Formula for a Winning Grant Proposal

With federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind stretching school budgets, it is essential to find additional funding sources, especially for technology initiatives. Grants are one option, but where do you start? CyberBee has written numerous grants ranging from a few thousand dollars from private foundations to several million dollars from federal programs such as Enhancing Education Through Technology Tittle II-D. Much has been learned from these experiences. The examples presented below are general and do not represent an entire grant, which might be several pages in length. These samples of grant language, funding sources, and Websites are shared in the hope that more teachers will consider writing a grant as an alternative way of providing technology resources and professional development to their schools.

Writing a grant sounds like a daunting task. However, one well-written grant that can be altered for different Requests for Proposal (RFP) will leverage your efforts to gain the most benefits.

Before you begin to write your grant, you need to collect data such as student demographics, achievement test scores, continuous improvement plans and information about community partnerships. Local and state curriculum and technology standards should form the foundation of your grant proposal. After gathering this information, create a profile of your school.

Organize a project team that will write and manage the grant. The team should be made up of individuals who have expertise in curriculum, technology, research, and evaluation as well as a member of the community. If you are writing a grant that focuses on raising math achievement scores, then a representative from the math department should be on the team. Ideally each team member should write one section with one person assembling the grant in the proper format. If you are submitting the grant online, formatting may not be an issue.

The needs section of the grant should be data driven and descriptive of the school. Why should your school project be funded? What are the lowest performing content areas that need improvement in your school program based on achievement tests? If the yearly technology survey indicates only 30% of your teachers are integrating technology in their classroom curriculum, what professional development could be offered to increase that number? What other data is available to support where you want to go with your vision statement?

USA Elementary School is a K-5 school serving a population of 335 students. The ethnic distribution of students is currently 3% Asian, 20% Hispanic, 34% Black, and 43% White. USA Elementary School offers two ESL programs at the primary level and intermediate level. Students are integrated into regular education classrooms and pulled out to work with our ESL teachers during the day. USA Elementary School also has both Primary and Intermediate Transitionally Developmentally Handicapped Units whose students work within the regular education classroom and are serviced through pullout programs.

A needs assessment examined academic achievement in both math and literacy via the state proficiency test. In 2003, only 44% of students passed in math. The Math Achievement Test and other assessment data confirmed similarly low success across nearly every grade. Based on our findings, we decided to focus on math, where we need the most help. Technological capacity within the school was measured using the 2003 Technology Assessment Survey. In terms of technology, results show USA Elementary School teachers have both limited resources to use computers in the classroom, and not enough training to use such tools or instructional strategies effectively.

Many schools and districts have goals and strategies for improving student achievement that are called continuous improvement plans. The district will often set a goal to reach and the individual schools will devise strategic action plans to meet those goals based on data from state proficiency tests, subject area achievement tests, and surveys from teachers and parents. In the grant, you should focus on one or two goals.

District Goal: By 2013-14, all students will reach high standards, at a minimum proficiency or better in mathematics. Strategy: Technology That Impacts Teaching and Learning: Use technology to impact the quality, content and structure of teaching and learning in a school that is focused on results.

To meet these needs, USA Elementary School’s project will focus on two goals: Goal 1) Improve measurable student achievement in math and technological literacy by focusing on the weakest content strands; estimation, number relations, and problem solving using an online math enrichment software program and management system. Goal 2) Improve teacher ability to integrate technology into the curriculum through professional development that targets specific curriculum and technology standards.

Have your teachers participated in courses or workshops that would enhance the project? Have you had any experience implementing initiatives at your school? What technology resources do you currently have in place?

Our teachers are eager to enhance their knowledge in how to integrate technology into the math curriculum. Nine teachers at USA Elementary School have been involved in a math and science inquiry program at the local Center of Science and Industry. All of our teachers, including Gifted and Talented, Special Education, and other support staff have participated in a variety of district sponsored workshops.

In addition, USA Elementary School has the basic technology infrastructure to support the project. The school has a ratio of one computer for every five students in the classroom, a high speed connection to the Internet, a data projection system, productivity software, and network capacity for delivering multimedia content. Wireless laptops purchased through the grant will allow more flexibility in our capacity to implement.

With the professional development, math content and wireless laptops provided through this project, our teachers will have the ability to move forward in offering students rich experiences with technology integration into the math classroom.

What research supports your vision? Searching technology journals such as Teaching and Learning with Technology and Websites such as Regional Education Laboratories can yield a wealth of information related to your plan.

Early adopters of online learning have found that information technologies can serve to enhance six kinds of quality learning, distributive learning, authentic tasks and complex inquiry, dialogic learning, constructive learning, public accountability, and reflexive and critical thinking. (Bass, 1998)

Well-designed web-based mathematical models engage students in exploration of mathematical relationships and concepts. This example illustrates the pedagogical directions outlined in the Principles and Standards of School Mathematics document (NCTM, 2000). In the case of mathematics teaching, there is evidence that mathematical objects, inherently abstract, become more concrete when modeled onscreen (Lester, 2002, p.2)

How will you gain teacher buy-in to the project? Will you target a small group of teachers or the entire staff? Who will provide professional development and how often? What best practices can you model from other schools that have implemented a similar project? Will teachers be paid and receive graduate credit?

The professional development plan will be aligned with the Web-based math curriculum and online learning management system for integrating technology into the classroom. The plan includes on-site coaching, instructor-led, just-in-time, and leadership sessions along with web-based training and hands-on learning in curriculum design, integration, best practice strategies, lesson planning, assessment reporting and parent communication.

A leadership team meeting with USA Elementary School’s project team will be held in August and an initial meeting with all target teachers will be held in month September. From these initial meetings a professional development schedule and training outline will be developed that matches the teachers’ needs and project goals and monthly school leadership team meetings will be scheduled.
The Instructional Technology Department will conduct the Leadership Team session, computer laptop training, and facilitate USA Elementary School’s monthly leadership team sessions and just-in-time professional development to increase technology literacy. The XYZ vendor will provide two days of training using the online math content and management system. In addition, XYZ vendor will provide mentoring and modeling for nine days throughout the school year.

The evaluation section is one of the most difficult to write. Goals and indicators need to be identified that are realistically measurable. If you have enough funding, use a professional evaluator for the project. It is well worth the additional cost. Most teachers do not have the time or perseverance that an evaluation requires.

Student achievement data for students will include measured change in proficiency test and math achievement scores for students participating in online math curricula. Achievement will also include data compiled within content modules and ongoing assessments per grade level as recorded by the online management system. This will include formative and summative assessment data for all students.

Disaggregated student technological literacy will be measured against current state standards through an initial formative skills assessment and regularly monitored through skills inventory assessment designed by the evaluator, both aligned to state standard benchmarks and indicators, and will be compared with academic achievement results. The year-end assessment will combine formative and summative inventory assessments with student usage logs, teacher observation surveys, and student surveys that include knowledge and attitudinal measures.

Evaluation tools will be developed to assess the impact of professional development offered to teachers. Online management tools will track the number of teachers participating in face-to-face and online professional development for graduate credit. In addition, teachers will be surveyed regarding their use of online content with students and their views on its effectiveness.

Parents will be surveyed to assess their degree of involvement and satisfaction with online communication as a new connection with the school and their child’s learning.

The budget narrative should accurately reflect the vision of the proposal. Budgeted items should clearly align with the needs of the project.

USA Elementary School will allocate funds for the online math and management subscription licenses, professional development, and computer hardware. XYZ vendor will manage installation and support. They will maintain hardware, manage data storage, perform software upgrades, monitor system security, and provide 24/7 server support. The budget reflects costs for on-site instructor-led training and coaching and web-based training from XYZ vendor. Monies are requested to fund a salaried position for a curriculum consultant to provide 9 days of professional development support. Fees for evaluation services from XYZ evaluation services are included. Evaluation services include monthly on-site consultations, development, distribution, and collection of assessment instruments and reports.

The timeline should also be realistic. If you include every detail, grant readers might wonder how you will be able to accomplish all of the tasks. In a table, list the date, action, and person(s) responsible.

Other sections of grant proposals may include Continuation, sustaining the grant after funding has ended; and Partnerships such as businesses or organizations that will share responsibilities in the project.

Here are a few tips for a winning grant. Be sure to read the Request for Proposal thoroughly. Guidelines differ for each funding agency or foundation. If a rubric is included, match your proposal to it by using backward design. Have several people not associated with the grant writing read your proposal for clarity and continuity. Do not assume the reader knows specific software programs, vendors, or other technical jargon for K-12 education. Meet the submission deadline with all of the required elements. This may include a page with the signature of the superintendent or a letter of support from partner organizations. Allow enough time in advance to obtain these items. The grant writing process may be the easiest part of the project. When the grant is awarded much more work will need to be done to accomplish your project goals. Managing a grant is time consuming. However, the reward for you will be the gratitude of students and parents when technology combined with curriculum make a difference in student achievement.