Deadline: 13-Jun-23
The Foundation for Child Development is currently accepting proposals for its 2024 Young Scholars Program (YSP).
YSP supports scholarship for early-career researchers. The program funds implementation research that is policy- and practice-relevant, and that examines the preparation, competency, compensation, well-being, and ongoing professional learning of the early care and education (ECE) workforce.
Program Purpose
- The Foundation for Child Development believes that high-quality early learning experiences are crucial for the healthy lifelong development and learning of young children across the birth to age eight continuum. Since 2015, their Young Scholars Program (YSP) has supported policy and practice-relevant implementation research that examines the preparation, competency, compensation, well-being, and ongoing professional learning of the early care and education ECE) workforce. The Foundation believes that a deeper understanding of the role that ECE professionals play in enhancing young children’s early learning experiences can improve the chances for all children to reach their full potential.
- Three specific goals frame the Foundation’s current programmatic priority to strengthen the ECE workforce:
- Professionalize the early childhood field and build greater awareness of the status of the early childhood workforce.
- Enhance the quality of professional practice.
- Improve teacher preparation and ongoing professional learning, with special attention to the influence and role of institutions of higher education.
- Diversity is an asset for building a strong and productive society, and the Foundation is committed to diversity and equity in their work and through their grantees. To increase the diversity of research perspectives, the Foundation encourages applications from scholars who are from underrepresented groups that have historically experienced poverty, racism, xenophobia, prejudice, and discrimination. Such groups include, but are not limited to: researchers of color, first-generation college graduates, and those from low-income communities and/or immigrant families, They also encourage applications that represent a variety of disciplines and methodological approaches.
Priority Populations
- The Foundation is specifically interested in research that can strengthen the ECE professionals who serve the YSP priority populations of young children who experience the harmful effects of poverty, racism, xenophobia, prejudice, and discrimination across the birth to age eight continuum. The priority populations include:
- Children from low-income families and/or those experiencing extreme poverty
- Children of color, including those with Asian American, Latin; Black/African American, and/or Indigenous backgrounds
- Children in immigrant’ or refugee2 families, including child migrants, undocumented minors, children whose family members have been detained or deported, and dual language and multilingual learners
- Children with special education classifications
- Children experiencing homelessness
- Victims of trauma and/or child maltreatment
Research Focus
- Supporting the ECE Workforce
- All proposed research must have primary questions that are relevant to at least one of the Foundation’s three ECE workforce goals. The ECE workforce refers to the professionals who educate and care for young children, defined as birth through age eight, across a variety of settings (center-and home-based) and systems (regulated and informal), as well as the individuals who provide those professionals with leadership, support, and professional development (e.g., coaches, home visitors, administrators, higher education faculty, etc.). The ECE workforce plays a critical role in the lives of young children, as the quality of their interactions and the stimulation that they provide affect children’s learning and development. Yet, the work of these professionals—who have historically been women of color and immigrants—is often not recognized and underappreciated in the U.S. Please visit the Foundation’s website for more information on its aims for supporting the ECE workforce.
- Supporting Implementation Research on the ECE Workforce
- While substantial research has focused on examining what constitutes high-quality early learning experiences and the impact of policies and programs to identify “what works,” implementation research is needed to better understand how to bring about high-quality experiences for different groups of children, across different settings and contexts. Implementation research is not summative evaluation. Rather, it attempts to explain what is happening and whether execution of a program or policy is aligned to its intended purpose (Maier & Hsueh, 20203).
Funding Information
- Research awards are up to $225,000 for primary data collection and analysis and up to $180,000 for secondary data analysis.
Eligibility Criteria
- Principal Investigators must have received their doctoral degrees (e.g., Ph.D., Ed.D., Psy.D., J.D.) between January 1, 2014 and June 30, 2022. Physician applicants must have received their M.D. degrees between January 1, 2011 and June 30, 2022. A minimum of one year must have elapsed since receiving their degrees before Principal Investigators may apply.
- For the duration of the fellowship, Principal Investigators must be full-time, paid employees of the affiliated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (located within the United States and its territories)/ The organization will receive and process the Foundation’s grant as well as contribute material and in-kind support for the funded research project.
- The affiliated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (such as research firms, colleges, or universities) must have a minimum annual operating budget of $2.5 million, a minimum three-year track record in leading and conducting at least three multi-year research projects, describe research as a core activity in recent annual reports, and have produced and publicly disseminated a minimum of five publications (over the last five years) reporting the results of their research.
- The applicant is the sole Principal Investigator and will lead the proposed research (no Co-Investigators).
- More than one applicant may apply from a single institution.
- Returning applicants are welcome and strongly encouraged to re-apply.
For more information, visit Young Scholars Program.