The Spencer Foundation, which focuses largely on funding academic research, is funding a new $75,000 fellowship for education reporters (and other interested parties) who want to spend a year at Columbia University’s J-School and produce a “long-form reporting project [book, magazine article, newspaper series] to advance the understanding of the American education system.” The deadline is January 31, 2008. Three lucky fellows will be named by March 1, 2008. This isn’t Spencer’s first try at boosting the quality of education coverage. Its 2000 annual report lists similar, though much smaller, grants given to UMichigan and Harvard for education journalism fellowships. Columbia has similar programs for business reporters, among other things.