Nearly 600 school districts, nonprofits, and groups of schools applied for the second round of the Investing in Innovation grant competition, designed by the U.S. Department of Education to find and scale-up the most promising education improvement ideas.
Both the number of applicants, 587, and the dollars available, $150 million, were much smaller than in last year’s competition, when 1,669 groups applied for a share of $650 million. Forty-nine winners eventually split that money. The awards, funded by a congressional budget deal, are expected to be announced in December.
