·      Allison Sterling Henward, associate professor of education (early childhood education), is principal investigator (PI) of a one-year project, “Police Play in Early Childhood Classrooms in the Era of Black Lives Matter,” that has been awarded $50,000. Henward is leading a team of early childhood researchers from three universities (Penn State, New York University and University of Georgia) to investigate how educators of preschool children around the country teach about police (as well other community helpers) in various social locations.

·      DeMarcus Jenkins, assistant professor of education (educational leadership), is PI of a three-year project, “Cutting Ties: How Three School Systems Respond to the Termination of Contracts for School Police,” that has been awarded $50,000. The study examines how cutting ties with local police departments in the wake of national uprisings might reduce racial inequality and lead to better alternative approaches for poor and low-income Black and Latinx students in three urban school systems.

·      Francesca Lopez, Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy and professor of education (second language education), is PI of a one-year project, “Building Capacity for Education Researchers’ Policy Engagement,” that has been awarded $250,000. The project builds on support provided by the Research-to-Policy Collaborative to identify key education issues with input from school leaders, create policy briefs for school leader use, and create and maintain a repository of all fact sheets for open access on a website.

Information about external grant awards is provided by the College of Education Research Office. For information about all active research projects in the College, visit https://bit.ly/3DsQblp online.