NEA Foundation Allows South Jordan Educator to Create a Recruitment Tool
to Encourage High School Seniors to Pursue Careers in Special Education
Shirley Ann Dawson, an educator at Elk Meadows Elementary School in South Jordan, Utah, has received a $2,000 Learning and Leadership Grant from The NEA Foundation that will allow her to create a DVD for distribution to high school seniors, counselors, and other education professionals to increase interest in and understanding of the special education field.
Nationwide, The NEA Foundation today announced that it has awarded 38 grants totaling $154,000 to support educators’ ideas to improve teaching and learning or professional development efforts. Since 1999, The NEA Foundation has funded 17 grants to Utah educators.
“Our goal is to fund and share successful strategies to improve public education and to enrich our students’ learning experience by supporting their teachers’ best ideas,” said Harriet Sanford, CEO and president of The NEA Foundation. “Public education’s greatest assets are the men and women who inspire our children to learn. By supporting their best ideas, we are improving the quality of teaching and learning for everyone.”
The latest grants, Round 21, were awarded to educators in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
During Round 21, The NEA Foundation reviewed more than 250 proposals received between October 2007 and February 2008. A team of 38 educators, many of whom are former grantees, carefully reviewed all applications and evaluated each one against a set of criteria, according to Sanford. Funded grants were selected based on the quality of the proposed ideas and their potential for enhancing student achievement.
The NEA Foundation plans to fund about 150 of its Student Achievement Grants and Learning & Leadership Grants over the next year. Awardees will be announced in three rounds. Deadlines for the next review periods are June 6, 2008, October 15, 2008, and February 1, 2009.
The NEA Foundation has awarded close to $1.5 million in grants like these in the past decade alone to educators in almost every state in the country.
Descriptions of current and past recipients, as well as details about the program and how to apply, are on The NEA Foundation’s Web site at www.neafoundation.org.
About The NEA Foundation
The NEA Foundation is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization created in 1969 by the members of the National Education Association and sustained by contributions from educators, corporate sponsors, and others. The foundation offers grants and programs that support educators’ efforts to close the achievement gaps, increase classroom innovations, salute excellence in education, and provide professional development.