Department Announces Highest-Rated Applications Secure Match Funding and Become Grantees for Investing in Innovation 2013 Competition

(Dec. 13, 2013) The U.S. Department of Education today announced that the 25 highest-rated applications (HRAs) for the fourth round of the Investing in Innovation (i3) program competition have secured private-sector matching funds and will be awarded approximately $134 million by the end of December to expand innovative practices designed to improve student achievement.

The 25 grantees were selected from 618 applications, representing 13 states and the District of Columbia. With this new cohort, the i3 program will encompass a total of 117 projects that are using more than $1 billion in federal funds and nearly 200 million in private-sector dollars to address some of the most important challenges in education.

“In this era of rapid change, these i3 awards will help grantees prepare students for the rigor and changing demands of the global job market,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “The collaborative efforts of these grantees and their private-sector partners will further our focus on ensuring students are successful in education and careers.”

The 2013 i3 competition required all grantees to secure private-sector matching funds and submit evidence of 50 percent of the required private-sector match before grants could be awarded. Evidence of the remaining 50 percent of the required private-sector match must be provided no later than six months after the projects start. Of the 25 grantees, 18 are in the “Development” category—grants that support implementing new and promising, but relatively untested projects, and seven are in the “Validation” category—grants that will support building organization capacity of projects and programs that have evidence of effectiveness in improving student outcomes (see full list of applicants below).

As in the past, the grantees this year address a variety of issues, including four projects that focus on family and parent engagement; four grantees serving rural students and communities; and five projects focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) course content and instructional practices to increase student engagement and academic achievement.

A list of the 2013 grantees is below. More information about the i3 program can be found on the i3 website: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/index.html. More information about the 2013 grantees can be found at http://www.data.gov/education.

Investing in Innovation (i3) 2013 Grantees for Development and Validation Grants

Validation
Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, Inc. (NY)
Jacksonville State University (AL)
Teachers College, Columbia University (NY)
The Regents of the University of California, Irvine (CA)
Spurwink Services, Inc. (ME)
SRI International (CA)
Waterford Institute (UT)

Development
Cabarrus County Schools (NC)
Carroll County Schools (GA)
CASA de Maryland, Inc. (MD)
Center for Applied Linguistics (DC)
Challenger Center for Space Education (DC)
ConnectED: The California Center for College and Career (CA)
Maricopa County Education Service Agency (AZ)
National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform (IL)
NYC Leadership Academy, Inc. (NY)
Pennsylvania State University (PA)
Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles (CA)
Seneca Family of Agencies (CA)
Sonoma State University (CA)
The Children’s Aid Society (NY)
The Providence Plan (RI)
United Way of Greater Atlanta (GA)
University of Massachusetts Boston (MA)
University Public Schools, Inc./ASU Prep (AZ)

Cross-posted from the ED.gov Blog