Demand Strong for $150 Million in Latest 'i3' Cash

Even though the jackpot for the federal Investing in Innovation program has gotten smaller, demand for the competitive-grant money to fuel promising education strategies has not waned. With $150 million on the table in the initiative’s second round, 587 applicants are pitching the U.S. Department of Education on projects worth some $3 billion in all.

And a majority of those applicants—more than 300—are trying a second time to win grants when they’re announced later this year, according to data the department released this month.

The i3 program, born of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and extended by Congress earlier this year as part of the federal fiscal 2011 budget deal, seeks to find innovative and promising education strategies that also have a good record of success. Awards for this round will range from $3 million for “development” grants to as much as $25 million for “scale-up” awards. The bigger the award, the more evidence of...