I could tell you that you should write a short grant during the holiday break. You’ll probably have a little extra time during the ten days to two weeks that you’re on vacation from school. A lot of grant deadlines are listed for December 31st, so that makes it a good time to write a grant and get it in just under the wire. Also, the competition will be limited, because, let’s face it, how many people will actually get around to applying for a grant during the holiday break?
Having said all that, I’m not going to recommend that you apply for a grant during your break because you probably wouldn’t do it anyway. I am going to suggest that you take a few hours during your vacation time and do some grant research.
The first research I would do is to examine the mid-term assessments you will likely be administering before the holidays. These assessments could be for the district, a single campus, or even a classroom, but they likely contain information that will help you get grant money for the spring semester or summer school.
Basically, you want to identify two types of programs from your assessments. You want to know the programs you have in place that are not as productive as they should be. You set goals for each program at the beginning of the year. The first thing you are looking for are programs where the students simply are not progressing as they should. They won’t reach their goals by the end of the year. You will need to make changes to those programs early in the spring semester, and you may not have the money to make those changes. If you don’t make changes, you are unlikely to reach your goals. If you make the right changes and get grant money to help you, you just might be able to turn the program around and still meet your goals.
You should also be studying your assessments for another type of program: one that is working remarkably well. If you just keep doing what you’re doing, your students will far surpass the goals you set. But what would happen if you were able to expand that program to other students, other grade levels, or other buildings? Chances are, they would get the same extraordinary results. You can use your assessment data to write a grant to expand your services to those larger groups. This type of assessment data can be very persuasive to grantors if you use it properly and make a thorough analysis of why you are being so successful.
The other research I would do during the holiday break revolves around school grant databases. As you probably know, I am a strong proponent of using grant databases. They save an unbelievable amount of time and effort. Discount School Supply® provides you with an excellent free grant database where you can find grants listed under a wide variety of topics. You need to take a few hours and do a comprehensive search using that database just to see what all is available to you.
You would probably be amazed at the number of grants available, the amount of money available, and how simple some grant applications are to complete. If you are going after grant money for a district, campus, or classroom, knowing the content of the Discount School Supply® database can be invaluable to you. It’s certainly worth a few hours of your time on the Internet to explore everything that’s available.
No, I’m not asking you to spend all your holiday vacation working on one grant application after another. Just do some research so you’re ready to start filling out grant applications when you go back to school. Study those mid-year assessments to find those programs which are failing miserably. Then find the programs that are working remarkably well. Repair the failing programs and expand the ones that are working. And finally, do some research using the Discount School Supply® grant database. It’s free and it’s a perfect resource for finding the grants you need.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Check It Out: New Grant Opportunity!
Grant Name: Verizon
Innovative App Challenge
Program Areas: General Education, Math, Science/Environment
Funded by: Verizon
Description: The
Verizon Innovative App Challenge provides the opportunity for middle school and
high school students, working with a faculty advisor, to use their STEM
knowledge, their ingenuity, and their creativity to come up with an original
mobile app concept that incorporates STEM and addresses a need or problem in
their school or community. Each of the 10 winning schools (5 middle school and
5 high school teams) will receive $10,000 cash grants plus professional support
and training to help them bring their designs to life by building their apps
and bringing them to the marketplace. Students on each winning team will
receive a Samsung Galaxy Tab and be invited to present their developed apps in
person—on their new tablets—at the 2013 National Technology Student Association
Conference in Orlando, Florida in June.
Program Areas: General Education, Math, Science/Environment
Recipients: Public
School, Private School
Proposal Deadline: 1/18/13
Average Amount: $10,000.00
Availability: All States
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Funded by: National
Education Association (NEA) Foundation and Nickelodeon
Description: The
NEA Foundation – Nickelodeon Big Help Grants are available in the form of
Student Achievement grants to K-8 public school educators. The Big Help Grants program
is dedicated to the development and implementation of ideas, techniques, and
approaches for addressing four key concerns – environmental awareness, health
and wellness, students’ right to a quality public education, and active
community involvement. The grants target these four concerns as areas of great
promise in helping develop a sense of global awareness in 21st century students
that will encourage and enable them to make a difference in their world. Both
the NEA Foundation and Nickelodeon are strongly committed to supporting the
development of these skills and attributes for America’s students.
Program Areas: General
Education, Math, Reading, Science/Environment, Social Studies
Recipients: Public
School, Private School
Proposal Deadline: 2/1/13
Average Amount: $2,000.00
- $5,000.00
Contact
Person:
Jesse Graytock, Grants Manager
Availability: All States
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Check It Out: New Grant Opportunity!
Grant Name: Sodexo
Foundation Youth Grants
Proposal Deadline: 1/31/13
Funded by: Sodexo
Foundation
Description: More
than 16 million children live in food insecure homes, not always sure where
their next meal will come from. That’s why YSA and Sodexo Foundation are
calling on young people to “take hunger personally” and join the fight to end
childhood hunger. Sodexo Foundation Youth Grants of $500 grants are available
for youth-led service projects that bring together young people, families,
Sodexo employees and other community members to address childhood hunger. U.S.
young people, ages 5-25, are eligible to apply. Projects will take place on or
around Global Youth Service Day, April 26-28, 2013.
Program Areas: At-Risk/Character,
Community Involvement/Volunteerism
Recipients: Public
School, Private School, Other
Proposal Deadline: 1/31/13
Average Amount: $500.00
Contact
Person:
Amanda McDonald
Availability: All States
Monday, December 10, 2012
Grants for Closing Achievement Gaps
In one way or another most grant money is used in an attempt to close achievement gaps between different groups of students. A lot of grants specifically list money as being available primarily to economically disadvantaged students. That, in itself, lets you know that money is designated to help you close achievement gaps.
Since our great country was partially founded on the principle of giving an equal opportunity to all, it is not unusual that a great deal of grant money given by the federal government, state governments, foundations, and corporations is given to close achievement gaps between economically disadvantaged students and those who are not disadvantaged. While it is not usually stated so overtly, in essence, closing the achievement gap in most schools is an attempt to give all students an equal shot at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As a matter of fact, as a group, those who drop out of school or end their school careers far behind their peers are likely to die younger, commit more crimes, spend more time incarcerated, earn far less, and have more broken homes.
In other words, while a good education does not guarantee you fulfillment of the American dream, the lack of a good education certainly makes it that much harder to achieve. That’s why almost all teachers and principals work their hardest to give every child a good education. That’s also why so many grantors give money to those who are specifically attempting to close the achievement gaps in their districts, their buildings, and in their classrooms.
If most of the students in your district do not achieve anywhere close to the national or state norms, grant money should be readily available. Let me hasten to add, however, that if you have gotten lots of grant money in the past and did little to close the achievement gap between your students and those in other districts, grant money may get harder and harder to come by without some drastic changes in the structure and practices of your district. I believe the warning to grantors is, “Don’t throw good money after bad.” Grantors are reluctant to keep spending money when the grant recipients have had little or no success in the past.
If you are looking to close the achievement gap between a campus and other campuses in your district, you should still find plenty of grants available. Again, the key is to show success with your initial grant and that will make it easier if you need to apply for other grant money. This type of achievement gap can be a sore spot for you, especially if your students come from similar neighborhoods and/or from families with similar economic circumstances. If that happens to be the case, it is imperative that you visit other campuses where students are consistently achieving as they should, then do most of the same things they do. If something works, use it. Don’t think that your situation is so unique that you have to invent some new solution to the problem.
Finally, it is a rare classroom that does not have some achievement gaps. These achievement gaps have almost nothing to do with gender or race and everything to do with some students being economically disadvantaged. It’s a safe bet that the class you got from the grade below already had severe achievement gaps from day one. To close these gaps, your disadvantaged students will have to grow at a more rapid rate than those who are not disadvantaged. That may mean they need to spend more time on such things as reading and math, and they need more help in the form of tutoring before or after school. To close the gap, you must provide something that changes their rate of learning so that they can grow at a faster rate than other students. To provide these things, you may need grant money.
I believe the United States is still the finest country on the planet. It can only stay that way if we continue to follow the democratic principles on which it was founded. We must provide an education to all children that allows them to pursue the American dream --- whatever that may be in their eyes. In education, the first step to doing that is to close the achievement gaps between those who are economically disadvantaged and those who are not.
Fortunately, millions of dollars of grant money are spent every year on this very problem. Make sure your school is getting its share of that money and also doing its part to close those achievement gaps.
Since our great country was partially founded on the principle of giving an equal opportunity to all, it is not unusual that a great deal of grant money given by the federal government, state governments, foundations, and corporations is given to close achievement gaps between economically disadvantaged students and those who are not disadvantaged. While it is not usually stated so overtly, in essence, closing the achievement gap in most schools is an attempt to give all students an equal shot at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As a matter of fact, as a group, those who drop out of school or end their school careers far behind their peers are likely to die younger, commit more crimes, spend more time incarcerated, earn far less, and have more broken homes.
In other words, while a good education does not guarantee you fulfillment of the American dream, the lack of a good education certainly makes it that much harder to achieve. That’s why almost all teachers and principals work their hardest to give every child a good education. That’s also why so many grantors give money to those who are specifically attempting to close the achievement gaps in their districts, their buildings, and in their classrooms.
If most of the students in your district do not achieve anywhere close to the national or state norms, grant money should be readily available. Let me hasten to add, however, that if you have gotten lots of grant money in the past and did little to close the achievement gap between your students and those in other districts, grant money may get harder and harder to come by without some drastic changes in the structure and practices of your district. I believe the warning to grantors is, “Don’t throw good money after bad.” Grantors are reluctant to keep spending money when the grant recipients have had little or no success in the past.
If you are looking to close the achievement gap between a campus and other campuses in your district, you should still find plenty of grants available. Again, the key is to show success with your initial grant and that will make it easier if you need to apply for other grant money. This type of achievement gap can be a sore spot for you, especially if your students come from similar neighborhoods and/or from families with similar economic circumstances. If that happens to be the case, it is imperative that you visit other campuses where students are consistently achieving as they should, then do most of the same things they do. If something works, use it. Don’t think that your situation is so unique that you have to invent some new solution to the problem.
Finally, it is a rare classroom that does not have some achievement gaps. These achievement gaps have almost nothing to do with gender or race and everything to do with some students being economically disadvantaged. It’s a safe bet that the class you got from the grade below already had severe achievement gaps from day one. To close these gaps, your disadvantaged students will have to grow at a more rapid rate than those who are not disadvantaged. That may mean they need to spend more time on such things as reading and math, and they need more help in the form of tutoring before or after school. To close the gap, you must provide something that changes their rate of learning so that they can grow at a faster rate than other students. To provide these things, you may need grant money.
I believe the United States is still the finest country on the planet. It can only stay that way if we continue to follow the democratic principles on which it was founded. We must provide an education to all children that allows them to pursue the American dream --- whatever that may be in their eyes. In education, the first step to doing that is to close the achievement gaps between those who are economically disadvantaged and those who are not.
Fortunately, millions of dollars of grant money are spent every year on this very problem. Make sure your school is getting its share of that money and also doing its part to close those achievement gaps.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Check It Out: New Grant Opportunity!
Grant Name: Fuel
Up to Play 60
Funded by: National
Dairy Council and National Football League
Description: The
competitive funding initiative provides money to help schools jump-start and
sustain healthy nutrition and physical activity improvements.
Program Areas: General
Education, Health/PE
Recipients: Public
School
Proposal Deadline: 1/15/13
Average Amount: $1,000.00
- $4,000.00
Telephone: 800-752-4337
Availability: All
States
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