UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Learn about the most recently awarded active external research grants awarded to faculty in the College of Education.
· Allison Fleming, associate professor of education (rehabilitation and human services), is a principal investigator of a five-year project, “Project FUTURE: Focus on the Underserved in Transition Using Rehabilitation and Education” that has been awarded $1,171,636 from the U.S. Department of Education. Project FUTURE is a doctoral leadership program that is a partnership among Michigan State University and Penn State. The program focuses on preparing leaders in the fields of special education and rehabilitation counseling with a focus on transition research and pre-service preparation to improve post-school outcomes for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities from underserved communities. Marisa Fisher, associate professor of special education at Michigan State University, is also a PI on the project. Jonte Taylor, associate professor of education (special education) in the Penn State College of Education, is co-PI.
· Kelly Rosinger, associate professor of education (education and public policy), is co-PI of a two-year project, “The landscape of local funding sources for community colleges” that has been awarded $400,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project team will create and analyze an institution-level database outlining the specific types of local funding sources and state-level contextual factors for public community colleges in the U.S. from 2018 through 2022, allowing practitioners and policymakers to gain a clearer understanding of how localities fund community colleges and whether specific types of local revenue sources serve to mitigate or exacerbate funding inequities within different types of community colleges (minority-serving institutions, rural-serving institutions, etc.). The project is part of the InformEd States initiative, a multi-institutional research team examining the equity and effectiveness of state higher education funding policy. Justin Ortagus, associate professor of higher education administration and policy and director of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida, who received a doctorate in higher education from Penn State in 2015, is PI of the project. Other co-PIs are Robert Kelchen (University of Tennessee), and Dominique Baker (Southern Methodist University).
· Mark Threeton, professor of education (workforce education) and associate director of the Professional Personnel Development Center for Career and Technical Education is PI of a three-year project, “Field-Based Certification of Career Technical Instructors at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections 2022-25 that has been awarded $166,021 from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The grant will provide an educational pathway for state correctional instructors to earn an endorsement for Instructional Level I and Il certification through Pennsylvania Department of Education. All actively enrolled instructors will receive field support, academic advising and professional development while pursuing career and technical teacher certification through the Workforce Education and Development program. PPDC members Matthew Bornak, Joev Fleck and Jamie Lupia will also be working on this initiative.
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 online at: https://bit.ly/3DsQblp