Investing in Innovation (i3) - Development Grants

 
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    CFDA#

    84.411C, 84.411P     		 

    Funder Type

    Federal Government

    IT Classification

    A - Primarily intended to fund technology

    Authority

    U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement

    Summary

    The i3 program is designed to generate and validate solutions to persistent educational challenges and to support the expansion of effective solutions to serve substantially larger numbers of students. The central design element of the i3 program is its multi-tier structure that links the amount of funding that an applicant may receive to the quality of the evidence supporting the efficacy of the proposed project. Applicants proposing practices supported by limited evidence can receive relatively small grants that support the development and initial evaluation of promising practices and help to identify new solutions to pressing challenges; applicants proposing practices supported by evidence from rigorous evaluations, such as large randomized controlled trials, can receive sizable grants to support expansion across the country. This structure provides incentives for applicants to build evidence of effectiveness of their proposed projects and to address the barriers to serving more students across schools, districts, and States. 

    As importantly, all i3 projects are required to generate additional evidence of effectiveness. All i3 grantees must use part of their budgets to conduct independent evaluations of their projects. This ensures that projects funded under the i3 program contribute significantly to improving the information available to practitioners and policymakers about which practices work, for which types of students, and in what contexts. 

    Development grants provide funding to support the development or testing of practices that are supported by 'evidence of promise' or a 'strong theory' (as defined the RFP, linked below) and whose efficacy should be systematically studied. Development grants will support new or substantially more effective practices for addressing widely shared challenges. Development projects are novel and significant nationally, not projects that simply implement existing practices in additional locations or support needs that are primarily local in nature. All Development grantees must evaluate the effectiveness of the project at the level of scale proposed in the application.

    The approach for the FY 2015 competition is to focus on projects that are designed to test new or otherwise promising approaches that may impact a broad spectrum of students, including students with disabilities and English learners. Although the FY 2015 i3 Development competition does not include specific priorities for supporting English learners or students with disabilities, the Department requires applicants to serve high-need student populations, and encourages applicants to consider ways in which their proposed projects could serve students with disabilities or English learners.

    There are five absolute priorities and one competitive priority under the FY15 Development Grants competition. Each of the five absolute priorities constitutes its own funding category. An applicant for a Development grant must choose one of the five absolute priorities to address in its pre-application, and full application. It is also important to note that applicants who choose to submit an application under the absolute priority for Serving Rural Communities must identify an additional absolute priority.

    The absolute priorities are:

    • 1. Improving the Effectiveness of Principals - Projects must be designed to increase the number and percentage of highly effective principals by implementing practices or strategies that support districts in hiring, evaluating, supporting, and retaining effective principals.
    • 2. Improving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education - Projects should expand high-quality out-of-school and extended-day activities, including extending the day, week, or year, or before- or after- school, or summer learning programs, that provide students with opportunities for deliberate practice that increase STEM learning, engagement, and expertise.
    • 3. Leveraging Technology to Support Instructional Practice and Professional Development - Projects must be designed to leverage technology through using data platforms that enable the development, visualization, and rapid analysis of data to inform and improve learning outcomes, while also protecting privacy in accordance with applicable laws.
    • 4. Influencing the Development of Non-Cognitive Factors - Projects must be designed to improve students’ mastery of non-cognitive skills and behaviors (such as academic behaviors, academic mindset, perseverance, self-regulation, social and emotional skills, and approaches toward learning strategies) and enhance student motivation and engagement in learning.
    • 5. Serving Rural Communities - Under this priority the Department will provide funding to projects addressing one of the absolute priorities established for the 2015 Development i3 competitions and under which the majority of students to be served are enrolled in rural local educational agencies. Applicants applying under this priority must also address one of the other four absolute priorities, as described above, while serving students enrolled in rural LEAs. A Rural LEA means a local educational agency (LEA) that is eligible under the Small Rural School Achievement (SRSA) program or the Rural and Low-Income School (RLIS) program authorized under Title VI, Part B of the ESEA.

     

    Competitive Preference Priority: Supporting Novice i3 Applicants - Eligible applicants that have never directly received a grant under this program will be eligible for an additional 0-3 points at the time of scoring.

     

    History of Funding

    Previous awards can be viewed on the program website.

    Additional Information

    Three types of grants are available under the i3 program:  Scale-up grants, Validation grants, and Development grants. 

    • Scale-up grants provide funding to “scale up” practices, strategies, or programs for which there is strong evidence (as defined in the 2010 i3 NFP) that the proposed practice, strategy, or program will have a statistically significant effect on improving student achievement or student growth, closing achievement gaps, decreasing dropout rates, increasing high school graduation rates, or increasing college enrollment and completion rates, and that the effect of implementing the proposed practice, strategy, or program will be substantial and important.   An applicant for a Scale-up grant may also demonstrate success through an intermediate variable strongly correlated with these outcomes, such as teacher or principal effectiveness. An applicant for a Scale-up grant must estimate the number of students to be reached by the proposed project and provide evidence of its capacity to reach the proposed number of students during the course of the grant.  In addition, an applicant for a Scale-up grant must provide evidence of its capacity (e.g., in terms of qualified personnel, financial resources, or management capacity) to scale up to a State, regional, or national level, working directly or through partners either during or following the grant period.
    • Validation grants provide funding to support practices, strategies, or programs that show promise, but for which there is currently only moderate evidence (as defined in the 2010 i3 NFP) that the proposed practice, strategy, or program will have a statistically significant effect on improving student achievement or student growth, closing achievement gaps, decreasing dropout rates, increasing high school graduation rates, or increasing college enrollment and completion rates and that, with further study, the effect of implementing the proposed practice, strategy, or program may prove to be substantial and important.  Thus, applications for Validation grants do not need to have the same level of research evidence to support the proposed project as is required for Scale-up grants.   An applicant for a Validation grant may also demonstrate success through an intermediate variable strongly correlated with these outcomes, such as teacher or principal effectiveness. An applicant for a Validation grant must estimate the number of students to be reached by the proposed project and provide evidence of its capacity to reach the proposed number of students during the course of the grant.  In addition, an applicant for a Validation grant must provide evidence of its capacity (e.g., in terms of qualified personnel, financial resources, or management capacity) to scale up to a State or regional level, working directly or through partners either during or following the grant period.
    • Development grants provide funding to support high-potential and relatively untested practices, strategies, or programs whose efficacy should be systematically studied.  An applicant must provide evidence that the proposed practice, strategy, or program, or one similar to it, has been attempted previously, albeit on a limited scale or in a limited setting, and yielded promising results that suggest that more formal and systematic study is warranted.  An applicant must provide a rationale for the proposed practice, strategy, or program that is based on research findings or reasonable hypotheses, including related research or theories in education and other sectors.  Thus, applications for Development grants do not need to provide the same level of evidence to support the proposed project as is required for Validation or Scale-up grants. An applicant for a Development grant must estimate the number of students to be served by the project, and provide evidence of the applicant’s ability to implement and appropriately evaluate the proposed project and, if positive results are obtained, its capacity (e.g., in terms of qualified personnel, financial resources, or management capacity) to further develop and bring the project to a larger scale directly or through partners either during or following the grant period.

    Contacts

    Kelly Terpak

    Kelly Terpak
    U.S. Department of Education
    Office of Innovation and Improvement
    400 Maryland Avenue, SW.
    Room 4C107
    Washington, DC 20202-5930
    (202) 453-7122
    (202) 205-5631
    i3@ed.gov
     

  • Eligibility Details

    Entities eligible to apply for i3 grants include either of the following:

    • An LEA.
    • A partnership between a nonprofit organization and: (a) One or more LEAs; or (b) A consortium of schools.

    To be eligible for an award, an eligible applicant must—

    • (a) Have significantly closed the achievement gaps between groups of students described in section 1111(b)(2) of the ESEA (economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial and ethnic groups, students with limited English proficiency, students with disabilities); or (b) Have demonstrated success in significantly increasing student academic achievement for all groups of  students described in that section;
    • Have made significant improvements in other areas, such as high school graduation rates or increased recruitment and placement of high-quality teachers or principals, as demonstrated with meaningful data;
    • Demonstrate that it has established one or more partnerships with the private sector, which may include philanthropic organizations, and that organizations in the private sector will provide matching funds in order to help bring results to scale; and
    • In the case of an eligible applicant that includes a nonprofit organization, provide in the application the names of the LEAs with which the nonprofit organization will partner, or the names of the schools in the consortium with which it will partner. If an eligible applicant that includes a nonprofit organization intends to partner with additional LEAs or schools that are not named in the application, it must describe in the application the demographic and other characteristics of these LEAs and schools and the process it will use to select them.

    Deadline Details

    Notices of Intent to Apply was to be electronically submitted via Grants.gov by 4:30 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on April 20, 2015.

    Pre-Applications were required and had to be electronically submitted via Grants.gov by 4:30 PM EST on May 5, 2015.

    Successful (i.e. highly rated) pre-applicants were be invited to submit a Full Application. Other pre-applicants could also choose to submit a full application. Full applications were to be submitted by 4:30 PM EST on August 11, 2015.

    For the 2016 competition, the Department of Education forecasts an April 13, 2016 pre-application deadline based on a March 14, 2016 release.

    Award Details

    9 to 11 development awards are expected to be made in FY15. Awards will be up to $3,000,000 and will last 36 to 60 months. An applicant must obtain matching funds (or in-kind donations) equal to at least 15% of its Federal grant award. Applicants must submit evidence of 50% of the required private-sector matching funds following the peer review of applications. An applicant must provide evidence of the remaining 50% of required private-sector match 3 months after the project start date.

    Related Webcasts Use the links below to view the recorded playback of these webcasts


    • Funding Classroom Technology to Empower Students and Teachers - Sponsored by Panasonic - Playback Available
    • Maximizing Technology-friendly Workforce Development Grants - Sponsored by Panasonic - Playback Available
    • Funding Data-driven Workforce Development Projects - Sponsored by NetApp - Playback Available

 

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