Recently, a report from Nimble Press provides information on the type of grant material that K-12 teachers are looking for. To gather this information Nimble Press looked at the activity at Grant Wrangler and the activity of the Nimble Press subscribers to determine which academic areas have the greatest interest.

Grant Wrangler specializes in gathering grants for teachers and making it easier to find funds for education. Their motto is, “Find Funding Fast for K-12 Schools.” In 2009, Grant Wrangler listed more than $166 million in grants directed for teachers, students, administrators, schools, and nonprofits. Nimble Press provides an online grant management system for grant givers. Nimble Press analysis of grant requests and views in Grant Wrangler provides a sense of what teachers need for their classrooms. This year teachers responded that they are looking especially for technology, literacy, and science grants.

The Grant Wrangler Survey revealed that 67% of survey takers were basically looking for a variety of classroom resources and 57% are likely to search for academic enrichment grants. Those numbers were almost identical in 2008, when 67% of respondents sought classroom resources, and 58% sought academic enrichment grants.

The most popular rolling deadline grant is Computers for Learning, which is non-subject specific and appeals to all grade levels. The most popular grant with a fixed deadline is Technology Grants for Rural Schools. The grant offers $1,000 to $10,000 to schools located within an OPASTCO (rural telecom) service area.

The types of grants available and the types of grants sought by teachers shows that in both categories, technology is the main interest.

Types of Grants Sought by Teachers

Types of Grants Available to Teachers (Number of grants per subject)

Page Views per subject

Page Views by Grade

Elementary school grants attract around 5% more than preschool grants, 7% more than middle school grants and 10% more than high school grants.

Middle and Elementary Teachers Seeking More Grants

High school teachers seek the most grants requesting about 420 per grade level, followed by middle school with 410, and elementary school at about 390, and less than 70 for pre-school.

Conclusions

By looking at the data from the Grant Wrangler survey, it is possible to get a window on what US teachers want to enable student progress. Given six subject areas – art, history and social studies, literacy, math, science and technology – the majority of teachers are looking for material that helps them teach and use technology. Science, mathematics, and literacy follow close behind, and also have the highest click-thru-rates per grant.

 

Source: What Teachers Want: Grant Priorities in 2009