The Digest

President’s Comment

In this collection

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Education Renewal at AERA 2025

Next week, education researchers will convene at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Denver. We come together at a critical moment. The research infrastructure that for decades has supported advances in knowledge about ways to …

President’s Comment: Education Renewal at AERA 2025

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Steadfast in Our Mission in Turbulent Times

Despite the turbulence around us, the William T. Grant Foundation will remain steadfast in our mission to support research to improve the lives of young people. We will continue to pursue our two focus areas, which are especially critical in …

President’s Comment: Steadfast in Our Mission in Turbulent Times

News

• Jan 2, 2025

Adam Gamoran Continues as William T. Grant Foundation President

Originally published on September 10, 2024, this post was updated on January 2, 2025 to reflect recent developments. On September 9, President Biden announced his intention to nominate Adam Gamoran, president of the William T. Grant Foundation, as director of the Institute of Education Sciences (…

Foundation Staff

Adam Gamoran Continues as William T. Grant Foundation President

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Foundation Grantees at ASA 2024

This year’s meeting of the American Sociological Association centers on the theme “Intersectional Solidarities: Building Communities of Hope, Justice, and Joy.” Noting the motivations of many sociologists to “use sociology to make more just communities and societies,” ASA President …

President’s Comment: Foundation Grantees at ASA 2024

Blog Post

University Reforms that Reward Engaged Research: What Does Change Look Like?

Commissioned by the Transforming Evidence Funders Network and facilitated by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a new report describes the growing momentum behind university reforms that encourage faculty to conduct collaborative research with community partners and decision-makers outside the university…

University Reforms that Reward Engaged Research: What Does Change Look Like?

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Dual Enrollment Policy and Practice as a Potential Strategy for Reducing Inequality in Youth Outcomes

In October, the Dual Enrollment Research Collaborative, an initiative spearheaded by the Joyce Foundation and the Collaborative for Higher Education Research and Policy at the University of Utah, released a …

President’s Comment: Dual Enrollment Policy and Practice as a Potential Strategy for Reducing Inequality in Youth Outcomes

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Advancing Research on Racial Equity in a Time of Polarization

Research has a critical role to play in challenging damaging narratives and establishing different perspectives. In supporting the project “Public Learning in a Multiracial Democracy,” we hope to help change the environment for antiracist education in ways that foster greater …

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Effective Programs are Not Enough, We Need Structural Change to Reduce Inequality

Since 2015, the William T. Grant Foundation has funded research on programs, policies, and practices that reduce inequality in youth outcomes. We have supported a diverse pool of highly accomplished researchers, …

President’s Comment: Effective Programs are Not Enough, We Need Structural Change to Reduce Inequality

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Combatting Anti-Asian Violence By Confronting the Deep Roots of Racism

Many of us may have hoped that the change in administration in Washington, DC, would have lessened the pervasive climate of hostility and xenophobia that we have experienced in the …

President’s Comment: Combatting Anti-Asian Violence By Confronting the Deep Roots of Racism

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Anti-Racist Education is Essential for Research Universities

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” …

Foundation Staff

President’s Comment: Anti-Racist Education is Essential for Research Universities

Blog Post

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.

President’s Comment: It’s Time for Universities to Fulfill their Promise as Engines of Social Change

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Research Can Help us Chart the Path to Racial Justice

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 …

President’s Comment: Research Can Help us Chart the Path to Racial Justice

Blog Post

President’s Comment: A Message to Our Grantees

While the world grapples with the crisis of COVID-19, each of us faces challenges in our own lives. As a funder, we want to alleviate one sense of pressure you may feel: We intend to be as flexible and understanding …

President’s Comment: A Message to Our Grantees

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Science Denial is Not the Whole Story, a Treatise in 14 Tweets

ICYMI: All of this @nytimes article about science denial is true — but it’s not the whole story. The whole story is worse in some ways, better than others. What accounts for when science is accepted and when it’s …

President’s Comment: Science Denial is Not the Whole Story, a Treatise in 14 Tweets

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Producing Credible Knowledge in an Incredible Era

How can researchers find the motivation to continue to produce knowledge worth considering? And how can we, as supporters of research, best sustain our mission to support them?

President’s Comment: Producing Credible Knowledge in an Incredible Era

Blog Post

President’s Comment: The Passing of a Leader

Throughout our 82-year history, the William T. Grant Foundation has had many able leaders, starting, of course, with William T. Grant himself. Last month, we lost one of our most prominent leaders, with the passing of former Foundation president Robert …

President’s Comment: The Passing of a Leader

Blog Post

President’s Comment: The Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking

The Commission on Evidence-based Policymaking is an opportunity that doesn’t come every year, and may not come again. Let’s make the most of it.

President’s Comment: The Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking

Blog Post

President’s Comment: The Challenge of Inequality and the Future of Education Research

I recently spoke to the American Educational Research Association about the Foundation’s focus on building, testing, and improving understanding of programs, policies, and practices to reduce inequality in youth …

President’s Comment: The Challenge of Inequality and the Future of Education Research

Blog Post

President’s Comment: AERA Turns 100

This year, the American Educational Research Association (AREA) will celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary at its annual meeting in Washington, DC on April 8-12, 2016. Throughout its history, AERA has provided a forum for researchers to share substantive findings and methodological advances …

President’s Comment: AERA Turns 100

Blog Post

President’s Comment: To Reduce Inequality, We Need More Answers

Whether compared to other countries or to our own history, it is clear that inequality in the United States today is excessive and harmful to our economy and society. Yet the evidence is also clear that social policy can reduce …

President’s Comment: To Reduce Inequality, We Need More Answers

Publication

The Future of Educational Inequality: What Went Wrong and How Can We Fix It?

Education is a gateway for opportunity—a pathway to progress through which young people acquire the skills, knowledge, and experiences to obtain good jobs and prosperous futures. Yet in the U.S., education is highly unequal. On average, students from …

The Future of Educational Inequality: What Went Wrong and How Can We Fix It?

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Inequality Matters—And There is More We Can Do

Inequality is a fundamental challenge facing our nation. At the William T. Grant Foundation, we believe that responses to inequality can mitigate its effects, and, moreover, that there is a pressing need for new research to identify effective responses. To …

President’s Comment: Inequality Matters—And There is More We Can Do

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Inequality Is the Problem—What’s Our Response?

From the mayor of New York to President Obama and Pope Francis, hardly a day goes by without a prominent leader decrying the degree of inequality in the United States and worldwide. Our view at the Foundation is that inequality …

President’s Comment: Inequality Is the Problem—What’s Our Response?

Blog Post

President’s Comment: Our Work

When William T. Grant established this Foundation in 1936, he wanted, in his words, to support research that would yield new insights about why some people led happy and successful lives and others did not. Armed with this evidence, he reasoned, …

President’s Comment: Our Work

The William T. Grant Foundation invests in high-quality research focused on reducing inequality in youth outcomes and improving the use of research evidence in decisions that affect young people in the United States.

info@wtgrantfdn.org