Walton Family Foundation announces $20 million in education grants

Bentonville-based Walton Family Foundation (WFF) on Tuesday (Sept. 17) announced a combined $20 million in grants awarded to several education groups throughout the country. The funding will help support efforts to make the teaching profession “more dynamic and sustainable,” according to a WFF news release.

Areas of support include:

Relevant, rigorous, highly-effective teacher training programs

• Bank Street Graduate School of Education: To train teacher candidates in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Residency Program in New York to address the intellectual, linguistic and emotional strengths and needs of students learning English.
• Marian University’s Klipsch Educators College: To train future educators through in-classroom residencies and create a loan forgiveness program with the goal of increasing the diversity of the teaching workforce.

Leadership development for educators

• Boston Collegiate Charter School Foundation: To support the launch of the new Fund for Teaching Excellence, an effort to increase teacher-led innovation.
• Profound Gentlemen: To expand its model to provide increased support, coaching and programming for male educators of color prepared to assume leadership positions in and out of the classroom.
• Teach Plus: To build the capacity and elevate the voices of educators in California, Indiana and Texas.

Innovative strategies and programs to advance educator diversity

• NewSchools Venture Fund:To launch a $3.5 million competitive funding opportunity to diversify the PreK-12 teaching profession. Up to 14 concepts or early-stage organizations with bold ideas will be eligible for $200,000 on average in funding.
• Digital Promise: To expand work with public charter schools and districts to design innovative solutions to the challenge of attracting and retaining a more diverse teacher workforce through convenings, new research and the creation of a Teacher of Color Advisory Council.