Stuart Foundation
San Francisco, California
(415) 393- 1551
The Stuart Foundation has announced several grants awarded to non profit organizations, school districts and higher education institutes. The San Francisco based Foundation focuses on programs that contribute to systems wide educational reform in California and Washington state. They also fund organizations that expand opportunities for children and youth in foster care.
The following organizations received grants in April 2014:
Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation, Dublin, Calif., $200,000 over 1.5 years to expand the California Labor-Management Initiative (LMI), which encourages and promotes collaboration between district leadership and labor unions to achieve sustainable improvements in student outcomes. LMI will work with a set of interested districts and provide school visits, technical assistance, and information about best practice models.
Center for Effective Philanthropy, San Francisco, $150,000 to support YouthTruth, a project of the Center for Effective Philanthropy that administers student surveys to help district leaders, principals and teachers better understand how improvement strategies affect student engagement and school climate.
Center For Teaching Quality, Carrboro, NC, $20,000 over 6 months to bring the perspectives of accomplished California teachers to public conversations about implementation of the new Common Core State Standards assessments to measure student learning that were developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Ten teachers will attend the May 2014 statewide EdSource symposium in Los Angeles, focused on school accountability and performance-based testing, and will communicate their perspectives at the event and through blog posts on EdSource.org. Teachers will also join facilitated focus group discussions and an online practitioner community in order to share successes and challenges.
Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, Berkeley, Calif., $100,000 to support For Each and Every Child (EEC) to implement a set of policy recommendations in California that were developed by a bipartisan national commission to improve student achievement. EEC, based at the Berkeley Law School, will provide expertise on issues that are of current importance in California education reform, and help coordinate organizations working on implementation of the state’s new education funding system (Local Control Funding Formula), development of a new accountability system, and structures to ensure effective training, support and evaluation of teachers.
Children Now, Oakland, Calif., $150,000 to promote successful implementation of California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) through communications, technical assistance, and outreach to key stakeholders. Children Now will provide districts, community groups, business and civic leaders, education reform organizations and the media with accurate and timely information and continue to provide a key role to help the state balance the needs for flexibility and accountability.
Dovetail Learning, Sebastopol, Calif., $200,000 to provide general support for Dovetail Learning and its highly regarded Toolbox Project, a curriculum that helps children in grades K-6 understand their own social development and emotional needs and manage their behavior to be better engaged in school. Dovetail works with districts and schools to train teachers to deliver this high-quality curriculum that creates improved environments for student learning and wellbeing.
Foster Youth in Action, San Francisco, $5,000 over 3 months to support National Foster Youth Action Network’s (NFYAN) leadership transition and strategic planning efforts. NFYAN trains and empowers foster youth, through innovative, evidence-based practice and curricula, to be strong leaders who advocate for their interests while actively improving the foster care system at both the state and national level. These efforts will strengthen the organization’s financial and programmatic sustainability and maintain NFYAN’s important role as a guiding voice and vital advocacy platform for current and former foster youth.
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Inc., Arlington, VA, $60,000 over 5 years to improve student learning in elementary math and science through developing, implementing and evaluating a new program for pre-service and early career teachers that uses the expertise of accomplished teachers certified by the National Board. A new online resource, Accomplished Teaching, Learning, and Schools (ATLAS), will provide examples of both effective classroom instruction and how accomplished teachers analyze their own practice and student learning. Teacher preparation programs and districts in Washington State and other locations will provide support as this continuum of training and professional development is built and evaluated. This project is led by the National Board and Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University, with evaluation by the American Institutes for Research. At the conclusion, there will be an extensive library of low-cost and sustainable materials based on effective teaching and consistent standards. This project won an Investing in Innovation (i3) grant of $3 million from the U.S. Department of Education. Foundation support will contribute to the necessary private sector match.
Parent Teacher Home Visit Project, Sacramento, Calif., $150,000 to support the Academic Parent-Teacher Team program in the Sacramento City Unified School District to improve student achievement by strengthening teachers’ connections with students and families so that parents can provide targeted instructional support at home. Teachers conduct group meetings for parents during the school year to review Common Core standards, examine student data, demonstrate activities for parents and students to do at home, and set academic goals based on students’ individual needs. The program will expand the number of participating teachers and school served, as well as document the efficacy of the intervention.
Pivot Learning Partners, San Francisco, $150,000 to build the capacity of school districts to meet California’s new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) requirements for undertaking three-year planning and budgeting with the engagement of the community. Pivot will provide intensive training to school districts to ensure they understand the nuts and bolts of LCFF and how to design and carry out a process for creating a Local Control Accountability Plan.
Policy Innovators in Education Network, $100,000 to support the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network, which includes 45 education policy organizations and leading reformers in 28 states, including six organizations in California and Washington, which work on state-level issues and share a commitment to common K-12 education reforms.
Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, $28,500 0ver 6 months for a large-scale public opinion survey of California adults on K-12 public education issues to inform state policymakers and provide a greater voice to all Californians.
Research Triangle Institute, North Carolina, $60,000 to support the first step in the development of a California College Pathways robust shared measurement system, Research Triangle Institute International (RTI) will conduct a baseline analysis of foster youth data from approximately 30 campuses participating in 10 multi-campus networks throughout the state. This baseline analysis will support the building of campuses capacity to monitor student progress, modify institutional practices and policies that impede student progress, and ultimately improve foster youth outcomes.
San Francisco Unified School District, $200,000 over 1.5 years to support implementation of Vision 2025, the San Francisco Unified School District’s new comprehensive plan to ensure that students graduate ready to thrive in college and careers. The district’s Board of Education and Superintendent brought together educators, businesses, government partners, community organizations, and families to identify the qualities, knowledge and skills that graduates will need to succeed in the San Francisco Bay Area and to build a road map for improvement.
Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., $100,000 to support Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), an independent and non-partisan research center that works to define and sustain a long-term strategy for continuous improvement at all levels of the California education system.
University of California, Davis, $150,000 to build a cadre of former foster youth with advanced degrees who embark on esteemed professional careers, the UC Davis Guardian Professions Program (GPP) will engage in a two-pronged recruitment and retention approach. The program will outreach to former foster youth undergraduates across the state and provide comprehensive guidance and concrete supports to students with the qualifications to gain admittance into graduate programs at UC Davis or other accredited universities. Once students are enrolled, GPP will ensure that they receive ongoing academic and professional support while they work to complete their programs and pursue their career goals.
University of California, Los Angeles, $60,000 over 6 months to support local budgeting and strategic planning in the Los Angeles Unified School District through research and community engagement.