With $42.1M in Funding, NC State College of Education Researchers Set New Record from Grant Funding Awarded in a Single Year

Faculty and research scholars in the NC State College of Education, including the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research and the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, were awarded $42,138,265 in external funding to support 66 projects in the 2022-23 academic year, setting a new record for total dollar amount awarded in a single year. 

Funding awarded during the 2022-23 fiscal year brings the total amount of external research funding within the college to over $119 million that is supporting 175 active projects. Additionally, the college reported more than $16.9 million in research expenditures in 2022-23, an increase of 81% over the past decade. 

“The record-breaking amount of grant funding our faculty received during the past year is a testament to the importance and extraordinary impact of their research,” said Associate Dean for Research and Innovation Karen Hollebrands. “Their projects are improving outcomes for students across North Carolina and beyond, from pre-K through adulthood, and advancing teaching, learning, leading and belonging.”

Some examples of grants awarded in 2022-23 include: 

> Funding from the John M. Belk Endowment awarded to the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research to help advance the center’s mission and partner with North Carolina’s community colleges to advance equity and economic mobility across the state. The funding is the single largest investment the John M. Belk Endowment has made in its history and the largest of its kind that NC State’s College of Education has ever received. 

> Funding from the National Science Foundation awarded to Dean Paola Sztajn to strengthen the existing Project AIM (All Included in Mathematics) professional development model that helps teachers engage their students in mathematics discourse by designing support for coaches and principals while measuring the impact the professional development model has on student outcomes. 

> Funding from the National Science Foundation awarded to Distinguished Professor Hollylynne Lee and Friday Institute for Educational Innovation Research Scholar Gemma Mojica to expand the work of the Enhancing Statistics Teacher Education with E-Modules (ESTEEM) project by investigating the current systems in undergraduate teacher preparation for teaching data science and statistics, with a focus on identifying problems of practices related to data science and statistics education in teacher education programs.
With more than 66% of College of Education faculty serving as the lead principal investigator on active externally-funded grants, the college consistently ranks among the top colleges for research productivity. In 2022, NC State ranked #68 in the world and #1 in North Carolina in the education and educational research category in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Global Universities Subject Rankings.