Update on i3 Announcement of Highest-Rated Applicants

• The U.S. Department of Education (Department) received nearly 1,700 applications for the i3 competition. We are pleased to share that we will announce the names of the highest-rated applicants on August 5th, 2010. At that time, we will post a press release on the Department’s website, as well as share further guidance on the required 20% private-sector match. Evidence of this match must be submitted to the Department by September 8th, 2010.

  In accordance with the Department’s ongoing commitment to transparency, the peer reviewers’ comments and scores for all highest-rated applications will also be posted on the i3 Web site on August 5th, 2010. In addition, we will simultaneously post all of the narratives for the highest-rated Scale-Up applications. The narratives for the highest-rated Validation and Development applications will be posted as soon as possible. Consistent with the Department’s practices for releasing such information, these documents will be redacted, where appropriate, to protect privacy information about an individual and proprietary information.

  While summary information on all applicants is available on data.ed.gov, we encourage all highest-rated applicants to take advantage of tools such as the Open Innovation Portal (innovation.ed.gov) and the Foundation Registry i3 (foundationregistryi3.org), to provide as much information as possible about their applications to a wide variety of potential funders (see Securing the i3 Private-Sector Match: A Resource for Applicants).

  We also direct your attention to a newly created document that explains the i3 review and selection process. MS Word (88KB)

• Department of Education announces launch of data.ed.gov, which makes detailed information about i3 applications received available.

• View the Summary of i3 Applications Received here PDF (381KB)

• Securing the i3 Private-Sector Match: A Resource for Applicants (May 7, 2010)
  PDF (96KB) | MS Word (48KB)

Program Office: Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII)

CFDA Number: 84.396A (Scale-up grants); 84.396B (Validation grants); 84.396C (Development grants)

Program Type: Cooperative agreements (for Scale-up grants) and discretionary grants (for Validation grants and Development grants)

Program Description: The Investing in Innovation Fund, established under section 14007 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), provides funding to support (1) local educational agencies (LEAs), and (2) nonprofit organizations in partnership with (a) one or more LEAs or (b) a consortium of schools. The purpose of this program is to provide competitive grants to applicants with a record of improving student achievement and attainment in order to expand the implementation of, and investment in, innovative practices that are demonstrated to have an impact 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.

These grants will (1) allow eligible entities to expand and develop innovative practices that can serve as models of best practices, (2) allow eligible entities to work in partnership with the private sector and the philanthropic community, and (3) identify and document best practices that can be shared and taken to scale based on demonstrated success.