A centerpiece of the $500 million Annenberg Challenge was a series of matching grants made between January 1995 and January 1997 to improve schools in nine large urban areas. Each grant had to be matched two-for-one by money raised from other sources, except for the Los Angeles project, which required only a dollar-for-dollar match. A summary of project goals follows.
| Bay Area $25 million | Create a regional learning collaborative of schools, districts, and support provider organizations |
| Boston $10 million | Boston Support superintendent-led effort for whole-school change in all district schools |
| Chicago $49.2 million | Foster small learning communities, reorganize teaching time, and reduce isolation of teachers, students, and schools |
| Detroit $20 million | Improve relationships between students and teachers and between schools and their communities and districts |
| Houston $20 million | Reform public education with emphasis on class size, reducing isolation, and teacher learning |
| Los Angeles $53 million | Promote stability and coherence across “families” of K-12: improve literacy |
| New York City $25 million | Create new and support existing small schools of; expand district support for small schools |
| Philadelphia $50 million | Support districtwide, superintendent-led, 10-point plan built around new citywide learning standards |
| South Florida 33.4 million | Foster comprehensive school change and improved student achievement through a variety of strategies |
SOURCE: Annenberg Challenge
