Blog / Page 16
Three Youth Service Improvement Grantees Share Insights about Crafting their Improvement Plans
As we approach the final application deadline of 2017, we share insights from recent grantees on how they identified a salient issue in their existing programs, developed a rationale for an improvement plan that would address the issue, and tracked the results of the improvement over time.
When and under what conditions can a district central office learn from external partners for their improvement efforts? External partners, such as vendors, consultants, and researchers, can share materials and expertise to support instructional improvement efforts in districts. An increasing number of these external partners, whom district leaders reach out to all the time, draw […]
Apply Now for a Youth Service Improvement Grant
The William T. Grant Foundation’s Youth Service Improvement Grants support nonprofit organizations in the five boroughs of New York City. These awards of $25,000 help improve programs and services for youth ages 5 to 25. The online application opens on July 10, 2017, and all applications must be received by September 7, 2017 at 3:00 […]
Tales from the Policy Front: Maximizing the Use of Research Among Policymakers and Practitioners
Having been a part of both the research and policy communities, I can say with even greater confidence that, while the daily activities and priorities of education researchers and policymakers or practitioners may be different, their ultimate goals are remarkably similar.
Working collectively requires more than just cooperation. It requires a commitment to building a shared approach to research dissemination may require infrastructure investments to formalize and resources important connection points.
Read our 2016 Annual Report
We are happy to announce three new research grants and one Distinguished Fellowship, approved in March 2017. Three new research grantees will focus on reducing inequality in youth outcomes. Amy Hsin and her team will examine the effects of two policies intended to increase the college persistence of undocumented youth. Nikki Jones and colleagues will […]
The William T. Grant Foundation is pleased to announce that it has awarded four community-based organizations in New York City $25,000 grants to improve the quality of their youth programs. The Foundation’s Youth Services Improvement Grants program supports medium-sized organizations that have demonstrated success but have also identified an area that if improved would enhance […]
I have spent my career working with the researcher and practitioner (and policymaker) communities. The frustration expressed by each of these communities about the other is palpable. Practitioners complain that researchers are unrealistic in their expectations of what it takes to run a program and unable to provide research that fits within their real-world constraints. […]
The Institutional Challenge Grant encourages research institutions to build sustained research-practice partnerships with public agencies or nonprofit organizations in order to reduce inequality in youth outcomes. To do so, research institutions will need to build the capacity of researchers to produce relevant work and the capacity of agency and nonprofit partners to use research. Equally […]
These scholars are a force for understanding young people, their development, and how programs and policies can reduce inequality in their lives
Recent years have witnessed important new works questioning the role of philanthropy in education research and education reform. Sparked by Rick Hess and colleagues in With the Best of Intentions (2005) and The New Education Philanthropy (2015), provocative new books such as Sarah Reckhow’s Follow the Money (2012), Megan Tompkins-Stange’s Policy Patrons (2016), and Michael […]
Community-based mixed-methods research can be especially valuable in identifying and understanding strategies to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.
When knowledge developers are better attuned to the needs of practice and policy, the use of research evidence may thrive, and our efforts as researchers can be more valuable to those who work every day improve youth outcomes
Recognizing that structure and function are complementary ways of understanding brokerage will be important to facilitating the use of research evidence.