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NC State Education Receives $7M+ in Research Grants Between July and November 2018

New wolf statue on central campus.

NC State College of Education faculty were awarded $7,029,012 to support 15 research projects from July 2018 to November 2018. The following is a list of newly awarded grants received by the NC State College of Education from July 14, 2018, to Nov. 7, 2018.


Title: Ascent to College and Career Readiness through STEM and Digital Learning
Summary: The project provides participants in Jackson County Schools with exposure to digital assets that help prepare for college and careers using STEM and digital learning resources.
Principal Investigator: Emmy Coleman, Senior Research Associate
Sponsor: Jackson County Public Schools
Award: $24,143


Title: Preparing to Teach Mathematics with Technology – Examining Student Practice [PTMT-ESP]
Summary: This grant provides funding to continue improving the way preservice mathematics teachers prepare to enter their classrooms, specifically how to utilize students’ mathematical thinking in technology-rich environments.
Principal Investigator: Hollylynne Lee, Ph.D., Professor, University Faculty Scholar and Faculty Fellow
Sponsor: National Science Foundation/IUSE
Award: $438,365


Title: Impact 2020: Supporting Sustainable Impact in Higher Education
Summary: This grant continues research on how first-year college students experience diverse worldviews on college campuses performed by the Interfaith Diversity Experiences & Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) team.
Principal Investigator: Alyssa N. Rockenbach, Ph.D., Professor and Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor
Sponsor: Interfaith Youth Core
Award: $59,530


Title: N.C. Digital Learning Plan-Professional Learning
Summary: As part of the NC’s Digital Learning Program, this 2-year project focuses on providing ongoing, job-embedded professional learning to district leadership teams, superintendents, school leaders and instructional coaches across the state. Using the cohort model, the emphasis is on team-building and developing the skills and readiness to plan, lead and implement district digital learning initiatives.
Principal Investigator: Mary Ann Wolf, Ph.D., Director of Digital Learning Programs
Co-Principal Investigator: Nancy Magnum and Theresa Gibson
Sponsor: N.C. Department of Public Instruction
Award: $464,339


Title: Phase V: Leadership Supports for Digital Learning Initiatives & STEM Initiative Redesign
Summary: This grant provides funding to extend coaching and implementation support to new and existing district leadership teams that are launching digital learning initiatives at the school and/or district levels
Principal Investigator: Emmy Coleman, Senior Research Scholar
Sponsor: Golden Lead Foundation
Award: $165,000


Title: Bridging Gaps in Postsecondary Research: Postsecondary CTE Fellows
Summary: This three-year grant enhances and strengthens postsecondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) research at universities nationwide through the establishment of the CTE Research Program at NC State-Sponsored by ECMC Foundation.
Principal Investigator: James Bartlett II, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Co-Principal Investigator: Audrey Jaeger, Ph.D., Professor, Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor, and University Fellow, Michelle Bartlett, Ph.D., Teaching Assistant Professor, and Reynaldo Garcia, Ph.D., Professor of Practice of Community College Leadership
Sponsor: ECMC Foundation
Award: $2,034,053


Title: Hearne Elementary School Professional Development
Summary: This grant provides participants from Hearne Elementary School in Wilson County with professional development opportunities.
Principal Investigator: Emmy Coleman, Senior Research Scholar
Sponsor: Wilson County Public Schools
Award: $22,148


Title: NC State University’s Principal Preparation Redesign: Creating Excellent Leaders, Effective Schools, and Enriched Communities – Year 3-4
Summary: The Wallace Foundation selected the NC State College of Education to participate in a national $47-million initiative to develop models over four years for improving university principal preparation programs and to examine state policy to see if it could be strengthened to encourage higher-quality training statewide. This grant supplies funding to continue the project’s work.
Principal Investigator: Tim Drake, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Co-Principal Investigator: Bonnie Fusarelli, Ph.D., Professor, University Faculty Scholar, Director of The Northeast Leadership Academy, Lisa Bass, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Lance Fusarelli, Ph.D., Professor, and Anna Jacob Egalite, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Sponsor: Wallace Foundation
Award: $1,249,768


Title: School Connectivity, ERP-Business System Modernization
Summary: This grant provides ongoing planning and design support for the School Connectivity Initiative (SCI) and for the emerging Business System Modernization (BSM) program for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Principal Investigator: Phil Emer, Director of Technology Planning and Policy
Sponsor: N.C. Department of Public Instruction
Award: $191,265


Title: Preparing Teachers who are Content Leaders v.2-English as a Second Language Cohort Program
Summary: This grant enables the NC State College of Education to deliver an add-on teacher licensure program that is adapted and contextualized to the needs of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools offered in a cohort format exclusively for teachers in that school system.
Principal Investigator:
John Lee, Ph.D., Department Head of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences and Professor
Sponsor: Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
Award: $162,829


Title: Building Capacity of Educators, Schools, and Districts to Meet the Needs of All Learners
Summary: This grant continues the Friday Institute’s in-depth work on learning differences and to build resources around Learner Agency and social and emotional learning by developing modules/courses and micro-credentials to support educators in building and deepening their understanding of these topics.
Principal Investigator: Mary Ann Wolf, Ph.D., Director of Digital Learning Programs
Sponsor: Oak Foundation
Award: $949,283


Title: Targeting Equity in Access to Mentoring (TEAM) ADVANCE
Summary: The project seeks to improve the quantity and quality of mentoring provided to early- and mid-career underrepresented (people of color and women) STEM faculty members in an effort to bolster their rates of success.
Principal Investigator:
 LaTricia Townsend, Senior Research Scholar
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award: $90,739


Title: Pre-service Educators Reimaging Core Experiences in Physics Teaching
Summary: This project provides pre-service elementary school teachers access to ideas (in physics) and tools (technological and pedagogical) with the potential to influence how they approach the teaching of basic physics concepts in the elementary grades, as their students are just entering the STEM pipeline.
Principal Investigator: James Minogue, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award: $733,392


Title: Promoting STEM Interests and Careers through FAME (Families and Museums Exploring) Supplement
Summary: This project advances efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students’ motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences.
Principal Investigator: Gail Jones, Ph.D., Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award: $103,615


Title: Developing a Systemic, Scalable Model to Broaden Participation in Middle School Computer Science
Summary: This project builds on a long-standing Research-Practice Partnership between NC State University’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and a middle school in Wake County Public School System to deepen the RPP to further develop conceptual, theoretical, and applied frameworks for computer science and computational thinking.
Principal Investigator: Eric Wiebe, Ph.D., Professor in STEM Education
Co-Principal Investigators: David Frye, Friday Institute; Sharon Freeman, Friday Institute; and Tiffany Barnes (Department of Computer Science)
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award: $497,176