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(a) La Mesa-Spring Valley Educational Foundation Inquiry Grant Application
(b) Rowell Collaborative Action Research Grant Application
(c) Start-Up Grant Application
(a) La Mesa-Spring Valley Educational Foundation Inquiry Grant Application
The La Mesa-Spring Valley Educational Foundation (LMSVEF)’s Inquiry Grant has been established to support practitioner-research in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District. These Special Grants are awarded to teachers, counselors, school librarians, school nurses, and other educators in the district. Practitioner-research in education is research conducted by educators for the benefit of their practice, their students, and their school sites. It can be considered as a form of professional development, and is frequently connected with Professional Learning Community (PLC) approaches. Projects involve identifying an area of focus, forming a question, developing and implementing a project plan, gathering and interpreting data, and writing findings to share with other educators in the district and beyond. A funded project can last a minimum of four months up to a maximum of one academic year. The grant committee seeks proposals for projects involving an individual classroom or classrooms, a PLC team, or a whole-school initiative involving collaborations across professional specializations, such as collaborations between and among teachers, counselors, and a community-based organization. Projects by individuals or groups of educators can be submitted. Grant proposals of up to $5,000 for individual projects, or $6,000 for collaborative projects, will be considered. Budgets may include stipends for practitioners directly involved with the inquiry. In addition, a grant proposal may include up to an additional $500 for (a) up to two days of release time for working on proposal preparation and final report preparation and (b) stipends for research assistants for data collection and analysis. Grant recipients also agree to publish the results of their work on the Social Publishers Foundation website.
Applicants are to submit their grant request directly to the Social Publishers Foundation as an attached file in Word format to the following email address: socialpublishersfoundation@gmail.com. Requests for assistance on proposal preparation and other inquiries regarding this special grant should be submitted to the same email address.
Application should include the following information.
Applicant Information
(1) Full name, LMSVSD school site, and applicant’s position at the site.
(2) Email addresses for all applicants
(3) A short profile of the applicant (Max 150 words)*
Project Description
(1) Project title* [Give your project a simple, compelling title that describes its goal.]
(2) Project goal (Max 100 words) [Given the current context where your work, what do you want to accomplish in this project?]
(3) Project significance (Max 100 words) [Why is this project important for your practice? How will this project contribute to addressing the concerns that motivated this project?]
(4) Project context (Max 200 words) [Describe key characteristics of the place and people who will be involved in your project. How is this project relevant to your school site? Details of context descriptions will help readers see the meaning of your project.]
(5) Research plan (Max 1000 words) [To produce a quality project, you need to have a good plan. Reading and citing a few sources (literature in the field) would be helpful for you and for readers to understand your reasoning for the research project. Then, describe the research plan (with whom, what will be done, when and how data will be collected).]
(6) Anticipated research results (Max 100 words) [What outcome might emerge from your project that will be useful for you and other practitioners (for example, instructional strategy, counseling strategy, or educational tool that can be used to improve educational practice) and your school site?]
Project Duration and Budget
(1) Project Duration (Min 4 months; Max 1 year)
(2) Report Preparation Duration (Max 3 months post-project)
(3) Grant Amount Requested
(4) Budget (Itemize the budget; for example, materials and supplies; stipend)
*Attach a project cover photo and a photo of the applicant(s). A brief version of the accepted proposal will be shown on the SPF’s website, which will be followed by a full research report when the project is completed. See examples of photos in the published projects in education.
(b) Rowell Collaborative Action Research Grant Application
The Rowell Collaborative Action Research Grant has been established to support collaborative action research in K-12 educational settings. This Special Grant is awarded for collaborations involving school personnel such as school counselor, classroom teacher, school librarian, school nurse, or practitioner in a community-based organization setting, for example, an after-school youth recreational program or a community-based service project. Projects can be focused on student outcomes in any one of the core educational domains of academic development, personal/social development, or career development and must be designed as collaborative action research. A project can be proposed for a minimum of four months up to a maximum of one year. The maximum amount of funding that can be requested for a project is $1,000, and of this amount up to $200 of a request can be for stipends for the collaborating practitioner-researchers. Recipients of the Rowell Collaborative Action Research Grant agree to practice Protection of Human Participants and to follow institutional review processes relevant to their work and/or community settings. Grant recipients also agree to publish the results of their work on the Social Publishers Foundation website.
Applicants are to submit their grant request directly to the Foundation as an attached file in Word format to the following email address: socialpublishersfoundation@gmail.com. Requests for assistance on proposal preparation and other inquiries regarding this special grant should be submitted to the same email address.
Application should include the following information.
Applicant Information
(1) Full name, institution/organization, and position for each collaborator
(2) Email addresses for all applicants
(3) Research location (City, State, Country)
(4) Occupation titles of all applicants
(5) A short profile for each applicant (Max 150 words)*
Project Description
(1) Project title* [Give your project a simple, compelling title that describes its goal.]
(2) Project goal (Max 100 words) [Given the current context where your work, what do you want to accomplish in this project?]
(3) Project significance (Max 100 words) [Why is this project important for your practice? For your school site? How will this project contribute to addressing the concerns that motivated this project?]
(4) Project context (Max 200 words) [Describe key characteristics of the place and people who will be involved in your project. How is this project relevant to your school site? Details of context descriptions will help readers see the meaning of your project.]
(5) Research plan (Max 1000 words) [To produce a quality project, you need to have a good plan. Reading and citing a few sources (literature in the field) would be helpful for you and for readers to understand your reasoning for the research project. Then, describe the research plan (with whom, what will be done, when and how data will be collected).]
(6) Anticipated research results (Max 100 words) [What outcome might emerge from your project that will be useful for you and other practitioners (for example, instructional strategy, strengthened student support program, or educational tool that can be used to improve educational practice)?]
Project Duration and Budget
(1) Project Duration (Min 4 months; Max 1 year)
(2) Report Preparation Duration (Max 3 months post-project)
(3) Grant Amount Requested (Max $1,000 USD)
(4) Budget (Itemize the budget; for example, materials and supplies; stipend)
*Attach a project cover photo and a photo of the applicant(s). A brief version of the accepted proposal will be shown on the SPF’s website, which will be followed by a full research report when the project is completed. See examples of photos in the published projects in education.
(c) Start-Up Grant Application
Subject to availability of funds, the Foundation provides start-up grants to support practitioner-researchers and action-researchers in the planning stages of innovative projects that show promise for benefiting one or more social domains, including education, non-profit social service initiatives, and community empowerment initiatives. The Foundation's Board gives priority to proposals for practitioner-research addressing classroom, school site, neighborhood, and community needs. Proposals by university-based scholars are not being accepted at this time as the Foundation wishes to focus its efforts on practitioners working in non-university settings. In addition, projects required in pursuit of a university degree are not eligible to apply for start-up grants at this time. Start-up grant requests will be in the $200 to $500 range. Funds can be used for planning meetings, activities and supplies, but not for research. However, a Start-up Grant application should include a brief description of how results of proposed activities will lead to practitioner-research. No funds from start-up grants may be used for personnel costs. The Foundation anticipates that practitioner-researchers awarded start-up grants will subsequently conduct at least one practitioner-research project based on the start-up grant activities. In addition, grant recipients agree to submit at least one practitioner-research report for publication with Social Publishers Foundation.
The Foundation will award a limited number of start-up grants on an on-going basis depending on the availability of funds. To apply, complete the application form below and submit your request. Requests for assistance on proposal preparation and other inquiries regarding this grant should be submitted to: socialpublishersfoundation@gmail.com.