Funding, Grants & Awards | News

Ed Names i3 Grant Winners

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 11/13/13

The United States Department of Education will award more than $135 million to 25 applicants in the fourth round of the Investing in Innovation (i3) competition. In order to receive the funds, the winners will be required to secure matching funds by December 11.

This year's winning applications deal with issues such as "initiatives for training parents and families in the skills and strategies that support their children's educational growth, and redesigning science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) course content and instructional practices to engage students and increase their academic achievement," according to a news release.

"In this era of rapid change, we must make sure that our students are keeping pace with the rigor, relevance and changing demands of the global job market," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in a prepared statement. "I am encouraged by the innovative ideas to accelerate student achievement demonstrated in these applications."

In the three previous rounds, projects in three categories, development, validation, and scale up, were eligible for funding. In the latest round, the department decided to focus on only the development and validation categories.

The 18 winners in the development category are:

• Cabarrus County Schools;
• Carroll County Schools;
• CASA de Maryland;
• Center for Applied Linguistics;
• Challenger Center for Space Education;
• ConnectED: The California Center for College and Career;
• Maricopa County Education Service Agency;
• National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform;
• NYC Leadership Academy;
• Pennsylvania State University;
• Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles;
• Seneca Family of Agencies;
• Sonoma State University;
• The Children's Aid Society;
• The Providence Plan;
• United Way of Greater Atlanta;
• University of Massachusetts Boston; and
• University Public Schools.

The seven winners in the validation category are:

• Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound;
• Jacksonville State University;
• Teachers College, Columbia University;
• The Regents of the University of California;
• Spurwink Services;
• SRI International; and
• Waterford Institute.

Candidates for i3 awards must raise 50 percent of their matching funds before any federal money is disbursed and provide evidence that they have received the other half within six months of the project's start date. If all of this year's winners raise their matching funds, there will be 117 i3 grantees working with "more than $1 billion in federal funds to address some of the most important challenges in education," according to information released by the department.

"The fourth round of the i3 competition continues to demonstrate that there are organizations across the country that are eager to implement a wide range of innovative and effective practices to improve educational outcomes for students," said Acting Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Nadya Chinoy Dabby, in a prepared statement. "Each year, we are able to grow the portfolio of solutions and the body of evidence that supports these practices."

More information about the i3 grant program is available at ed.gov.