Education Mary Ann Danowitz. “Their research also reflects their passion for and commitment to our mission to improve the educational outcomes of all learners. Collectively, they are applying their research to transform the practice of teaching, learning and leading across the entire education spectrum, from early childhood to higher education and adult and workforce development.”

Nearly 45 percent of the grant proposals NC State Education faculty submitted in 2017-2018 were awarded. The grants they received will enable them to further the preparation of community college leaders and principals, improve science literacy and the teaching of foundational reading skills, foster positive school environments and incorporate technology-based STEM into K-12 classrooms, among other areas of impact.

A few examples of the grants awarded in 2017-2018 include:

• $10,863,040 over four years from the John M. Belk Endowment to establish the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, which is the largest grant ever made to the NC State College of Education since records have been kept and ranks among the Top 20 made to NC State since 2010.
• $5,894,541, one-year grant from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to start Wolfpack WORKS, a pilot initiative to support beginning K-2 teachers as they implement proven reading instructional strategies in 16 high-need public school districts in North Carolina. This is the second largest grant ever awarded to faculty within the college.
• $1.8 million, five-year collaborative National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education grant to create, refine and study video-enhanced materials to use as curriculum materials in the preparation of future high school mathematics teachers.
• $1.5 million, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to design a digital learning environment that will improve fifth graders’ comprehension monitoring skills and science content knowledge using information texts.
• $1.2 million, three-year National Science Foundation grant to bring elements of the TV show “Shark Tank” to middle school mathematics classroom to promote practices that increase middle school girls and minorities motivations and capacities to pursue careers in STEM fields.

“The success of our faculty demonstrates the quality of the research currently happening in our college,” said Paola Sztajn, the NC State College of Education’s associate dean for research and innovation. “We have top notch scholars working on some of the most important educational problems in the nation.”

With the 2017-2018 grants, over two-thirds of the college’s faculty continue to be active in sponsored research endeavors. This brings the college to a total of 127 funded projects that total over $79.83 million. This makes the NC State College of Education the top-funded college of education in North Carolina for research grants and among the Top 8 percent among public colleges of education in the nation.

A list of all of the college’s grant-funded research projects can be found here.