James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy Foundation, Inc.
Project Title
As a final grant for the Hunt-Kean Fellowship
Date
Mar. 06, 2025
Duration
24 months
Description
Senior, state-level policymakers have enormous influence over the education system, yet all too often have little background in education policy. The Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows program provides political leaders from across the country with the knowledge they need to cultivate smart and effective education agendas. Currently in its tenth year, the nine-month Fellowship is a nonpartisan platform for high-level state policy leaders to come together with leading minds in education, policy, and politics. Fellows gain the knowledge, relationships, and inspiration they need to engage in critical conversations about education issues and lead on education improvements in their current roles and as they pursue higher office. Corporation support will allow the Institute to implement two additional cohorts of approximately thirty Fellows each.
Website
Project Title
For support of Across the Aisle: Bridging the Educational Divide
Date
Jun. 05, 2025
Duration
24 months
Description
Over the past twenty years, The Hunt Institute has established itself as a key bipartisan resource on issues across the education continuum for policymakers. In 2021, The Hunt Institute established the Across the Aisle: Bridging the Education Divide initiative with the goal of identifying public priorities in education and translating them into actionable policies for states and districts. Through mediums such as polling, focus groups, and annual surveys, Across the Aisle has gathered opinions from parents, teachers, and others to produce an annual report on voter perception of educational issues across the nation. These research-driven insights inform agendas for the Institute’s various in-person and virtual convenings for education decisionmakers, including a biannual retreat for state education executives and their leadership teams to discuss the major challenges they are facing and develop solutions alongside other teams. With continued support from the Corporation, the Institute will produce two additional expanded cycles of Across the Aisle research and reporting.
Website
Project Title
For support of the 2024 Regional Teacher Shortages & Diversity convenings
Date
Sep. 12, 2024
Duration
4 months
Description
The U.S. Department of Education, in partnership with the Hunt Institute and Teach.org, will be hosting a series of three regional convenings focused on addressing the teaching shortages and issue of teacher diversity.Eliminating the educator shortage is a key pillar of the Raise the Bar initiative to boldly improve learning conditions. These three convenings (in New Mexico, Mississippi, and Illinois) will bring together teams (ideally 6-8 teams) of representatives from states across a region, including state Chiefs, Governors (or their advisors) and state legislators, superintendents, teacher representatives, and higher education leaders to build momentum for taking action and making additional state investments in teachers, including on preparing, supporting and retaining diverse teachers and boosting teacher compensation. The goal of these convenings is to support data-driven state and local goals aligned to these objectives, and to galvanize ‘teams’ of K-12, higher education, teacher representatives, and state elected officials to move toward action, undertake state legislative efforts, and break log-jams.
Website
Project Title
For support of Across the Aisle: Bridging the Educational Divide
Date
Mar. 09, 2023
Duration
24 months
Description
Over the past year and a half, The Hunt Institute (The Institute), in partnership with the Honorable Bob Wise, established the Across the Aisle initiative (formerly the COVID Constituency) in direct response to the pandemic and its long-lasting impact on students, families, and the education system. Through mediums such as polling, focus groups, and surveys, Across the Aisle has gathered opinions from parents, teachers, and others to identify a shared set of priorities and lift up demand over a transformed education system. With continued support from the Corporation, the Institute will support state and local education leaders as they consider ways to thoughtfully and intentionally spend down their federal funds over maximum impact by developing state ESSER guides, providing technical support to state leaders.
Website
Project Title
For the COVID Constituency Project
Date
Jun. 09, 2022
Duration
6 months
Description
Over the past year, with support from the Corporation, The Hunt Institute in partnership with Gov. Bob Wise established the COVID Constituency in direct response to the pandemic and its long-lasting impact on students, families, and our education system. The COVID Constituency has sought to cut through the political headlines to gather first-hand experiences, perceptions, and recommendations from those most impacted by our education system. Through mediums such as polling, focus groups, and surveys, the Constituency has gathered opinions from parents, teachers, and others to identify a shared set of priorities and lift up demand for a transformed education system. Additional grant support will allow the Constituency to engage in policy development and implementation with state and district leaders, continue to identify parent needs and priorities, grow their partner network, and implement a robust media strategy.
Website
Project Title
For the COVID-19 Constituency Project
Date
Jun. 03, 2021
Duration
10 months
Description
The COVID-19 Constituency Project will define and identify the conditions and extent to which the shared COVID-19 experience has created a much heightened, public support for bold education initiatives. The project will be based on public, not political, priorities, which will be gathered through mediums such as polling, focus groups, or surveys. This opinion gathering process will inform effective messaging that galvanizes the COVID-19 Constituency – the newly motivated citizens who have shared this experience of the global pandemic and demand a transformation of education systems. Once the priorities are identified, The Hunt Institute will work with partners and stakeholders to shape the policy options that could address those same priorities at the national, state, and local levels. The policies would highlight the needed action and change to ensure our education system meets the needs of all children across this country and addresses long-standing equity gaps that have persisted in the country for far too long. Supported by the visible Covid Constituency, policies would drive the politics – showing policymakers that change is desired and there is public support to transform education in bold and innovative ways.
Website
Project Title
For the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows program
Date
Sep. 02, 2021
Duration
24 months
Description
Governors and other senior state-level policymakers hold enormous influence over education policy in their states, yet these officials often lack any substantive background in education. As a result, candidates adopt positions while on the campaign trail without fully understanding their implications, then feel a sense of commitment to their promises after taking office. The Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows Program (HK Fellows), named for Governor Hunt and former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean and launched in 2014, provides up-and-coming elected officials from around the country with a firm grounding in today’s education needs and policy debates. In 2021, six HK Fellows are serving as governor and six HK Fellows have launched gubernatorial campaigns. This grant supports the seventh through tenth cohorts of the Fellows Program, which includes convenings, site visits, and in-state sessions.
Website
Project Title
For the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows program
Date
Jun. 13, 2019
Duration
26 months
Description
Governors hold enormous influence over education policy in their states, yet these officials often lack any substantive background in education. As a result, candidates adopt positions while on the campaign trail without fully understanding their implications, then feel a sense of commitment to their promises after taking office. The Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows Program, named for Governor Hunt and former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, provides up-and-coming elected officials from around the country with a firm grounding in today’s education needs and policy debates. Since the program launched five years ago, five Fellows have become governors and one a U.S. senator, and alumni of the program continue to enter gubernatorial and senate races. With Corporation support, the Institute will run the fifth, sixth and seventh cohorts of the Fellows Program, which includes convenings, site visits, and in-state sessions.
Website
Project Title
For the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows Program
Date
Sep. 17, 2015
Duration
36 months
Website
Project Title
For a conference on improving educational outcomes for English Language Learners
Date
Jun. 12, 2014
Duration
7 months
Website
Project Title
For activities to promote common science education standards
Date
Sep. 22, 2011
Duration
4 months
Website
Project Title
For the Next Generation Science Standards
Date
Sep. 22, 2011
Duration
30 months
Website
Project Title
Toward activities to promote common education standards
Date
Mar. 06, 2008
Duration
6 months
Website
Project Title
One-time funding toward the annual governors' education symposium
Date
Feb. 05, 2004
Duration
12 months