Guidelines

The Education Program works to close the achievement gaps that separate low-income and minority children from their peers by improving the quality of teachers they encounter in school, enhancing early reading policies, and exploring such innovations as charter schools.

Program priorities are:

Teacher Quality: The Foundation supports efforts to improve federal, state, and district policies so that high-need schools in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis can attract and retain first-rate teachers. Efforts include research, policy development, advocacy, and evaluation related to reform of recruiting and hiring systems, alternative routes into teaching, teacher support, reform of teacher and principal evaluation and tenure systems, and reform of teacher compensation and pension systems.

Early Reading: The Foundation supports policy initiatives to ensure that students read well by the end of third grade to help close the achievement gap. Efforts include research, public education, policy development, and advocacy designed to:

• Create more effective policies and measures of student and teacher performance on important reading skills in grades pre-K–3.
• Provide pre-K–3 teachers with more training before and after they enter the classroom on how to most effectively teach reading.
• Integrate effective early reading policies with other Joyce Foundation teacher quality strategies.

Innovation Grants: A small portion of program funds is reserved for other outstanding opportunities to close the achievement gap, especially policy-oriented efforts to expand the supply of high-quality charter schools in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis.