Education grant competition opens

The U.S. Department of Education has announced the opening of applications for the Investing in Innovation Grant Competition.

Grants totalling $134 million will go to schools to help their students achieve more and be ready for college and careers. There are three categories for the grants — development, validation and scale-up.

The development category can be pre-applied for now, and the validation and scale-up category applications will be released later this spring.

This is the grant competition’s fifth year. The development grants help schools implement new ideas to help their students succeed.

“We’re excited to begin this year’s i3 Development competition to support promising efforts in the field,” said Nadya Dabby, acting assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement, in a USDOE press release.

The USDOE aims to accomplish specific goals with these grants, including effective use of technology, improved academic outcomes for English learners and improved academic outcomes for students with disabilities, among others.

During the 2013 competition, the USDOE received 576 pre-applications. It has consistently been the most popular category during the past four years.

All grantees that receive awards must also find private-sector matching funds that comprise 15 percent of their budget.

The deadline for pre-applications is April 14. Those chosen from the pre-application process will be encouraged to complete a full application for the development grants.

“The initiatives supported by i3 are not only designed to boost students’ success.
They also improve our understanding of what works for students and educators,”
Dabby said in the release. “We look forward to supporting new ideas to help all students — especially our highest need students — achieve.”

Sydney Murray