Investment in Innovation Fund: Another $650 million in Competitive Grants Available to Local Districts

As a footnote to Commissioner McQuillam’s support of Race to the Top Funds, there is a less discussed pot of money for Secretary Duncan to dole out to local districts and “others” now called the Invest in Innovation Fund. The Secretary delivered a speech yesterday on what is now called the “i3″ (Investment in Innovation) Fund.

Whereas all monies for the Race to the Top Fund will be distributed through state education agencies, the i3 monies are competitively available directly to districts and non-profits. From the secretary’s description yesterday, the CommPACT Schools initiative in Connecticut, which CEA played an important role in bringing to fruition, would seem to be the kind of innovation that these funds are intended to nurture.

I listened to a webcast of the Secretary Duncan’s remarks this morning, which is available through this link at America’s Choice. It is well worth listening to since it gives further insight into where Duncan wants to take the federal Department of Education under his tenure. The speech, From Compliance to Innovation, is available in print form as well.

There will be three categories of grants:

• Pure Innovation grants of up to about $5 million to try out interesting ideas.
• Strategic Investment grants of up to around $30 million for programs that need more research or capacity to scale up.
• Grow What Works grant, which be as big as $50 million for programs that have already proven themselves and ready to grow and expand.

What will they be looking for? They are looking to support innovations that are both outcome driven and have great potential to be brought to scale. He described these these two broad areas as follows:

First, we’re looking for programs that will be outcome-driven, not input-driven. We’re looking for ways to boost student achievement, matriculation, and graduation rates– and we expect successful applicants will be able to demonstrate some success in closing achievement gaps, moving students toward proficiency, increasing graduation rates, and retaining high-quality teachers and principals.

Second, we’ll be looking for programs that can successfully be taken to scale and aren’t just boutique reforms. And finally we’re seeking to fund sustainable innovation, not one-time flash in the pans. Recognizing the fact that these are challenging times, we still expect that grant recipients will provide some public or private dollars to ensure that programs are sustainable.

While the Race to the Top program targets states and districts, i3 grants will be awarded to districts and non-profits, including colleges and universities, turnaround specialists, charter schools, companies, and other stakeholders.

As I listened to the secretary this morning I began to understand that this is a guy who is deeply committed to his narrative of innovation and transformative change. I could not get out of my mind visions of his predecessor, Margaret Spellings, whose mantra was “what gets measured gets taught” and went no further in her thinking. The morass we are currently in is really all about how heavily America’s educators were pushed in that direction, and she never got it. Duncan is still walking the thin line between standards-based accountability and catalyzing innovation and creativity, and yet he seems to understand that breakthrough – truly transformative change will not come from the top down, but rather from the bottom up and that systemic change will only occur within the system. His efforts to transform his own department from a compliance machine to an ‘engine of innovation’ should be a welcome change in direction.

The proposed guidelines for the i3 grant competition should be published for comment some time in September.