Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund

Posted by on January 11, 2010

Department of Education Releases Proposed Criteria for Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund

Earlier this month, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the Department’s priorities for grants under the $650 million Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund, which is part of the $5 billion investment in school reform included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It is designed to support local efforts to start or expand research-based innovative programs that help close the achievement gap and improve outcomes for students.

Individual school districts or groups of districts can apply for the i3 grants, and entrepreneurial nonprofits can join with school districts to submit applications. Applicants must demonstrate their previous success in closing achievement gaps, improving student progress toward proficiency, increasing graduation rates, or recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers and principals.

Under the proposed priorities, grants would be awarded in three categories:

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/documents/Policy%20and%20Action/draft-federal-register-10062009.pdf

* Scale-Up Grants: The largest possible grant category is focused on programs and practices with the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of students. Applicants must have a strong base of evidence that their program has had a significant effect on improving student achievement.

* Validation Grants: Existing, promising programs that have good evidence of their impact and are ready to improve their evidence base while expanding in their own and other communities.

* Development Grants: The smallest grant level, designed to support new and high-potential practices with impact that should be studied further.

Grant recipients will be required to match federal funds with public or private dollars. Successful applicants will need to demonstrate how their programs will be sustainable after their federal grants are completed.

The U.S. Department of Education is collecting public comments on the proposed priorities until early November. The Afterschool Alliance intends to submit comments that emphasize the role of community based partners and afterschool programs, as part of the language on expanded learning opportunities in proposed priority four: turning around struggling schools.

The Department plans to publish a final application in early 2010 and accept proposals in the spring. All money under the program will be obligated by September 30, 2010. Read more on the Afterschool Alliance’s ARRA i3 fund page here.

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/policyEconRecovSFSFInvestInnovation.cfm