Success for All gains $50 million grant

The Baltimore-based Success for All Foundation has been awarded a $50 million Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of Education to expand its comprehensive school improvement program. Success for All is currently used by 1,000 predominately low-income schools throughout the United States. As a result of the grant, which began October 1, the foundation’s network of schools is expected to more than double over the next five years.

The $650 million Investing in Innovation program, which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will support efforts to start or expand research-based innovative programs that help close the achievement gap and improve outcomes for high-needs students. SFAF was one of nearly 1,700 applicants to apply for the competition and one of just 4 to win a $50 million scale-up grant, the highest award available.

The Success for All Foundation will use the i3 grant money to reduce first-year costs of SFA by offering $50,000 grants to Title I schoolwide projects. It will create local coaching support centers in high-poverty districts, improve the availability of high-quality coaching for SFA, and commission MDRC to carry out a large third-party, cluster randomized evaluation of SFA in high-poverty schools. Over the five-year duration of the grant, SFA will serve approximately 550,000 new students in 1,100 elementary schools, in addition to the 500,000 students in 1,000 schools that the program already serves.

To learn more, visit the Success for All website.