Kids In Need Teacher Grants provide K-12 educators with funding to provide innovative learning opportunities for their students. The SHOPA Kids In Need Foundation helps to engage students in the learning process by supporting our most creative and important educational resource - our nation's teachers.

How are the Teacher Grants funded?
The Teacher Grants are funded by the retail and education credit union sponsors.

How do teachers get an application?
Retail sponsors and designated education credit unions make the grant applications available at their outlets during the back-to-school season. Applications from the sponsors are also available on this Web site.
How many Teacher Grants are awarded?
For the 2005-2006 academic year, the SHOPA Kids In Need Foundation awarded more than $103,000 to 240 teachers from a field of more than 1,800 grant applications. Teacher Grant awards range from $100 to $500 each and are used to finance creative classroom projects. Typically, 200-300 grants are awarded each year.

What is the selection criteria?
The Teacher Grant applications go through a four-tiered assessment process. The applications are judged according to the rubric which emphasizes innovativeness and merit, clarity of objectives, replication feasibility, suitability of evaluation methods, and cost effectiveness. Members of the Foundation's Teacher Grants Committee complete the final round of evaluation of the grant applications in late October. See details of the requirements here.

Who is eligible?
All certified K-12 teachers in the U.S. are eligible.

What type of projects are funded?
At the end of the academic year, teachers report on the outcome of the funded projects. Some examples of winning projects include:

Twilight Zone "Eye of the Beholder" - This project consisted of remaking a Twilight Zone episode in its entirety from the original script. Students cast the drama, built the sets, designed and rigged the lighting and sound, applied the make-up, ran the cameras, edited the video tape, designed the titles and credits, and put on an event for the premiere showing of the completed video.

Charged Cars - Math in Motion - Students designed and built a battery-operated vehicle with a wheelbase of 40 cm designed to be mathematically accurate to travel and stop at any designated point between 1 and 10 meters.

Winning projects are put in the form of lesson plans and are published as a Best Practices Guide. The Guide is distributed to other teachers through the Kids In Need Resource Centers and from the Foundation office.