Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Mid-phase Grants

Overview

<p>The EIR program 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 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 larger numbers of students.</p> <p>Mid-phase grants are supported by moderate evidence (as defined in this notice). The Department expects that Mid-phase grants will be used to fund implementation and a rigorous evaluation of a program that has been successfully implemented under an Early-phase grant or other effort meeting similar criteria, for the purpose of measuring the program’s impact and cost-effectiveness, if possible using existing administrative data.</p> <p>The FY 2021 Mid-phase competition includes four absolute priorities, two invitation priorities, and one competitive preference priority. All Mid-phase applicants must address Absolute Priority 1. Mid-phase applicants are also required to address one of the other absolute priorities. Applicants addressing Absolute Priority 3 also have the option to address the competitive preference priority. Applicants have the option of addressing one or more of the invitational priorities and may opt to do so regardless of the absolute priority they select.</p> <p>Absolute Priority 1—Moderate Evidence, establishes the evidence requirement for this tier of grants. All Mid-phase applicants must submit prior evidence of effectiveness that meets the moderate evidence standard.<br>Absolute Priority 2—Field-Initiated Innovations—General allows applicants to propose projects that align with the intent of the EIR program statute: To create and take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment. <br>Absolute Priority 3—Field-Initiated Innovations—Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) is intended to support innovations to improve student achievement and attainment in the STEM field, consistent with efforts to ensure our Nation’s economic competitiveness by improving and expanding STEM learning and engagement, including computer science (as defined in this notice). <br>Competitive Preference Priority for Absolute Priority 3 applicants only (up to 5 points): Projects designed to improve student achievement or other educational outcomes in computer science. These projects must address expanding access to and participation in rigorous computer science coursework for traditionally underrepresented students such as racial or ethnic minorities, women, students in communities served by rural local educational agencies (as defined in this notice), children or students with disabilities (as defined in this notice), or low-income individuals (as defined under section 312(g) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended). <br>Absolute Priority 4—Field-Initiated Innovations—Fostering Knowledge and Promoting the Development of Skills That Prepare Students To Be Informed, Thoughtful, and Productive Individuals and Citizens. Projects that are designed to— <br>(1) Create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, fieldinitiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for highneed students; and (2) Improve student academic performance and better prepare students for employment, responsible citizenship, and fulfilling lives, including by preparing children or students to do one or more of the following: <br>(a) Develop positive personal relationships with others. <br>(b) Develop determination, perseverance, and the ability to overcome obstacles. <br>(c) Develop self-esteem through perseverance and earned success. <br>(d) Develop problem-solving skills. <br>(e) Develop self-regulation in order to work toward long-term goals.</p> <p>Invitational Priority 1—Innovative Approaches to Addressing the Impact of COVID–19 on Underserved Students and Educators. Projects that are designed to address the needs of underserved students most <br>impacted by COVID–19. <br>Invitational Priority 2—Promoting Equity and Adequacy in Student Access to Educational Resources and <br>Opportunities. Projects that are designed to promote equity and adequacy in access to critical resources in Pre-K–12 for underserved students.</p> <p>These innovations need to be evaluated, and if sufficient evidence of effectiveness can be demonstrated, the intent is for these innovations to be replicated and tested in new populations and settings. EIR 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 greatly increase the efficiency and likelihood that they can be widely implemented in a variety of new populations and settings effectively.</p> <p>Applicants proposing innovative practices that are supported by limited evidence can receive relatively small grants to support the development, implementation, and initial evaluation of the practices; applicants proposing practices supported by evidence from rigorous evaluations, such as an experimental study (as defined in this notice), can receive larger grant awards to support expansion across the country. This structure provides incentives for applicants to: (1) Explore new ways of addressing persistent challenges that other educators can build on and learn from; (2) build evidence of effectiveness of their practices; and (3) replicate and scale successful practices in new schools, districts, and States while addressing the barriers to scale, such as cost structures and implementation fidelity.</p> <p>Mid-phase projects are expected to refine and expand the use of practices with prior evidence of effectiveness in order to improve outcomes for high-need students. They are also expected to generate important information about an intervention's effectiveness, including for whom and in which contexts a practice is most effective, as well as cost-effective. Mid-phase projects are uniquely positioned to help answer critical questions about the process of scaling a practice to the regional or national levels across geographies. Mid-phase grantees are encouraged to consider how the cost structure of a practice can change as the intervention scales. Additionally, grantees may want to consider multiple ways to facilitate implementation fidelity without making scaling too onerous. The Department intends to provide grantees with technical assistance in their dissemination, scaling, and sustainability efforts.</p>