Summaries of Proposals Awarded $15,000
The following 24 proposals received $15,000 stipends to refine and expand their ideas for impact.
| Organization | Submitter | Proposal Title | Location | Proposal Summary |
| AdvancED / Measured Progress | Holly King | Redefining the Measurement of Early Childhood Program Quality and Child Outcomes | Arizona, Georgia & New Hampshire | This proposal seeks to identify a common set of indicators observed in high-quality early childhood programs that correlate to long-term academic and workplace success outcomes. This would enable early childhood programs to be consistent in accurately targeting meaningful elements of quality and actions for improvement. |
| Austin Chamber of Commerce | Drew Scheberle | Opportunity Austin: College and Career Readiness and Placement | Texas | Austin’s Opportunity for All goal to accomplish near universal readiness and placement of area high school graduates either into post-secondary education or the high-performance workplace. |
| Bellwether Education Partners | Lina Bankert | CAP (College Access & Persistence) and Gown: Building Ecosystem Connections to Increase Postsecondary Degree Attainment | District of Columbia | A deep-dive study of a state or region to highlight where in the pipeline students are most likely to fall through the cracks, followed by a playbook of recommendations to address systemic opportunities. Consideration of both K-12 and postsecondary lenses. |
| BloomBoard | Jason C. Lange | Competency-Based Educator Licensure through Micro-Credentials | California & Pennsylvania | This proposal will develop a policy paper on the lessons learned about using micro-credentials in the licensure context for educators. |
| Center on Reinventing Public Education | Ashley Jochim & Travis Pillow | Out-of-School Enrichment Accounts | Washington | An enrichment-allowance program where parents whose children qualify based on income or other risk factors (e.g. foster care) would be able to receive a monetary allocation, administered by a third party (a nonprofit or a government agency) to access out‑of‑school enrichment opportunities. |
| Center on Reinventing Public Education | Travis Pillow & Sean Gill | Real estate trusts for school facilities | Washington | This proposal describes the creation of real estate trusts to manage real estate holdings and make space available for schools, clinics, childcare centers, and other community organizations. This trust would centralize how schools (traditional and charter) obtain real estate by using a third party to assess the school’s need for space and match that need with available space that has been acquired within the respective jurisdiction. |
| Education Reform Now | Michael Dannenberg | Building a “Fast Track” to College | District of Columbia | This proposal is to develop for students academically prepared at the end of 11th grade two new pathways to fast track to college. Pathway (1) offers a 4+3 model of high school to and through college (4 years of high school & 3 years of college), whereas Pathway (2) offers a 3+4 model (3 years of high school & 4 years of college). In both cases, savings would be generated that could reform traditional 12th grade courses. |
| Education Strategy Group
| Ryan Reyna | Stop Remediation Before It Starts | District of Columbia | This proposal seeks to redesign the 12th grade year utilizing “transition” courses that provide opportunities to catch up on knowledge/skills not yet mastered. These courses would be co-developed by K-12 and higher education educators to ensure they meet the required level of rigor to succeed in entry-level college courses. |
| GoGetter | Jared Wise | GoGetter Online Skilled Trades Community | California | This proposal seeks to increase the supply of workers in skilled trades by recruiting young people to these careers, and build a more effective online connection tool between individual students and workers, businesses looking for employees to hire, and organizations which provide services to these individuals and businesses. |
| Graduation Alliance | Rebekah Richards | Pay-for-Performance Statewide Dropout Recovery Programs to Re-engage Opportunity Youth | Indiana & Ohio | This proposal outlines a “Pay-for-Performance” dropout recovery program with an open process to identify statewide providers who would receive compensation based on students completing accredited courses, earning diplomas and certificates, and job placement. |
| Health and Education Alliance of Louisiana (HEAL) | Connie Bellone | Coordinated Care for the Whole Child – Sustainability Model | Louisiana | The proposal aims to expand its “Coordinated Care for the Whole Child Program,” a program designed to remove the physical, mental and social health barriers to learning, to more schools in Louisiana. The proposal includes leveraging the use of Medicaid dollars to support service provision. |
| Independent Consultant | Avni Gupta-Kagan | Simultaneously Redefining the Role of Schools and Social Workers | South Carolina | This proposal seeks to redefine the role and responsibilities specific to school social workers, so that schools both address the effects of poverty and support student learning simultaneously. |
| IntegrateNYC | Sarah Zapiler | Student-Generated Enrollment Algorithm for Increased Integration | New York | This proposal seeks to engage students in reforming the enrollment process through an equitable high school enrollment algorithm to produce sustainable integration in NYC. |
| Iowa Department of Education | Kay Augustine | Elevating the Voice of Those We are Called to Serve – System Design with Youth Engagement and Voice | Iowa | This proposal seeks to design and implement a sustainable integration of student engagement and voice into a multi-tiered system of supports and continuous school improvement. |
| Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy (in collaboration with Chiefs for Change) | Ashley Berner & David Steiner | Mapping the Knowledge Domains in ELA Curricula | Maryland | Analyze an ELA curriculum by “mapping” the knowledge domains that are implicit in the selection of the texts to be read. The analysis and reports provide critical resources that enable leaders to make the best ELA curricular decisions for the students they serve. |
| Learning Heroes
| Bibb Hubbard, Cindi Williams and Erica Felker | Equipping Parents in Understanding Grade Level Mastery | District of Columbia | The proposal seeks to “road test” in a local setting the Readiness Check, an interactive tool that gives parents a “gut check” on how their child has mastered the foundational skills needed for success as they progress from grade to grade. |
| Louisiana Community & Technical College System | Emily Campbell, René Cintrón, Tarie Roberson & Amber Blair | Addressing Barriers for Adult Students | Louisiana | The proposal captures their program, WorkReady U, as part of a system of public community and technical colleges coordinating to offer a series of state and institutional policies to solve social and economic challenges. |
| mindSpark Learning | Shannon Myers | STEMpath | Colorado | The proposal would create a graduate-level teacher certification program in STEM (e.g. computer science), starting in Colorado. This certification program would combine coursework and industry externships. |
| National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools | Lauren Rhim | A Blueprint for Educating Students with Disabilities in Portfolio School Districts | New York | The proposal outlines a vision for a robust and multi-pronged blueprint to educate students with disabilities well in portfolio districts. |
| National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference | Gus Reyes | Preparing Hispanic children for success on their journey in early childhood education | California | This proposal seeks to build a resource for Hispanic families on how to engage with the early childhood system and what to expect to help children get ready for academic success. |
| Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence | Rachel Belin | Student Voice Think Tank | Kentucky | This proposal seeks to institutionalize and expand a unique student-led education research model pioneered by the Prichard Committee Student Voice Team. |
| The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning | Glenn Whitman
| Neuroteach Global | Maryland | This proposal seeks to design and launch a professional development tool using technology to revolutionize how educators develop their understanding of the Science of Learning and their ability to translate research into actions through virtual micro-learning experiences. |
| University Ventures | Ryan Craig & Cassidy Leventhal | Closing the skills gap through last-mile training | New York | To address the technological skills gap, the proposal aims to open up Pell Grant eligibility to “Last-Mile” training programs. Last-Mile Training takes a Design Thinking approach to the skills gap: designing backwards from good entry-level jobs rather than forward from high school. |
| YouthForce NOLA | Cate Swinburn | YouthForce NOLA: Real-World Skills for Real-Life Success | Louisiana | An education, business, and civil collaborative that prepares New Orleans public school students for the successful pursuit of high-wage, high-demand career pathways. |
