Grantmaking
We are shifting our Grant making
Principals and Teachers are leading the re-design of education for the 21st century.
Beginning in 2020 Construct will partner with schools who have invested in expanding the creative capacity of their students, teachers, and principals and are actively building a culture of innovation. We will provide grant dollars to schools who are ready to lead the design of radical new ways of preparing every learner for success.
Construct began as a public foundation in 2013. Our mission was to identify, incubate, and expand access to progressive new models in teaching and learning. Our grants focused on efforts to close the gap between how we prepare our young people in schools today and what the world expects of them tomorrow. We recognize that students from under-resourced school communities are more entrenched in antiquated educational models. Our grant making was intended to level that playing field.
From 2013-2019
Recognizing that the demands of the 21st century require us to reimagine, reframe, and redesign how we learn and how we teach, our early grant making went to edu-preneurs (entrepreneurs in education) who were creating new ways of preparing students with the skills the need to succeed. We provided grants and fundraising support that offered nonprofits time and resources to test and refine their model.
Early grants went to:
3toPhD partnership between Concordia Univ., Portland Public Schools, Faubion, and Trillium Family Services. 3 to PhD now serves over 700 students age 3 months to age 14 and their families with wrap around services.
KairosPDX a K5 charter school in Portland that aims to disrupt persistent disparities in educational outcomes for students from communities of color.
Breaker an education non-profit that teaches students and educators how to design and implement solutions to real-world problems. Building local, national, global challenges that introduce participants to a design process that lends immediacy and relevancy to learning.
School Retool is a professional development fellowship that helps school leaders re-design their schools culture using small scrappy experiments called “hacks”
Beginning in 2020 we will fund Intrapreneurs in Education
As school leaders and teachers begin to adopt design methods and mindsets into their practice they will naturally begin to re-design all aspects of teaching and learning. From building cross curricular design challenges, strengthening ties between educators and employers, redesigning bell schedules, infusing design into strategic planning, and building equity based budget principals.
Designing for Equity and Inclusion
Design is a powerful tool for uncovering hidden biases & racial inequities that exist within schools. Design offers the tools to reimagine a school experience that offers a level playing field for every child. We will support visionary leaders working in this space.
Construct will offer grants to accelerate these efforts.
School systems are complex human centered environments that are actively designed. Construct will equip school leaders with grant dollars and the tools that are commonly leveraged by professional designers in order to accelerate the design work they are already doing every day