Deadline: 24-Nov-20
The Spencer Foundation has launched the Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) Grants Program to support education research projects that engage in collaborative and participatory partnerships.
This grant program is open to partnerships between researchers and a broad array of practitioners. They define practitioners as school districts, county offices of education, state educational organizations, universities, community-based organizations, out-of-school-time providers, informal educators, and other social sectors that significantly impact learners’ lives. As such, they are open to applications from design-based research teams, networked improvement communities, placed-based research alliances, and other partnership arrangements.
While this grant program is open to all partnership configurations across a range of learning contexts, in addition to pre k-12 school systems, they especially encourage applications from partnerships that include scholars and institutions of higher education, rural geographic locations, and partnerships that deeply engage community-based organizations and families.
Funding Information
- Budgets up to $400,000 and durations of up to three years.
Eligibility Criteria
- Proposals to the Research-Practice Partnership program must be for research and other activities aimed to support collaborative partnerships between the academic researcher(s) and a broad array of a practitioner(s) of education.
- Principal Investigators (PIs) and Co-PIs applying for a Research-Practice Partnership Grant are expected to have an earned doctorate in an academic discipline or professional field or demonstrated professional experience appropriate for this program.
- Note: If the PI or Co-PI from the practice side of the partnership does not have an earned doctorate, they are expected to have the appropriate professional experience to serve in this role in the partnership. While graduate students may be part of the team, they may not be named the PI or Co-PI on the proposal.
- The PI must be affiliated with a non-profit organization that is willing to serve as the administering organization if the grant is awarded. The Spencer Foundation does not award grants directly to individuals. Examples include non-profit colleges, universities, school districts, and research facilities, as well as other non-profit organizations with a 501(c)(3) determination from the IRS.
- The PI associated with the administering organization for this grant could be either the practitioner or researcher of the partnership. At least one Co-PI should be from the other member organization(s).
- Proposals are accepted from the U.S. and internationally, however, all proposals must be submitted in English and budgets must be proposed in U.S. Dollars.
Review Process
- All full proposal submissions are reviewed by external panel reviewers and internal staff. Those chosen as semi-finalists will be considered in the final decision meeting against the other semi-finalist proposals. The review process for this program takes approximately 8 months from the Letter of Intent deadline date.
- The review panel for this program is made up of both researchers and practitioners familiar with research-practice partnerships in the field of education research. Panellist are asked to rate and comment on the following aspects of your proposal:
- Suitability of the Partnership: Reviewers will evaluate how well the partnership meets the tenets of a research-practice partnership as described in the program statement.
- Focus of Activities on Research to Improve Practice: Reviewers will evaluate the overall quality and alignment of the partnership activities in contributing both to local practice and the broader education research community.
- Focus of Activities on Development and Sustainability: Reviewers will evaluate the potential of the partnership to develop during the grant and sustain and advance itself beyond the proposed timeline of the grant.
- Budget and Timeline: Reviewers will comment on the adequacy of the budget and timeline.
- Project Team: Reviewers will comment on the potential of the key personnel to do the work of the partnership as described in the proposal.
Recent Awardees
- “Project LEARN: Language, Equity, and Action Research with Newcomer Students”
Alison Dover (CSU Fullerton), Renae Bryant (Anaheim Union High School District), Fernando Rodriguez-Valls (California State University, Fullerton). - “Identifying strategies to diversify Tennessee’s teacher workforce through recruitment and retention research”
Jason Grissom (Vanderbilt University), Kevin Schaaf (Tennessee Department of Education), Pamela Chapman (Tennessee Department of Education). - “Strengthening education in a rural community of former guerrilla members and their families: A participatory action research approach towards peace-building in Colombia“
Lina Trigos-Carrillo (Universidad de La Sabana), Laura Sarmiento (Universidad de La Sabana), Diego Tovar (COOMBUVIPAC). - “Innovations in Family Empowerment and Community Partnerships in Early Education: A Research Practice Policy Partnership in New York City”
Kate Tarrant (City University of New York, Research Foundation: New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute), Vanessa Rodriguez (New York University School of Medicine), Kimber Bogard (The New York Academy of Medicine). - Orange County Educational Advancement Network: Facilitating a Network of RPPs at County Scale to Better Support Housing Insecure and Foster Youth
June Ahn (University of California, Irvine), Richard Arum (University of California, Irvine), Anthony Saba (Samueli Academy).
For more information, visit https://www.spencer.org/grant_types/research-practice-partnerships