U.S. Department of Education: Education Innovation and Research Program – Mid-phase Grants

The Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program provides funding to create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students; and rigorously evaluate such innovations. The EIR program is designed to generate and validate solutions to persistent education challenges and to support the expansion of those solutions to serve substantially larger numbers of students.

All EIR projects are expected to generate information regarding their effectiveness in order to inform EIR grantees’ efforts to learn about and improve upon their efforts, and to help similar, non-EIR efforts across the country benefit from EIR grantees’ knowledge. By requiring that all grantees conduct independent evaluations of their EIR projects, EIR ensures that its funded projects make a significant contribution to improving the quality and quantity of information available to practitioners and policymakers about which practices improve student achievement and attainment, for which types of students, and in what contexts.

Mid-phase grants will be used to fund implementation and a rigorous evaluation of a program that has been successfully implemented under an Early-phase grant or other effort meeting similar criteria, for the purpose of measuring the program’s impact and cost-effectiveness. Mid-phase grants are supported by evidence that demonstrates a statistically significant effect on improving student outcomes or other relevant outcomes based on moderate evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented experimental study for at least one population or setting. Grantees are encouraged to implement at the regional level or at the national level.

The Mid-phase competition includes three absolute priorities. All Mid-phase applicants must address Absolute Priority 1. Mid-phase applicants are also required to address one of the other two absolute priorities:

• Absolute Priority 1—Moderate Evidence, establishes the evidence requirement for this tier of grants. All Mid-phase applicants must submit prior evidence of effectiveness that meets the moderate evidence standard.
• Absolute Priority 2—Field-Initiated Innovations—General, allows applicants to propose projects that align with the intent of the EIR program statute: To create and take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment.
• Absolute Priority 3—Field-Initiated Innovations—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), is intended to ensure the Nation’s economic competitiveness by improving and expanding STEM learning and engagement, including computer science.

Amount: Approximately $125,000,000 is available for all three types of grants under the EIR program (Early-phase, Mid-phase, and Expansion grants). A total of 8-15 Mid-phase grants will be made that range up to $8,000,000 for a project period of 60 months.
Note: At least 25% of funds awarded are designated to applicants serving rural areas, contingent on receipt of a sufficient number of rural applications.

Eligibility: Local educational agency (LEA); state educational agency (SEA); the Bureau of Indian Education; a consortium of SEAs or LEAs; a nonprofit organization; and an SEA, an LEA, a consortium described, or the Bureau of Indian Education, in partnership with a nonprofit organization, a business, an educational service agency, or an institution of higher education.

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=312559

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