Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Mid-phase Grants

Overview

<p>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 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>For FY 2020, the Department will award two types of grants: “Early-phase” grants and “Mid-phase” grants. 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. Mid-phase grants are supported by evidence that demonstrates a statistically significant effect on improving student outcomes or other relevant outcomes (as defined in this notice) based on moderate evidence (as defined in this notice) from at least one well-designed and well-implemented experimental study or quasi-experimental design study (as defined in this notice) for at least one population or setting, and grantees are encouraged to implement at the regional level (as defined in this notice) or at the national level (as defined in this notice).</p> <p>The FY 2020 Mid-phase competition includes three absolute priorities. All Mid-phase applicants must address Absolute Priority 1. Mid-phase applicants are also required to address one of the other two absolute priorities. Under the Mid-phase grant competition, Absolute Priorities 2 and 3 constitute their own funding categories. <br><strong></strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Absolute Priority 1</strong>—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.</li> <li><strong>Absolute Priority 2</strong>—Field-Initiated Innovations—Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM). <span>The Department recognizes the importance of funding Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) through grade 12 STEM education and anticipates that projects would expand opportunities for underrepresented students such as minorities, girls, and youth from low-income families to participate in activities that will help reduce achievement and attainment gaps in a manner consistent with nondiscrimination requirements contained in the U.S. Constitution and Federal civil rights laws. The Department also encourages expanding access to STEM education in rural areas, especially through partnerships with rural school districts to utilize virtual and remote access to makerspace technologies, such as 3-D printers, to expand opportunities for students in rural areas where such tools are often cost prohibitive. Under the priority, we provide funding to projects that are designed to— </span>(1) 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 (2) Improve student achievement or other educational outcomes in one or more of the following areas: science, technology, engineering, math, or computer science.</li> <li><strong>Absolute Priority 3</strong>—Field-Initiated Innovations—Fostering Knowledge and Promoting the Development of Skills That Prepare Students To Be Informed, Thoughtful, and Productive Individuals and Citizens—is intended to advance innovation, build evidence, and address the learning and achievement of high-need students beginning in Pre-K through grade 12. The priority promotes skills that prepare students to be informed, thoughtful, and productive individuals and citizens and that are vital to maintaining a strong republic and to supporting the economic competitiveness of the United States. Through this priority, the Department responds to language in the explanatory statement for the FY 2020 Appropriations Act directing the Department to provide $65,000,000 in grants for social and emotional learning (SEL). Under the priority, we provide funding to projects that are designed to—(1) 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 (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:</li> </ul> <p>                    (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><span>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.</span></p> <p><span>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.</span></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>