The Department of Education (Department) is issuing a notice inviting applications for 2023 for the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program— Early Phase Grants.
Donor Name: Department of Education
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/22/2023
Size of the Grant: $4,000,000
Grant Duration: 60 months
Details:
Purpose of Program
The EIR program, established under section 4611 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended (ESEA), provides funding to create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students and to rigorously evaluate such innovations.
The EIR program is designed to generate and validate solutions to persistent education challenges and to support the expansion of those solutions to serve substantially more students. The central design element of the EIR program is its multitier structure that links the amount of funding an applicant may receive to the quality of the evidence supporting the efficacy of the proposed project, with the expectation that projects that build this evidence will advance through EIR’s grant tiers: “Early-phase,” “Mid-phase,” and “Expansion. ”Early-phase,” “Mid-phase,” and “Expansion” grants differ in terms of the level of prior evidence of effectiveness required for consideration for funding, the expectations regarding the kind of evidence and information funded projects should produce, the level of scale funded projects should reach, and, consequently, the amount of funding available to support each type of project.
Early-phase grants must demonstrate a rationale. Early-phase grants provide funding for the development, implementation, and feasibility testing of a program, which prior research suggests has promise, for the purpose of determining whether the program can successfully improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students. Early-phase grants are not intended simply to expand established practices or address needs that are unique to one particular context. Rather, the goal is to determine whether and in what ways relatively new practices can improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students.
In 2023, the Department is particularly interested in projects that propose services and activities that help to not only recover from the COVID–19 pandemic but reimagine schools and transform the education system. The priorities used in this competition are designed to create conditions under which students have equitable access to high-quality learning opportunities and experiences.
The EIR program is rooted in innovation; the program is not intended to provide support for practices that are already commonly implemented by educators, unless significant adaptations of such practices warrant testing to determine if they can accelerate achievement or increase the likelihood that the practices can be widely, efficiently, and effectively implemented in new populations and settings. In exchange, these innovations need to be evaluated, and, if they can demonstrate sufficient evidence of effectiveness, the intent is for these innovations to be replicated and tested in new, populations and settings.
Priorities
This notice includes five absolute priorities and two competitive preference priorities.
For 2023 and any subsequent year in which they make awards from the list of unfunded applications from this competition, these priorities are absolute priorities. Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3), they consider only applications that meet Absolute Priority 1 and one additional absolute priority (Absolute Priority 2, Absolute Priority 3, Absolute Priority 4, or Absolute Priority 5). These priorities are:
- Absolute Priority 1—Applications that Demonstrate a Rationale.
- Projects that demonstrate a rationale.
- Absolute Priority 2—Field-Initiated Innovations—General
- Projects that are designed to create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students.
- Absolute Priority 3—Field-Initiated Innovations—Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources and Opportunities: STEM.
- Projects that are designed to—
- Create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high need students; and
- Promote educational equity and adequacy in resources and opportunity for underserved students—
- In one or more of the following educational settings:
- Early learning programs.
- Elementary school.
- Middle school.
- High school.
- Career and technical education programs.
- Out-of-school-time settings.
- Alternative schools and, programs.
- Juvenile justice system or correctional facilities; and
- That examine the sources of inequity and inadequacy and implement responses, including rigorous, engaging, and well-rounded (e.g., that include music and the arts) approaches to learning that are inclusive with regard to race, ethnicity, culture, language, and disability status and prepare students for college, career, and civic life, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including computer science coursework.
- Absolute Priority 4—Field-Initiated Innovations—Meeting Student Social, Emotional, and Academic Needs.
- Projects that are designed to—
- Create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high need students; and
- Improve students’ social, emotional, academic, and career development, with a focus on underserved students, through one or more of the following priority areas:
- Developing and supporting educator and school capacity to support social and emotional learning and development that—
- Fosters skills and behaviors that enable academic progress;
- Identifies and addresses conditions in the learning environment, that may negatively impact social and emotional well-being for underserved students, including conditions that affect physical safety; and
- Is trauma-informed, such as addressing exposure to community based violence and trauma specific to military- or veteran-connected students.
- Creating education or work-based settings that are supportive, positive, identity-safe and inclusive with regard to race, ethnicity, culture, language, and disability status, through one or more of the following activities:
- Developing trusting relationships between students (including underserved students), educators, families, and community partners.
- Providing high-quality professional development opportunities designed to increase engagement and belonging and build asset-based mindsets for educators working in and throughout schools.
- Engaging students (including underserved students), educators, families, and community partners from diverse backgrounds and representative of the community as partners in school climate review and improvement efforts.
- Developing and implementing inclusive and culturally informed discipline policies and addressing disparities in school discipline policy by identifying and addressing the root causes of those disparities, including by involving educators, students, and families in decision-making about discipline procedures and providing training and resources to educators.
- Providing multi-tiered systems of supports that address learning barriers both in and out of the classroom, that enable healthy development and respond to students’ needs and which may include evidence-based trauma informed practices and professional development for educators on avoiding deficit-based approaches.
- Developing or implementing policies and practices, consistent with applicable Federal law, that prevent or reduce significant disproportionality on the basis of race or ethnicity with respect to the identification, placement, and disciplining of children or students with disabilities.
- Providing students equitable access that is inclusive, with regard to race, LGBTQI+, ethnicity, culture, language, and disability status, to social workers, psychologists, counselors, nurses, or mental health professionals and other integrated services and supports, which may include in early learning environments.
- Preparing educators to implement project-based or experiential learning opportunities for students to strengthen their metacognitive skills, self-direction, self-efficacy, competency, or motivation, including through instruction that: Connects to students’ prior knowledge and experience; provides rich, engaging, complex, and motivating tasks; and offers opportunities for collaborative learning.
- Creating and implementing comprehensive schoolwide frameworks (such as small schools or learning communities, advisory systems, or looping educators) that support strong and consistent student and educator relationships.
- Fostering partnerships, including across government agencies (e.g., housing, human services, employment agencies), local educational agencies, community-based organizations, adult learning providers, and postsecondary education intuitions, to provide comprehensive services to students and families that support students’ social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs, and that are inclusive with regard to race, ethnicity, culture, language, and disability status.
- Absolute Priority 5—Field-Initiated Innovations—Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources and Opportunities: Educator Recruitment and Retention.
- Projects that are designed to—
- Create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high need students; and Promote educational equity and adequacy in resources and opportunity for underserved students—
- In one or more of the following educational settings:
- Early learning programs.
- Elementary school.
- Middle school.
- High school.
- Career and technical education programs.
- Out-of-school-time settings.
- Alternative schools and programs.
- Juvenile justice system or correctional facilities; and
- That examine the sources of inequity and inadequacy and implement responses, and that may include one or more of the following:
- Increasing the number and proportion of experienced, fully certified, in-field, and effective educators, and educators from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds or the communities they serve, to ensure that underserved students have educators from those backgrounds and communities and are not taught at disproportionately higher rates by uncertified, out-of-field, and novice teachers compared to their peers.
- Competitive Preference Priorities: For 2023 and any subsequent year in which they make awards from the list of unfunded applications from this competition, these priorities are competitive preference priorities. These priorities are:
- Competitive Preference Priority 1—Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources and Opportunities: Implementers and Partners
- Competitive Preference Priority 2— Supporting a Diverse Educator Workforce and Professional Growth to Strengthen Student Learning
- Projects that are designed to increase the proportion of well-prepared, diverse, and effective educators serving students, with a focus on underserved students, through building or expanding high-poverty school districts’ capacity to hire, support, and retain an effective and diverse educator workforce, through adopting or expanding comprehensive, strategic career and compensation systems that provide competitive compensation and include opportunities for educators to serve as mentors and instructional coaches, or to take on additional leadership roles and responsibilities for which educators are compensated.
Funding Information
- Total Amount: $273,000,000
- Estimated Average Size of Awards: Up to $4,000,000
- Maximum Award: They will not make an award exceeding $4,000,000 for a project period of 60 months.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible Applicants:
- An LEA;
- An SEA;
- The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE);
- A consortium of SEAs or LEAs;
- A nonprofit organization; and
- An LEA, an SEA, the BIE, or a consortium described in clause (d), in partnership with—
- A nonprofit organization;
- A business;
- An educational service agency; or
- An IHE.
- To qualify as a rural applicant under the EIR program, an applicant must meet both of the following requirements:
- The applicant is—
- An LEA with an urban-centric district locale code of 32, 33, 41, 42, or 43, as determined by the Secretary;
- A consortium of such LEAs;
- An educational service agency or a nonprofit organization in partnership with such an LEA; or
- A grantee described in clause (1) or (2) in partnership with an SEA; and
- A majority of the schools to be served by the program are designated with a locale code of 32, 33, 41, 42, or 43, or a combination of such codes, as determined by the Secretary.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
