Deadline: 1-Aug-21
The Brady Education Foundation is accepting proposals focused on evaluating programs that have the potential of helping to close the opportunity and resulting achievement gaps associated with race and family income.
The proposed project may span up to three years.
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 underserved groups and/or low-resourced communities (specifically minoritized ethnic groups, low-income families) in order to inform ways to close the educational opportunity gaps associated with race and income.
- 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.
The Foundation favors projects that
- Represent strong collaborative relationships between researchers and practitioners and other community stakeholders (as appropriate).
- 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., Black / African Heritage, Latine, 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.
Funding Policies
- Indirect Costs policy:
- Proposals that include any of the indirect cost items (as mentioned in the official webaite) as direct costs will be disqualified and will not be reviewed by the Board.
- The Foundation may require additional information to determine if a proposed expense is a direct or indirect cost.
- Rates:
- Indirect costs may not be charged on grants that have a total project budget (including all years of the grant) of $50,000 or less (i.e., the indirect costs rate on grants $50,000 or less is 0%).
- For grants that have a total project budget (including all years of the grant) over $50,000, the Foundation caps indirect costs for both primary institutions and subcontracts at 10% of the direct costs of the project.
- Primary institution may NOT charge additional indirect on subcontract funds.
- Other funding policies:
- Funding must be through the Principal Investigator’s home institution (i.e., the home institution of the PI of the team conducting the evaluation).
- Programs that include communities of color in their target population (who will thus be represented in the study sample) must have at least one researcher of color on the leadership team (at the PI / co-PI level) of the program evaluation (the leadership team can also include researchers who identify as white; co-PI leadership structures are permitted).
- Grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations only.
- The Foundation will support up to two key personnel from the evaluation team and one practitioner or service provider from the program to attend one conference the last (or only) year of the project, with an allowable cost of $1,500 per person.
- The Foundation follows National Institutes of Health guidelines for salary caps.
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
Review Criterion
Each specific review criterion is rated on a 5-point scale; higher scores indicate higher criteria strength.
In general, four overall criteria categories are considered when reviewing program evaluation applications
Review Criteria Categories:
- Overall fit and potential impact
- Aims and fit with BEF mission
- Rationale (need for the program and need for this particular evaluation)
- Collaboration
- Potential impact and dissemination plans
- Program to be evaluated
- Program implementation and goals
- Target population
- Feasibility of implementation from practitioner / service provider perspective
- Accessibility from perspective of potential participants / target population
- Affordability and Sustainability
- Strength-Based orientation
- Research / Evaluation Criteria
- Research / Evaluation design and methodology
- Design
- Intended study sample (size, recruitment, maintenance, demographics)
- Procedures and measures
- Analytic plan
- Feasibility
- Research / Evaluation environment and team
- Research environment
- Expertise of the PI / research team
- Racial/ethnic composition of the leadership of the research team
- Research / Evaluation design and methodology
- Budget and budget justification
For more information, visit http://bradyeducationfoundation.org/application-guidelines/