Deadline: 1 April 2020
The Brady Education Foundation is currently accepting proposals focused on evaluating programs that have the potential of helping to close the opportunity and resulting achievement gaps between children living in under-resourced communities and/or from under-represented populations and other children.
Aims
- Primary aim:
- What works: The primary aim must concern evaluating the effectiveness of programs designed to promote positive cognitive and/or achievement outcomes for children (birth through 18 years) from undeserved groups and/or low-resourced communities (minoritized ethnic groups, low-income families).
- Secondary aims may also focus on one or more of the following:
- What works for whom, under what conditions: Investigate variations in program effects; that is, test for moderation effects that inform whether effects are stronger for certain groups and/or under certain conditions than other groups or conditions.
- Reasons for effects: Investigate mechanisms through which effects occur; that is, test for mediation effects that inform why the program is effective.
- Cost-benefit analyses: Compare the total costs of the program (start-up and ongoing operational costs) with its estimated monetary benefits to determine the net cost or benefit associated with the program.
Project Priorities
The Foundation favors projects that:
- Represent strong collaborative relationships between researchers and practitioners and other community stakeholders (as appropriate).
- Projects in which the community/population being studied is represented in the project’s leadership team.
- Evaluate programs that show promise of being feasible, accessible and sustainable
- Evaluate programs consistent with strength-based approaches rather than deficit models and consider the specific and unique assets and needs of children from diverse racial and ethnic groups and/or from low-income communities. Concerning race and ethnicity, the Foundation seeks to increase understanding of what works best for children from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds (e.g., African-Heritage, Latinx, Indigenous Peoples).
- Projects for which operational funding for the program is already secured so that funding from the Foundation is used only for evaluation activities.
- Projects that employ randomized control designs (including wait-list control designs when assignment to wait-list condition is randomized). Comparison group designs may also be employed when strong efforts are made to control for potential confounding variables (e.g., due to selection effects). The Foundation very rarely funds evaluation projects that employ neither randomized control nor comparison group designs.
- Projects that evaluate effects on measurable child outcomes.
- Projects that include a member of the team (not necessarily the PI) who has experience leading projects of similar or greater scope.
- Applicants at all career stages may apply; teams are evaluated in terms of their abilities to successfully carry out the proposed work.
Duration
The proposed project may span up to 3 years.
The Foundation does not fund:
- Scholarships
- Capital projects
- Continuing education for providers
- Projects outside of the United States or its territories
- Support for scaling up programs already found to be effective
- Evaluations conducted by for-profit organizations
- Evaluations of for-profit programs
- Evaluation of programs for children at risk for poor cognitive and academic outcomes due to medical conditions (including developmental delays or disabilities associated with biological causes) or substance abuse
For more information, visit http://bradyeducationfoundation.org/application-guidelines/#timetable