U.S. Dept. of Education announces $277 million in innovation grants
January 8, 2024
The U.S. Department of Education has announced $277 million in new grant awards to advance educational equity and innovation through the Education Innovation and Research grant program. Eight grantees from California are among the 45 grantees chosen to advance educational innovation, research and develop new solutions to addressing persistent educational opportunity gaps for students who have been historically underserved.
These new grant awards include $90.3 million for STEM, $87.2 million for social emotional well-being, including student engagement, and $76.5 million for projects in rural areas.
“This $277 million in grant awards from the Biden-Harris Administration will fund some of the nation’s most promising efforts to raise the bar for academic recovery, excellence and equity in education,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, in a news release. “I am especially excited to have the Department of Education support innovative efforts across the country to enhance literacy, math and STEM instruction broadly in underserved communities and set the stage for young people to succeed, as well as learn how to address real-world problems in today’s most cutting-edge fields. All of this year’s grantees are pioneering exciting, evidence-based strategies to close opportunity gaps and provide young people with the engaging and impactful learning experiences they deserve so that they can achieve at high levels.”
The EIR programs help create, implement, replicate and expand entrepreneurial, evidence-based innovations to improve outcomes for historically underserved learners and to rigorously evaluate such innovations.
Grantees from California are:
Fresno County Superintendent of Schools — Reading and Writing for College and Career Success: Expanding the Reach of the Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum ($14,997,254).
WestEd — Reading Apprenticeship for Academic Literacy Learning (RA4ALL) ($8,000,000).
Sonoma State University — Scaling an Innovative STEM+C Education Support Model for Improved Science Learning ($7,904,722).
Mk Level Playing Field Institute (Dba Smash) — SMASH 3.0: Innovations in Programming Strategies that Promote Equity in Computer Science Pathways for Historically Excluded Students ($4,000,000).
Santa Clara County Office of Education — Data Adventures ($4,000,000).
Riverside County Office of Education — Making Connections in Mathematics: Empowering Students by Empowering Teachers (MCM) project ($4,000,000).
Seneca Family of Agencies — Compass Care: A family-focused, peer support model for increasing student engagement and achievement ($4,000,000).
WestEd — Project Pathways: Creating the Pathways to Improve Student Mental Health and Well-Being ($4,000,000).