Meeting the Moment Together

We are returning from the AERA Annual Meeting in Denver reinvigorated and with a deep appreciation for all that scholars and higher education leaders are holding in this moment. Rapid shifts in federal priorities for education and education research—from sudden mass grant terminations and cancelations at the National Science Foundation to the gutting of the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute for Education Sciences and USAID—have left many in our field feeling overwhelmed, abandoned, fearful and angry. Research teams, community partners, and universities are scrambling to minimize damage and continue important programs of research. We heard stories about research team members losing much-needed health insurance; of long-term community partnerships abruptly severed; and of projects being ended mid-data collection . Early career scholars, international scholars, scholars from vulnerable communities, scholars who do equity research, and those in states and universities with more regressive policies are feeling these disruptions most acutely. It is hard in this moment not to feel distraught and hopeless, individually and as a field. 

And yet, there are glimmers of hope. I find hope in the recent lawsuits launched by the professional associations in our field: a lawsuit brought by the Association for Education Finance and Policy and the Institute for Higher Education Policy; a lawsuit brought by the Society for Research on Education Effectiveness and the American Educational Research Association; and a lawsuit brought by the National Academy of Education and the National Council on Measurement in Education. Each of these lawsuits is mobilizing on behalf of our education researchers, data, and scholarship in different ways. I find hope in the Unite in Advance campaign, signed by Spencer and more than 550 other foundations, which asserts the First Amendment right of philanthropies to give as an expression of their own distinct values. I find hope in the collective statement in defense of universities and academic freedom signed by nearly 600 university presidents at institutions across the country. And I find hope in the many hallway conversations and closed-door sessions where scholars and leaders are strategizing, collaborating, supporting, commiserating, and finding new ways to support one another and be in community.  

My hope lies in us, in our uniquely human ability to organize and cooperate in complex ways, to rise above fear and its tendency to silence, and to find a way forward together in the face of forces designed to tear us apart. We are holding dear to the core principles that every human is deserving of dignity and learning, that education research matters for making schools better and more equitable, and that a strong public education system is the cornerstone of a thriving democracy. 

At Spencer, we are leaning into our commitment to fund high-quality education research and to support work that makes our education systems more equitable and better equipped to meet the needs of all learners. Alongside other funders, we are also continuing to think about how we can be helpful right now, even as we recognize the impossibility of private foundations meeting the huge need created by the gap left by federal funders. 

Towards this end, we, along with the Kapor Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation are launching a rapid response bridge funding program to provide quick turnaround grants of up to $25,000 for education scholars impacted by the abrupt grant cancellations by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In some ways, this amount, in the wake of multimillion dollar grant losses, is a drop in the bucket. But in some cases, it may allow scholars and teams to off-ramp projects thoughtfully, to complete a wave of data collection, to be intentional with community partners, to coordinate with team members to craft a path forward, or to ensure the successful transition of research teams, including doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars. Details about how to apply can be found here. 

The uncertainty of these times and the dizzying pace of attacks on the things we hold dear can be paralyzing, and, still, it is our collective mission to keep moving; to do the things that are timeless; to know that there are eras where things fall apart and humans rebuild. Education researchers and our work are more important now than ever. We will be needed to document the moment; we will be needed to preserve and steward datasets and build new ones; we will be needed to work alongside many others to re-envision education systems to better serve young people and families. In order to do this work, we will need to find ways to be well and stay well, to remain clear-minded about our values and our mission, to move not out of fear but out of conviction, and counter-intuitively, to think bigger and to reach higher, even as we can’t yet see the fruits of our labor. 

We remain humbled to be in community with you; to honor, value and fund scholarship across the full breadth of the field in education research; and to support spaces where we can build new kinds of relational conditions with one another and with families, communities, young people, educators, and policymakers. Together we can rebuild the research infrastructure and education systems that we really need and want; that help us achieve our deepest desires for our children, for families, for educators, and for the future of our nation and the world. 

-Na'ilah Nasir, Spencer Foundation President