USC Rossier School of Education: FY26 Research Highlights

Amid a shifting and increasingly constrained funding landscape over the past year, USC Rossier continues to advance impactful research, sustain strong partnerships and contribute meaningfully to education policy and practice. Further details below. 

Research Activity Remains Strong Despite Headwinds USC Rossier's 28 tenure/tenure-track and research-focused faculty submitted 95 funding proposals in FY26, roughly 10 per month, maintaining a remarkably high output for a faculty of that size. The school currently holds 123 active grants totaling over $58.5 million in active funding, with 33 new awards secured this fiscal year.

Navigating an Uncertain Funding Environment New funding awarded in FY26 dropped 75% compared to FY25 ($5.3M vs. $20.8M), reflecting a dramatically tightened landscape. Federal agencies including the Institute of Education Sciences and NSF have discontinued or archived many education research programs, several active grants were prematurely terminated due to political policy shifts, and private foundation competition has intensified, the William T. Grant Foundation now funds just 1–2% of submitted proposals.

Notable New Grants Highlights among newly awarded grants include $720,843 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for AI-assisted grading research, $300,000 from the Hewlett Foundation for a national education policy survey and $200,000 from Google to study equitable AI in urban school districts.

Deep Community Partnerships USC Rossier researchers maintain 158+ active partnerships with school districts, nonprofits, and education organizations. This includes partnerships with LAUSD, Long Beach USD, Compton USD and Detroit Public Schools — translating research directly into practice across the region and nation.

Faculty Recognition Seven Rossier faculty ranked among Education Week's top 200 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, with Shaun Harper placing third overall. Adrianna Kezar was inducted into the National Academy of Education, Julie Marsh was named a 2026 AERA Fellow and Harper testified before the U.S. House Oversight Committee. Faculty published 44 op-eds and received 97 media mentions in outlets including the Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Inside Higher Ed and The Guardian. Three faculty were honored at the University Honors Ceremony: Mary Helen Immordino Yang for her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Adriana Kesar for her election to the National Academy of Education, and Bill Tierney for a lifetime achievement award. 

Centers Making an Impact

• The Pullias Center serves 10,000+ high school students annually through college advising and has assisted 88,000+ students over the past decade.
• The USC Race & Equity Center delivered an Equity Leadership Academy for 27 LAUSD administrators and has trained 700+ Fellows to work with children of color with Autism.
• The USC EdPolicy Hub launched an Education-to-Workforce District Network with $1.4M in Gates and Dell Foundation funding.
• The Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning, and Education (CANDLE) established the Innovation Lab and COLABs program in 2025, engaging educators across diverse school contexts to reimagine classroom practices based on developmental science.
• A new USC STEM Center launched in 2025 with interdisciplinary collaborations spanning Rossier, Viterbi, and the Iovine and Young Academy.

Looking Ahead Rossier's priorities for FY27–29 include strengthening research infrastructure, expanding fee-for-service partnerships, growing training for students and early-career faculty, and resuming the annual Rossier Research for Impact Conference.