BHEF Congratulates Investing in Innovation Fund Winners
BHEF partner Ohio State University wins significant grant
Contact: Pamela Lessard 202-367-1284, Alex Sittig 202-367-2393
Washington, DC (August 10, 2010) — The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) today congratulated the 49 winning applicants for the U.S. Department of Education’s $650 million Investing in Innovation, or i3, grant competition to support local efforts to start or expand research-based innovative programs that help close the achievement gap and improve outcomes for students.
Among the winners of the high-profile competition, which is part of the $5 billion investment in school reform in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), is the Ohio State University (OSU). Led by BHEF member President Gordon Gee, OSU received one of four Scale Up Grants awarded to proven strategies. As a result, OSU and its partners in the proposal are eligible for up to $45,593,170 to scale up its Reading Recovery program to train 3,750 new teachers over five years in schools across the country.
In addition, Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, where BHEF has worked with its business and higher education members to develop a community-wide action plan focused on improving college readiness, access, and success outcomes, was awarded a Demonstration Grant of $4,999,458 to expand programs to improve college readiness and access programs at six persistently low-performing high schools.
“We are pleased that our members’ work is being recognized by the Department of Education not only as high-quality but as exemplar programs that should be taken to scale. We look forward to supporting this work in order to achieve results that benefit students and their communities,” says BHEF Executive Director Brian K. Fitzgerald.
Individual school districts or groups of districts were invited to apply for the i3 grants, and entrepreneurial nonprofits also were able join with school districts to submit applications. Colleges and universities, companies and other stakeholders can be supporters of the projects.
Winning applicants were chosen among nearly 1,700 proposals, and were rated highest in the following categories: demonstrating previous success in closing achievement gaps, improving student progress toward proficiency, increasing graduation rates, or recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers and principals.
Grants were awarded in three categories:
- Scale-up Grants: The largest possible grant category is focused on programs and practices with the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of students.
- Validation Grants: Existing, promising programs that have good evidence of their impact and are ready to improve their evidence base while expanding in their own and other communities.
- Development Grants: The smallest grant level designed to support new and high-potential
practices whose impact should be studied further.
“We're making an unprecedented investment in cutting-edge ideas that will produce the next generation of school reforms,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “The i3 competition will provide seed money for fresh ideas, help grow promising programs with a good track record and scale up programs with proven results to a national level.”
About the Business-Higher Education Forum
BHEF brings together a coalition of corporate, academic, and foundation chief executives who provide leadership to improve U.S education and competitiveness. Learn more at www.bhef.com.
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