Project Purpose

The Institutional Challenge Grant aims to address educational disparities and extend ReadUP, an existing research-practice partnership between the Florida Center for Reading Research and Leon County Schools (LCS) that has already informed programming and instruction. Through this project, partnership activities will extend to include another school district: Florida A&M University Developmental Research School (FAMUDRS). Together, partners will use the award to build capacity within the participating districts to generate and use research to reduce disparities in student achievement and school success. Partners will also use the award encourage institutional changes at both Florida State University (FSU) and Florida A&M University (FAMU). For example, programming will be developed for mid-career faculty at both universities to improve their capacity to participate in research-practice partnerships. Three faculty fellows will also generate new projects in areas prioritized by the districts.

In addition, FSU will develop a competitive award program to recognize and support mid-career and senior faculty who are committed to collaborating with community partners to produce research that is rigorous, relevant, and impactful. FAMU's College of Education will also develop structures that support faculty in conducting research that is beneficial for FAMUDRS.

Finally, leaders at both universities will work with partners from the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships to create resources to build faculty and university capacity related to research-practice partnerships and to highlight successful research-practice partnership projects. Ultimately, the team will develop a toolkit and framework to help other public research universities, including predominantly White institutions (PWIs) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), promote research-practice partnerships as a strategy for engaging in public impact research to address disparities in their local communities that also supports faculty advancement, student development, and research productivity.

Intended Outcomes

1. leverage existing partnerships, structures, and resources in the universities and the local Tallahassee community to address educational disparities, in general, and in reading achievement, specifically
2. create sustainable institutional changes at two universities (FSU and FAMU) and two school districts (LCS and FAMUDRS) and improve their capacity to generate and use research evidence to address educational inequities
3. develop a framework and toolkit that constitutes a playbook for public research universities like FSU and FAMU to use research-practice partnerships to address disparities in their college towns

Community Engaged Research Partnership Award Program: Pilot Program

We are pleased to announce the Community Engaged Research Partnership Award! The award program is intended to both recognize and support mid-career and senior faculty at FSU who are committed to collaborating with community partners to produce research that is rigorous, relevant, and impactful. Applicants with a research focus and interest in creating and sustaining collaborative research-focused partnerships are strongly encouraged to apply. This is a pilot faculty award program, made possible as a part of the Institutional Challenge Grant program awarded to the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) by the William T. Grant Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, and Spencer Foundation. During the pilot phase, we welcome applications to support research partnerships with public agencies and nonprofit organizations to address disparities in youth outcomes. Program continuation is contingent upon available funding and program success.

The Application Portal is NOW open. Up to four faculty will be awarded during the 2023-2024 academic year. We are accepting application packages for one deadline: December 15, 2023. Application reviews will begin in January 2024 and award notifications will be made in April of 2024. Awardees are expected to complete their projects between July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025. For more information regarding the application process, please refer to the Request for Proposals. Prior to initiating your application, we recommend thoroughly reviewing the application questions and reviewer criteria.

More information about the award can be found at https://fcrr.org/projects/william-t-grant-foundation-institutional-challenge-grant. Questions about the program can be directed to the Principal Investigator, Nicole Patton Terry at npattonterry@fsu.edu