Blog
The William T. Grant and Spencer Foundations today announced three new Rapid Response Research grants to support collaborations between researchers and policymakers, with the central goal of reducing inequality in youth outcomes in the United States. These grants synthesize existing research to inform smart public policy that can positively impact the lives of young people. […]
Register Now: Proposing Studies of Strategies to Address Structural Roots of Inequality
Join us for a webinar on November 9 as Program Officer Jenny Irons will discuss the Foundation’s focus on reducing inequality and share guidance for prospective applicants interested in studying strategies to address inequality’s structural roots. Irons will be joined by grantees Matthew Desmond (Princeton University) and Cecilia Ayón (University of California, Riverside), who will […]
Critical race theory provides a useful lens for understanding how racism pervades our research and policy institutions and ways we might reconstruct them in more equitable ways. On October 1, the Foundation hosted a virtual panel discussion, “Critical Race Perspectives on the Use of Research Evidence,” which featured three researchers offering ideas about how to […]
In early September, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget issued a directive that barred federal agencies from providing staff training on concepts including critical race theory and White privilege. This directive, which characterized such training as “un-American propaganda” encouraged agencies to cancel contracts and divert funding from organizations that provide such opportunities. Later in […]
In this role, Dr. Supplee will lead the Foundation’s initiatives on improving the use of research evidence and its Institutional Challenge Grants program.
We are proud to announce six new research grants, including five to support studies on reducing inequality in youth outcomes and one to support a study on improving the use of research evidence. Approved at the Foundation’s June Board meeting, these grants will build theory and empirical evidence in our two focus areas. Sign up […]
The Foundation occasionally supplements its support for empirical research with targeted capacity-building grants. One such award, approved at the Foundation’s summer board meeting, will support the launch of a methods repository for assessing the use of research evidence in policy and practice: Building and Sustaining a URE Methods Repository Drew Gitomer and Kevin Crouse, Graduate […]
Two research grantees and two William T. Grant Scholars have been awarded grants to support their development as mentors to junior researchers of color. The awardees will mentor promising doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows in enhancing their methodological skills, publication records, and career networks. The mentoring grants program is designed to help Scholars and research […]
Connection as Empowerment: How Social Bonds can Reduce the Effects of Poverty and Racism on Youth
As evidence continues to mount regarding the central role of close human connection to everything from our mental health to how long we live, the idea that we can use the endogenous capacity for connection and support among youth provides a bright spot in our efforts to address inequality in our society.
President’s Comment: It’s Time for Universities to Fulfill their Promise as Engines of Social Change
By institutionalizing collaborative research and building sustained knowledge-building partnerships with local service providers, universities can lead the way towards a more prosperous and equitable future.
We are pleased to announce three new members of the William T. Grant Scholars Selection Committee, a dedicated group of academics who are committed to the Scholars Program’s priorities of career development, mentoring, and the bold pursuit of new research challenges. Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, Cynthia Coburn, and David Takeuchi began their term in July 2020. We […]
This webinar, recorded on June 30, 2020, provides real-life examples of what studies on robust strategies for improving evidence use look like in different stages of development and at different levels of public policy.
At our recent William T. Grant Scholars retreat, I had the opportunity to share my reflections with early- and mid-career academics about ways they might meet this social and political moment. In this post I expand on three recommendations: 1) act now but plan for the long game, 2) build your relationships with change partners and your understanding of change processes, and 3) know yourself and care for yourself.
Digital educational tools are touted for their promise in increasing equitable access to enhanced learning opportunities and improving educational outcomes for K-12 students. Yet there is a growing consensus that the thorniest challenges schools and educators face in integrating educational technology are around how digital learning interacts with the systemic social, economic, racial, and historical […]
As we make our way through this terrible time, with the health and economic devastation of the pandemic disproportionately manifested in communities of color compounded by searing examples of racial injustice, we reflect on what more we, as a funder of social science research on youth, can do to combat racial and economic inequality in […]