With $30M Awarded in FY2019, NC State Education Faculty Set Record for Grants Awarded for 2nd Straight Year

NC State College of Education faculty, including scholars with its Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, were awarded 28 grants by external sources in the 2018-19 academic year, totaling $30,287,540. This is the second year in a row that the college has set a record for highest total dollar amount in grants awarded to faculty in a single year and an 8% increase over last year.

In addition, the college reported $18.2 million in research expenditures in 2018-19, its highest for a single year and a 31.2% increase over last year.

“Our faculty are working diligently and thoughtfully every day to carry out our college’s land-grant mission to solve some of the most pressing educational problems in North Carolina and the nation. The dedication, intellect and drive they bring to that mission is reflected in the grants they have been awarded to engage in highly impactful research projects and initiatives,” said NC State College of Education Dean Mary Ann Danowitz. “Our college has emerged as a research powerhouse and North Carolina’s largest player in education research because of our talented faculty who are improving the practice of teaching, learning and leading across the state and beyond.”

Forty-one percent of grant proposals submitted by faculty in the 2018-19 academic year were awarded. The grants will enable them to improve literacy and mathematics instruction in high-need school districts, strengthen school leadership, fill the skills gap through postsecondary career and technical education and support STEM initiatives, among other areas of impact.

A few examples of grants awarded in the 2018-19 academic year include:

•  $12,266,816 from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to expand the Wolfpack WORKS literacy initiative’s support of beginning K-2 teachers and improve early literacy outcomes across North Carolina. The grant is the largest ever received by the college since records have been kept.
•  $2,034,053, three- year grant from the ECMC Foundation to enhance and strengthen postsecondary Career and Technical Education research nationwide through the establishment of the CTE Research Program at NC State.
•  $1,786,842, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program to establish and support the North Carolina High School Master Teacher Fellows Program to help strengthen leadership skills and instructional practices of 20 high school mathematics teachers in six semi-rural and rural public school districts.
•  $1,250,00 from the Wallace Foundation, awarded as part of a four-year, $5.1 million grant to research the practices and policies that best support the development of school leaders through the University Preparation Program Initiative.
•  $1,199,814, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop and test an e-mentoring program that pairs underrepresented high school students with engineering majors of similar background, race, gender and experience in an effort to improve students’ attitudes about and participation in STEM.

“Our faculty’s ability to once again break a record for dollar amount in grants awarded demonstrates their commitment to using research to solve important educational problems,” said Paola Sztajn, NC State College of Education’s associate dean for research and innovation.

With two-thirds of its faculty grant active and 120+ funded research projects totaling over $90 million, the NC State College of Education ranks No. 1 in education research productivity in North Carolina and among the top 6% of all colleges of education in the nation.

View a full list of all active research projects here.