Education School receives $1 million grant

The Spencer-Foundation's donation will fund new research opportunities for the school. As part of $12.5 million in grants awarded nationwide improving public education, the Spencer Foundation donated $1 million to the University's Graduate School of Education last week. With the grant, Education officials plan to establish a Spencer Scholars program, for which students will apply upon entering the School, according to Education Dean Susan Fuhrman. These Spencer Scholars will benefit from deferred tuition costs and have the opportunity to participate in research studying educational issues related to the community. Although the Spencer Foundation requires the Education School to use the money for research purposes, officials proposed using the money to study urban education -- specifically in West Philadelphia. "Spencer is providing us a wonderful opportunity to strengthen our research training, to enhance support for doctoral students and to better serve the community," Fuhrman said. "It is particularly great because it is used exclusively by the students." Unlike many research grants, the Spencer Foundation grant is reserved specifically for the use of graduate students. Most monetary donations to the Education School are divided among faculty, student and administrative needs. The foundation awarded eight other grants to universities, ranging in value from $900,000 for Stanford University to $2 million for Harvard University. The amounts of funding were determined by the size of the student body that would benefit from the grant. Spencer Foundation President Patricia Graham explained the purpose of the grants by saying, "Improving education depends heavily upon developing new ideas that work. We need a new generation of researchers who can undertake this formidable challenge." And fifth-year Education student Ellen Foley noted that the grant benefits the Education School as well as the community. "We are all excited about creating a scholarly community and we hope this project will help us get out into the West Philadelphia community," Foley said, adding that Philadelphia offers many benefits for students studying education. "There are a lot of changes currently being made and there are also a lot of problems to address -- one of them being the inequality of public education [in Philadelphia]," she said. After the Spencer Foundation invited the Education School to apply for the grant last August, the school created a focus group -- in which Foley participated -- to present a proposal to the foundation. Following the proposal focusing on urban educational research, the foundation visited campus before awarding the grant in late January. Fuhrman noted that the grant is especially valuable since federal funding for educational research has drastically decreased in recent years. Schools like the Education School have become more dependent on donations from private companies like the Spencer Foundation. "We have competed well for those grants," Fuhrman said. "There has been a general decrease in research funding, but we have just been lucky." Education student Jessie Minier also expressed concern for the decrease in federal funding. "Certainly I think the government should be donating but there also has to be an understanding for the need to cut spending," she noted. And Foley said with the lack of government funding -- especially in the upper levels of education -- the Spencer Foundation Grant is a "great step in the right direction." "It will hopefully bring in more students and help move us into the role of an active research group within the University," she said.

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