With $30.5M in Funding Awarded in FY2019-20, College of Education Faculty Set Record for Grants Awarded for Third Consecutive Year

NC State College of Education faculty and staff, including research associates with the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, were awarded 54 grants from external sources in the 2019-20 academic year, totaling $30,485,332. This marks the third consecutive year that the college has set a record for highest total dollar amount in grants awarded to faculty in a single year.

In addition, the college reported $19.5 million in research expenditures, marking a 7% increase over last year.

“Our faculty continue to show a commitment to carrying out our college’s land-grant mission to solve some of the most pressing educational problems in North Carolina and the nation. Our talented faculty are the reason the College of Education has emerged as a research powerhouse and North Carolina’s largest player in education research,” said NC State College of Education Dean Mary Ann Danowitz. “In addition to providing resources for educators and caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic, our faculty have continued to engage in highly impactful research projects and initiatives that improve the practice of teaching and learning and advance educational equity and opportunities across the lifespan, particularly for historically underrepresented population”

The grants awarded to faculty in 2019-20 will allow them to address workforce development needs in emerging fields, prepare future school leaders with the skills and knowledge to turn around low performing schools, address literacy challenges faced by young English language learners and prepare students with important STEM skills like data literacy, among other areas that advance educational equity.

A few examples of federal grants awarded in 2019-20 include:

• $6 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to establish the Artificial Intelligence Academy to support 5,000 workers with training, college coursework and certification to work in the field of artificial intelligence through public-private apprenticeships.

• $3.75 million from the N.C. Principal Fellows Commission to enable the College of Education to expand delivery of its customized, two-year Master of School Administration program to train school leaders in partnership with public schools in North Carolina.

• $2.9 million from the National Science Foundation to facilitate the creation of free online resources for professional development in the teaching of statistics and data science, to help educators in grades 6-12 prepare data-literate students.

• $1.4 millionfrom the U.S. Department of Education to facilitate the development of a new small-group intervention for English learners in grades 3 through 5 who have reading comprehension difficulties.

“Our faculty address some of the most urgent educational problems of our time, and that has only intensified as the state and nation face challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustices. Their commitment to our land-grant mission to ensure the educational success of all is reflected in their endeavors to engage in meaningful and impactful research,” said Interim Associate Dean for Research and Innovation Karen Hollebrands, Ph.D.

With two-thirds of its faculty grant active and engaged in 120-plus funded research projects totaling over $92 million, the NC State College of Education stands at the top in education research productivity in North Carolina and among the top 6% of all colleges of education in the nation.