The William T. Grant Foundation has announced six grants totaling more than $2.2 million in support of research designed to further understanding of the environments in which youth spend their time.

The New York City-based foundation awarded a total of $298,252 to Thomas Dee of Stanford University, Brian Jacob of the University of Michigan, and Steven Hemelt of the University of North Carolina ("Improving Chronically Underperforming School Settings? Regression-Discontinuity Evidence from NCLB Waivers"); $599,996 to Kenneth Frank and Kristen Bieda of Michigan State University, Peter Youngs of the University of Virginia, and Serena Salloum of Ball State University ("How Beginning Elementary Teachers’ Social Networks Affect Ambitious Math Instruction in the Current Evaluation Climate"); $580,000 to Amanda Kibler, Nancy Deutsch, Valerie Futch, and Lauren Molloy of UVA ("Influences of Classroom-Level Social Settings on Language and Content Learning in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms"); and $198,260 to Mark Lipsey, Ph.D., and Sandra Jo Wilson, Ph.D. of Vanderbilt University ("A Meta-Analytic Exploration of Variability in the Effects of Youth Programs"). In addition, the foundation awarded nearly $398,752 to Patricia Marin of Michigan State, Catherine Horn of the University of Houston, Liliana Garces of Pennsylvania State University, and Karen Miksch of the University of Minnesota support of research on the acquisition, interpretation, and use of evidence ("Amici and the Courts: A Case Study of the Research Use Process of Intermediary Actors").

The foundation also awarded a distinguished fellowship of nearly $170,000 to Megan Bair-Merritt, M.D., of Boston Medical Center ("Addressing the Needs of Children Exposed to Violence by Integrating Practice, Policy, and Research"), who will use the funds to immerse herself in the daily activities of Futures Without Violence, a national nonprofit violence advocacy organization, to better understand how community organizations use research to inform decisions about programs and practices designed to reduce children’s exposure to violence.

"Understanding the environments to which young people are exposed on a daily basis is essential for identifying ways to improve their lives," said Grant Foundation president Adam Gamoran. "It is clear from the grants we are announcing today how the focus on youth settings has laid the groundwork for our new initiative on reducing inequality. I am also pleased to see important work on the use of research evidence emerging in what are, for us, new domains: violence prevention and the court system."