Washington districts, universities, agencies and nonprofits submitted 52 letters of intent to the U.S. Department of Education over the last month signaling their intention to apply for a share of the federal $650 million Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant. 

The i3 program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is designed to foster and expand innovative education strategies at the local level in one of four areas:

• Innovations that support effective teachers and principals
• Innovations that improve the use of data
• Innovations that complement the implementation of high standards and high-quality assessments
• Innovations that turn around persistently low-performing schools

Applicants may apply for one of three types of grants under i3, each with different requirements and funding levels:

1. Scale Up, up to $50 million: requires strong evidence and ability to scale at the national, regional or state level;
2. Validation, up to $30 million: requires moderate evidence and ability to scale regionally or at the state level; and,
3. Development, up to $5M: requires reasonable evidence and the ability to further develop and scale.

To learn more about the Investing in Innovation Grant and see which Washington groups plan to submit applications, visit the Department of Education’s website.