Rules Set for Fresh Round of 'i3' Grants

$150 million in new federal cash includes focus on rural schools, lowers private-sector match

The second round of the Investing in Innovation federal grant program will be a smaller, $150 million contest for districts and nonprofits that will require fewer private-sector matching dollars, ask applicants to focus on rural schools, and change how evidence of past success is used in the scoring process.

The U.S. Department of Education, which announced the guidelines last week, expects to give out as many as 22 awards in December in three tiers, ranging from $3 million to $25 million, with the largest awards going to proposals with the strongest research base, as in the first round. Applications will be due in August.

Last summer, the department awarded $650 million to 49 districts, schools, and their nonprofit partners to scale up promising practices, with the largest individual awards also going to the applicants with strong track records. Awards ranged from $50 million for the largest “scale up” winners, which included the big-name groups Teach For America and the Knowledge Is Power Program, to $5 million for the...