NC State College of Education Awarded $4.2 Million in Grant Funding From April Through June, 2022

Faculty and researchers at 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 $4,221,501 to support 11 projects from April 1 through June 30, 2022.

As of June 30, the college has spent more than $15.9 million on research expenditures during the 2021-22 academic year.

Computer Science Discoveries & Computer Science Principles Training

This project, funded by a $1,897,500 grant from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, will prepare and support more than 1,100 North Carolina educators to teach computer science over the next three years. Program components include a five-day summer workshop, four quarterly workshops to provide teachers with pedagogy guidance and curricular content, and ongoing support for a professional learning community. Melissa Rasberry, director of the Friday Institute’s Professional Learning and Leading Collaborative, is the project’s principal investigator.

Knowledge, Beliefs, and Mindsets (KBM) about Equity in Educators and Educational Leadership Survey

This project, funded by a $908,818 grant from the Wallace Foundation, aims to develop a survey instrument that will help identify potential principal candidates of color who possess high levels of knowledge, beliefs and mindsets about equity as well as identify equity gaps among pre- and in-service educators that could be addressed through professional learning and development. Associate Professor Lisa Bass is the project’s principal investigator. 

Sustaining Pre-K Gains into Elementary School: Exploring the Role of School-based Pre-K in Equity, Continuity and Collaboration

This project, funded by a $531,230 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s IES Early Learning Program, will examine how groups of students sustained gains made in Pre-K on outcomes that include achievement, executive function and absenteeism, from kindergarten through fifth grade. Assistant Professor Michael Little is the project’s principal investigator.

NC Education Corps Evaluation

This project, funded by a $376,842 grant from NC Education Corps, will allow the Friday Institute to help NC Education Corps better understand how they foster effective partnerships with schools to implement research-based programs that support teachers and students, how to train members for high-impact tutoring and to what extent they implement high-impact interventions that improve early literacy and social-emotional outcomes for students. Callie Womble Edwards, acting director of the Friday Institute’s Program Evaluation and Education Research program, is the project’s principal investigator. Friday Institute Interim Executive Director Shaun Kellogg is the co-principal investigator. 

Advancing Educational Opportunity in Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Lowest-Performing Schools through Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention

This $245,564 grant from the Belk Foundation will establish a three-year partnership with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to provide support and improve the district’s 10 lowest performing schools. The goal of the project is to collect, analyze and synthesize data to inform district leaders about interventions for teacher hiring, development and retention to improve student outcomes. Assistant Professor Lam Pham is the project’s principal investigator. 

NC High-Tech Learning Accelerator Evaluation Planning

This project, funded by a $89,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, aims to develop a comprehensive and responsive evaluation plan for the High-Tech Learning Accelerator program that details strategies and intended outcomes and measures for assessing and improvement of program impact. Friday Institute Interim Executive Director Shaun Kellogg is the project’s principal investigator. Callie Womble Edwards, acting director of the Friday Institute’s Program Evaluation and Education Research program, is the co-principal investigator. 

North Carolina Early Grades Leadership Collaborative

This project, funded by a $75,000 grant from the Belk Foundation, will utilize results from a survey of elementary school principals and improvement science approaches to co-design a set of change ideas to improve early grades leadership. Participants will come together through a Learning Design Institute, where they will interrogate survey findings; set a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (S.M.A.R.T.) aim; define a theory of action; and design the set of change ideas that will be tested with a sample of school districts in North Carolina. Assistant Professor Michael Little is the project’s principal investigator while Assistant Professor Timothy Drake will serve as the co-principal investigator. 

Collaborative Research: Building Confidence through Culturally Relevant Co-requisite Mathematics Courses: UNC System Math Pathways for African American Collegiate Transformation

This $39,984 grant from the National Science Foundation will enable the Friday Institute’s Program Evaluation and Education Research (PEER) Group to partner with the Math Pathways for African American Collegiate Transformation (MPAACT) project team to support the collection, analysis and reporting of formative evaluation data. Callie Womble Edwards, acting director of the Friday Institute’s Program Evaluation and Education Research program, is the project’s principal investigator. 

CTE Leadership Collaborative Mini-Grant

This $25,000 grant from the ECMC Foundation will award funding to fellows in the Postsecondary Career and Technical Education Research Fellows Program at NC State University to support research projects and the dissemination of findings. Associate Professor James Bartlett is the project’s principal investigator while Associate Teaching Professor Michelle Bartlett will serve as the co-principal investigator.

CS Education Summer Accelerator Program

This project, funded by a $17,563 grant from Warren County Schools, will train up to three teachers for computer science education summer learning by allowing them to teach three daily classes for three weeks while they receive ongoing support. Jennifer Houchins, director of technology programs at the Friday Institute, is the principal investigator on the project. 

BER APS North Carolina State University Institute for Civic Studies and Learning for Democracy

This initiative, funded by a $15,000 grant from the U.S. State Department, will bring together advanced graduate students, faculty and practitioners from diverse fields of study from the U.S. and Germany for a 10-day interdisciplinary seminar focused on issues related to the development of civil society and the role of lifelong learning and education in promoting democracy. Associate Professor Chad Hoggan is the project’s principal investigator.