U.S. Department of Education Announces Start of 2014 Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant Competition


Last Updated: March 25, 2014
 

Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

The i3 grant competition continues to develop and expand practices that accelerate student achievement and prepare every student to succeed in college and in their careers. The i3 program includes three grant categories: Development, Validation and Scale-up. The Department plans to announce applications for the Validation and Scale-up categories this spring.

Similar to last year, this competition continues to use broad priorities in addition to more detailed subparts that target specific needs. This structure allows the i3 program to build a portfolio of solutions and corresponding evidence for different approaches to addressing key challenges in public education. This year's priorities for the Development grant category are: Effective Use of Technology, Improving Academic Outcomes for English Learners (ELs), Improving Academic Outcomes for Students with Disabilities, Improving the Effectiveness of Teachers or Principals, Improving Low-Performing Schools, and Serving Rural Communities.

The Development category, which funds grantees with promising but relatively untested ideas, has been the most popular grant category throughout the previous four i3 competitions. The previous two Development competitions have used a pre-application to reduce the burden on potential applicants and encourage a wider range of applications. For the 2013 i3 Development competition, the Department received 576 pre-applications.

The deadline for the pre-application is April 14, 2014. Following the peer review process, the Department will announce a list of the highly rated pre-applications. These pre-applicants will then be invited to apply for the Development competition and given additional time to complete their full application.

To learn more about the i3 grant program and the pre-application process, please visit the i3 web site at Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund