Grant Proposal Seed Money (GPSM) Application form

Proposal title: DREAM to Lead

Submitted by: Merryl GoldbergDate: 2/22/10

Total seed money requested: $3000

Grant proposal activities to be supported with the seed money:
  1. Describe the activity/ies for which you are requesting seed money. Proposal areas may include research, scholarly activities, creative activities, and/or pedagogy. Normally up to a total of $3,000 may be requested, to be used for supplies, equipment, travel, stipends, student assistants, grant writing assistance, or other needs associated with proposal development.

The funds will be used to hire Richard Hunt as a grant-writer for a Department of Education grant application. Richard is the former Center ARTES program Coordinator and wrote our original DREAM grant, which was funded at approximately 1 million dollars. The current proposal will be for another million dollar grant and piggybacks on the DREAM grant.
  1. Provide a budget showing how the funds will be spent
  2. Note that stipends are taxable income
  3. Student assistant requests must include payroll taxes
  4. Grant writer funds must normally request temporary employee salary plus benefits and tax

Total costs associated with grant writing from our last grant (funded!) were $6500. We paid Richard $5000 and Patti Saraniero $1500. This year we will do the same. It was a winning combination. The funds from GPSM will go directly to Richard for writing the grant. The County Office of Education through the North County Professional development federation (NCPDF) will cover the remainder of the funds ($4500). Richard would be hired as an independent consultant.
  1. Provide a proposal development timeline for the externally funded project

The grant is due March 16th (the call went out early February! Our Federal Government at its best).
Richard will be spending the next 3 weeks immersed in the proposal, which is a 40 page proposal consisting of gathering information for project design, assessment, data with regard to student and teacher outcomes, and setting the context. It also involves pulling together data from the county as well as budget. He will be coordinating with me, Patti Saraneiro (lead researcher), Brenda Hall (NCPDF), as well as the Ed Tech coordinators at the County Office. It is a huge job.
Externally funded project description:
  1. Please provide a brief (1 page max) description of the project for which you plan to request external funds, and how this seed money will enhance your ability to attain external funds.

Summary:
Dream to Lead will provide leadership training to site teams comprised of principals along with classroom and arts teachers in support of creating a climate of change to increase academic achievement in reading through integrating arts.
WHO:
  • 5 Principal and classroom teacher teams from same school - up to 4 participants from each school (principal, classroom teachers and arts specialist if possible) This would give us up to 20 participants per year.
HOW:leadership development via:
  • Institute to learn leadership skills (including how to coach) and develop curriculum integrating reading and theater
  • Monthly Meetings to support ongoing activities and leadership skills
  • Web/social Media for reflection and feedback among participants
  • observations of coaching on site
How: Student achievement via:
  • Teachers and Principals adapting and creating classroom projects to teach reading through theater
  • Lead teachers coaching classroom teachers on their sites using projects developed in institute
  • Coaching teachers on using the adapted/created curriculum
WHAT - OUTCOMES: Principals and Teachers:
  • Knowledgeable concerning a) VAPA standards, b)Integrating the arts into language arts, specifically reading, c) philosophy of arts education, and d) research relating to education and the arts
  • Communicate #1 verbally and in writing to groups such as School Boards, PTAs, school or district newsletters
  • Conduct coaching sessions on #1 and #2 to peers
What - Outcomes: Students
  • achievement in reading and arts test scores
  • overall climate of school (this could be really fun to think about how to measure)
  • benchmarks

  1. List the agency/ies) to which you plan to submit proposal(s). Attach a copy of the RFP or prospectus.

The Department of Education, Model Development and Dissemination Grants Program-Arts in Education
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/artsedmodel/faqgeneral.html
http://www2.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/2010-1/011510b.pdf
Though I will be the Principal Investigator for this project, it is in cooperation with the County Office of Education and NCPDF. Per grant guidelines, the grant must be submitted through the County Office. However, CSUSM will greatly benefit both financially and via the prestige of the grant. CSUSM will essentially be a sub-contractor with regard to my time, and funds associated with my efforts. Center ARTES’ artists, and partners will be included, and like our current DREAM grant, we will have a major presence in the County as a leader in arts education research, dissemination, and curriculum development.
  1. Describe the length of project you’ll propose and approximate amount of funds you anticipate requesting and their use.

If funded, this will be a four-year grant beginning in the summer 2010. The use of these funds are solely for hiring Richard Hunt to write the grant.
  1. Briefly describe your prior experience in submitting proposals for external funding and funding successes and/or consultation that you will seek in development of the grant proposal.

I successfully guided the writing of our previous submission to the DOE and am currently overseeing (PI) our DREAM grant now in its second year. I have written several grants and been funded on numerous including several California Arts Council grants, two Fulbrights, many smaller private foundation grants.