Experiencing Failure in Grant Writing

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Experiencing Failure in Grant Writing

• Grace Bernhardt
• WRA 453 Grant and Proposal Writing
• October 13, 2005

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Janet Swenson, PhD

• Director, MSU Writing Center
• Experienced, Successful, Ambitious Grant Writer
• Learned about grant writing from her husband

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The Grant

• Teacher Quality Enhancement Partnership Grant
  (TQE-P) given by U.S. Department of Education
• Partnerships composed of an institution of higher
  education with a high-performing teacher
  preparation program, a college of arts and
  sciences, and a high-need local education agency.
  
• Fiscal Year 2005 Appropriations over 68 million
  

More information http//www.ed.gov/programs/heatq
p/index.html
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Purpose of the Grant

• To strengthen teacher education by
• Implementing reforms that hold teacher education
  programs accountable,
• Improving prospective teachers' knowledge of
  academic content,
• Ensuring that teachers are well-prepared for the
  realities of the classroom, and
• Preparing prospective teachers to use technology
  and to work effectively with diverse students.

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Janets Team

• 3 higher education institutes (MSU, UCAL
  Northridge, Boston University)
• In conjunction with each universities college of
  Arts Sciences
• 3 public school districts (Beecher Public, LA
  Public, and Boston Public Schools)
• 1 national teachers organization (NCTE)

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The Teams Challenges

• Developing three proposed models that would
  achieve the same benefits.
• The proposal suffered because of the teams
  failure to overcome
• Physical Distance between partners
• Interpersonal Distance
• Ideological Differences
• The team would have benefited from increased use
  of genres such as email, instant messenger and
  telephone conversations.

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The Slots Suffer

• No slot exists in isolation Each contributes to
  your communicating the proposals primary
  message (Freed 13).
• The teams proposal had discrepancies across each
  institutions methods slot and an undeveloped
  benefits slot.
• A strong generic slot structure requires planning
  and collaboration.

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Shifting Buyer Roles

• Preliminary round
• coach buyer played large role
• focus on qualifications slot
• Final round
• technical buyer role more prominent
• focus on methods and assessment elements

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Successful Collaboration

• Extensive communication needed between grant
  writers to overcome differences between discourse
  communities and develop strong working
  relationship
• Goals and implementation plan needed to guide
  team
• Time management is key
• Ensure coordination between partners to ensure
  generic slot structure is fulfilled

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Further Study

• What do other team members have to say?
• What proposals were funded?
• Compare Janets experience with TQE-P grant with
  other collaborative grant writing experiences
  (both her own and those of others)