College of Education Scholars Set Record for Research Expenditures, Receive Multiple NSF CAREER Grants During 2023-2024 Fiscal Year

Researchers in the NC State College of Education, including the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research and the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, set a new college record for research expenditures during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, with a total of $20,443,364 spent conducting research. Research expenditures are often used to compare research levels across universities. 

During the same time period, College of Education researchers also received external funding for 65 projects, totaling $13,918,922. This brings the total amount of external funding to more than $128 million to support 210 active research projects. 

“The research expenditure record set by our research associates and faculty over the past year is evidence of the large number of external grants they have successfully secured and are actively implementing,”  said Associate Dean for Research and Innovation Karen Hollebrands. “Through these externally funded projects and other research activities, our faculty are tackling important issues to improve education for learners from preschool through adulthood and impacting educators across North Carolina and beyond.”

Among active grant-funded projects are four active National Science Foundation CAREER grants, including three that were awarded within the past year. 

• Assistant Professor of STEM Education Tamecia Jones was awarded a $650,000 National Science Foundation CAREER grant to partner with teenagers to create innovative and equitable assessments and technology that better capture the multidimensional nature of engineering. 
• Assistant Professor of Technology, Engineering, and Design Daniel Kelly was awarded a $587,700 National Science Foundation CAREER grant to develop a robotics program built on the principles of social-emotional learning tailored to middle school students in the juvenile justice system while also training pre-service teachers to mentor them. 
• Associate Professor of Mathematics Education Samantha Marshall was awarded a $926,102 National Science Foundation CAREER grant to partner with middle school mathematics teachers to co-design, analyze and improve teachers’ translanguaging pedagogies. 

Associate Professor K.C. Busch is also the principal investigator on an active CAREER grant, awarded in 2021, that will develop a theory and test metrics for measuring community level science learning through social networks. Additionally, Associate Professor Jamie Pearson is the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation IES Early Career Grant, also awarded in 2021, to strengthen advocacy and increase service access and utilization among Black families of children with autism.

WIth 67% of tenure-track faculty serving as principal investigators on active, externally-funded grants, the college consistently ranks among the top colleges in the world for research productivity. In U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-2025 Best Global Universities Subject Rankings, NC State was ranked No. 60 in the world, No. 21 in the U.S. and No. 1 in North Carolina  in the education and educational research category.