Investing in Innovation Fund

ED released details of the proposed requirements for the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund or i3 fund. The competitive i3 grants will be distributed directly to school districts and their nonprofit partners as “seed money” to scale up or support innovative school reform initiatives. The proposal was published in the Federal Register on October 9, 2009.

ED will award i3 funds in three categories: 1) Scale up grants (up to $50 million) is the largest possible grant and focus on programs and practices that show strong evidence of improving student achievement; 2) Validation grants (up to $30 million) will target existing programs that have good evidence and need to further build their research base; 3) Development grants (up to $5million) are designed to support new and high potential practices.