$650 million in i3 grants awarded

The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday, August 4, that 49 districts, schools, and nonprofits beat out more than 1,600 other applicants in the competition for $650 million in grants from the Investing in Innovation, or i3, fund.

Four groups—the KIPP Foundation, Ohio State University, the Success for All Foundation, and Teach For America—won what are known as “scale up” awards worth up to $50 million each. Fifteen groups won “validation” awards of up to $30 million, and 30 won “development” grants of up to $5 million. The winners will focus their work in 250 different project locations spanning 42 states plus the District of Columbia, and 37 percent say they intend to serve rural school districts.

“We got tremendous response from across the country,” James H. Shelton, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for innovation and improvement, said in a telephone interview with reporters. “We were really struck by the number of high-quality applicants and winners who were not among the usual suspects.” Read more about the i3 grants in this free premium access article in Education Week online.