During the 2007-2008 and the 2008-2009 academic years, the CRESS Center, in the School of Education, UC Davis, invited proposals for grants to campus faculty, staff, graduate students, and K-12 teachers and administrators. The purpose of these grants was to promote collaborative educational research projects that focused on strengthening elementary and secondary education. Preference was given to proposals that either included a CRESS Project as a collaborative partner or informed the work of a CRESS Project. The relevant CRESS Projects were: Sacramento Area Science Project, UC Davis Math Project, Sierra North Arts Project, the Area 3 Writing Project—and the Center for Community School Partnerships. Recipients also had to include at least one UC Davis faculty, staff and/or graduate student, one colleague in a school (teachers, administrators, staff, parents, or students) and, preferably, at least one CRESS project director or staff member. Finally, recipients conducted their research during the entire academic year and presented their findings to the CRESS staff. Below is a list of the grant recipients and their respective research.

• Collaborative Mathematics with Classroom Networks
  Tobin White, Assistant Professor, UC Davis School of Education
• Healthy Start Sustainability Stories Project
  Gloria M. Rodriguez, Associate Professor, UC Davis School of Education
  Maryann Straub, California Department of Education 
• Making ‘Hands-On’ Science ‘Minds-On’ Science: Connecting Farms, Habitats, Classrooms And Communities
  Heidi Ballard, Assistant Professor, UC Davis School of Education
• Developing Responsive Writing Pedagogy Through Collaborative Inquiry
  Sandra Murphy, UC Davis School of Education
  Shannon Pella, Doctoral Student, UC Davis School of Education
• Sierra North Arts Project – CRESS Grant
  Chris Monroe, Director of Sierra North Arts Project, UC Davis School of Education              Mary Superak, SNAP Teacher Leader