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Leadership and Professional Development Grants

Equity-Centered Professional Learning Community Grants

This year the Education Fund has revised its grant-making strategy to deepen its impact. We are moving away from providing numerous smaller grants and have made larger grants (approximately $10,000 per school) to fewer schools. The program aims to sharpen its focus on closing the achievement and opportunity gaps for students in SFUSD, by supporting ten teams of teachers to develop Equity-Centered Professional Learning Communities (ECPLC’s) that focus on making gains in student outcomes around English language literacy. These grants support and improve teacher quality by investing more deeply in teacher learning. Teacher quality is the primary factor impacting student achievement. We believe that the most effective forms of teacher professional development are teacher driven, on-going, focused on student data, and support teacher collaboration and teacher leadership.

Program History

Since 1979, the Leadership and Professional Development (LPD) Grants program has been awarding grants directly to pre-K through 12th grade educators (including teachers, counselors, librarians, and other certificated personnel) in the SFUSD to support innovative teaching and learning. The LPD Grants program is founded on our conviction that teachers can be catalysts for change leading to improved outcomes for students; to that end, the program has supported innovative learning opportunities for teachers and students alike, incorporating community partners, parents, and classified personnel when appropriate.

LPD Grants have been awarded directly to teachers for unique and innovative classroom projects and teacher learning. This investment in teacher leadership and professional development leads to positive, more equitable outcomes for all students in San Francisco’s public schools. As one teacher commented, “[Our LPD Grant project] has given us a space to analyze and interrogate our teaching practices as well as come up with new ideas from each other. Often there is only enough time for a discussion pertaining to what we will teach. This project, via teacher collaboration, has allowed us to focus on how we will teach.”

Application Process

The application process for the current two year grant cycle (2009-2010 and 2010-2011) is closed. Our current grants to develop teacher-led Equity Centered Professional Learning Communities are in progress. We expect to announce the next grants cycle and a call for new proposals in early spring 2011. Thank you for your interest in the San Francisco Education Fund’s teacher grants program.

Other Grants

If you are interested in learning about other funding opportunities, please check out these Grants and Funding resources.

For more information, contact Lianna Wright, Teacher Professional Development Grants Associate.