OESE Innovation and Early Learning Programs: EIR Program—Expansion Grants

The Department of Education (Department) is seeking applications for the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program—Expansion Grants (Expansion Grants).

Donor Name: U.S. Department of Education

State: All States

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 06/22/2023

Size of the Grant: Up to $15,000,000

Grant Duration: 60 months

Details:

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 (as defined in this notice), 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 higher numbers of students.

Expansion grants are supported by strong evidence for at least one population and setting, and grantees are encouraged to implement at the national level (as defined in this notice). Expansion grants provide funding for the implementation and rigorous evaluation of a program that has been found to produce sizable, significant impacts under a Mid-phase grant or other effort meeting similar criteria, for the purposes of (a) determining whether such impacts can be successfully reproduced and sustained over time, and (b) identifying the conditions in which the program is most effective.

Priorities

This notice includes two absolute priorities and one competitive preference priority.

These priorities are:

• Absolute Priority
  • Absolute Priority 1—Strong Evidence Projects supported by evidence that meets the conditions in the definition of strong evidence.
  • Absolute Priority 2—Field-Initiated Innovations—General Projects 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.
• Competitive Preference Priority
  • For FY 2023 and any subsequent year in which they make awards from the list of unfunded applications from this competition, this priority is a competitive preference priority.
  • The competitive preference priority is intended to encourage applicants to propose projects that involve (as applicants or partners) entities underrepresented in the program’s portfolio of grants. The Department is eager to increase the volume of applicants and partners from entities including community colleges (as defined in this notice), historically Black colleges and universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities , and minority-serving institutions. The Department seeks projects that develop and evaluate evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to address inequities in their country’s education system. The proposed innovations should be designed to better enable students to access educational opportunities to succeed in school and reach their full potential. The Department expects applicants, by scaling innovative ideas, will raise the bar to reimagine schools.

Funding Information

• Estimated Available Funds: $273,000,000.
• Estimated Average Size of Awards: Up to $15,000,000.
• Maximum Award: They will not make an award exceeding $15,000,000 for a project period of 60 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• An LEA;
• An SEA;
• The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE);
• A consortium of SEAs or LEAs;
• A nonprofit (as defined in this notice) 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 (b) 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.