Education grant makers have increased their support for efforts at opposite sides of the education spectrum: prekindergarten programs and training for students after they complete high school, according to a survey released today.
In addition to directing more support for early-childhood learning and work-force training programs, an overwhelming majority of the 91 education foundations surveyed by Grantmakers for Education are committed to advancing equity in education. Three-quarters of the respondents said they target their grants to low-income communities, LGBTQ students, immigrants and refugees, programs to support women and girls, or people with disabilities.
The survey found that elementary and secondary education are still the most popular categories of education support. About 57 percent of the $794 million in education grants during the respondents’ most recent fiscal year went to K-12 programs. Postsecondary grants were 49 percent of the total, and early-childhood education grants were 4 percent.
But support of postsecondary and early-childhood education has demonstrated growth. Last year 56 percent of survey respondents said they support postsecondary programs, an increase of 10 percentage points compared with a similar survey three years ago. And although a small percentage of grant makers support early-childhood programs, nearly 60 percent said they expect to increase their grants in this area in the next two years.
Federal Policy Pressures
Over the past several years, foundations have retreated from political advocacy at the federal level and de-emphasized standardized school and teacher quality assessments. In 2015, 65 percent of grant makers surveyed supported teacher evaluation. In the current survey, that number dropped to 36 percent. And 11 percent said they felt the federal policy environment was favorable for pressing their priorities, while 72 percent said local efforts could pay off.
The increased focus on local advocacy reflects a move away from government support promised by Race to the Top programs that stressed core academic progress during the Obama presidency and a shift toward a focus on the “whole learner,” said Celine Coggins, executive director of Grantmakers for Education. The new emphasis recognizes that what happens outside of the classroom can impact a student’s development as much as classroom work and can involve personalized learning courses that take a student’s social and emotional faculties into account.
The survey found that just more than 20 percent of donors supported charter schools, a figure that is consistent with the survey three years ago. Ninety-seven percent of those making charter grants said they planned to maintain or increase their support. But in recent years large charter proponents like the Bill and Melinda Gates and Walton Family foundations have broadened their support to include expenditures in local communities to try to build constituencies for their work and involve community members in the success of students.
“The top-down, narrow interventions don’t work that well,” Coggins said. “We need to think about what is needed in the community in a holistic way.
The survey also found:
- 70 percent of the grant makers said they would maintain their support for education this year; 26 percent said they would increase it.
- Grant makers’ investment in data systems declined. In 2015, 30 percent provided support to capture and analyze data; this year that figure was 15 percent.
- One-third of the foundations had a written policy regarding the diversity of their grantees.
