Two Learning Impact Fund education grant rounds, with a total of $1 million available for successful applicants, opened on 27 July 2016. The first round is open to any education programs designed to improve the academic achievement of children in Australia. The second round is for programs focused on building resilience skills in students in Victorian schools.
The Learning Impact Fund is an initiative of the recently launched Evidence for Learning (E4L) and is designed to identify, fund, evaluate and scale Australia’s most effective education programs. It addresses the lack of rigorous evidence on the cost and effectiveness of educational practice in Australian schools.
The resilience round offers grants for program evaluation, and is a co-investment from E4L and VicHealth. VicHealth has contributed $100,000 for program implementation and E4L, $50,000 for evaluation. The aim is to identify promising school-based initiatives that build social and emotional learning and resilience in Victorian students, which also improve academic achievement.
E4L invites education program developers to apply for both grant rounds, including non-profit and for-profit organisations, Catholic education offices, charities, universities, government bodies and social enterprises.
Evidence for Learning’s Director, Matt Deeble, commented:
‘We want to empower educators with the very best information to make decisions about which programs and approaches to implement in their schools. Through initiatives like the Learning Impact Fund, E4L is working to identify, fund and evaluate Australia’s most effective education programs, so that all students, regardless of background, can achieve to the very best of their ability.’
Martin Westwell, Strategic Professor at Flinders University and Chair of the Learning Impact Fund’s Research Use and Evaluation Committee, shared the importance of funding and evaluating programs to build new evidence on Australian education approaches.
‘The Learning Impact Fund will aim to raise the academic achievement of children in Australia, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. If we strengthen the evidence base we can identify and support the scale and growth of those programs which show how we can raise academic achievement. I encourage education program developers to apply to the Learning Impact Fund’.
VicHealth CEO Jerril Rechter said:
‘Almost 75 per cent of mental illness begins before 25 years of age so it’s crucial we take a preventative focus and proactively work to build resilience. In the 21st century young people will face a range of challenges including a more competitive job market, growth in technology and overexposure to online content so it’s important to build resilience early to help young people cope with life’s up and downs.’
Applications are open until 5 October 2016.
For more information on the Learning Impact Fund visit: http://evidenceforlearning.org.au/
