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Education Jobs Bill Signed into Law
Department of Education Announces First i3 Grant Recipients

Education Jobs Bill Signed into Law

On August 11, the U.S. House of Representatives passed sweeping legislation that would provide up to $10 billion to states and districts to save teachers’ jobs.

Funding from H.R. 1586, the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act, can be used to rehire teachers who have been laid off or to avert future teacher layoffs this fall. The Department of Education projects the $10 billion slated for education will support an estimated 160,000 education jobs nationwide. Another $16 billion will go to support Medicaid funding to states.

The House gave final approval to the bill after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called lawmakers back to Washington, DC, from their summer break to vote on the legislation. The Senate had passed the bill the week before. President Obama immediately signed the bill into law, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan promised quick action to get the money out to states and districts. For more information, including a chart that outlines how much each state will receive, go to www.ed.gov.

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Department of Education Announces First i3 Grant Recipients

On August 5, the U.S. Department of Education announced that 49 applications from school districts, nonprofit education organizations, and institutions of higher education have been selected from a pool of nearly 1,700 applicants for potential funding under the Investing in Innovation (i3) program.

These winning applicants will serve 42 states and 2 territories. More than half are intending to serve students with disabilities and limited English proficient students, and 37 percent are intending to serve rural school districts.

In order to receive a share of the $650 million in i3 grants, the winning applicants have to secure a commitment for a 20 percent private-sector match by September 8.

The 49 proposals were selected by the Education Department based on recommendations from independent peer review panels. The grants fall into three categories: up to $50 million per “scale-up” grant for programs that have a strong track record of success; up to $30 million per “validation” grant for growing programs with emerging evidence of success; and up to $5 million per “development” grant for promising ideas.

The i3 fund is part of the $10 billion investment in school reform in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It will support local efforts to expand research-based innovative programs that help close the achievement gap and improve outcomes for high-need students. The competition was open to school districts, nonprofit organizations, and institutions of higher education working in partnership with public schools. Applicants had to demonstrate previous success with closing achievement gaps, improving student progress, increasing graduation rates, or recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers and principals. The administration has requested an additional $500 million in funding for this program in FY2011 (both the Senate and House appropriations bills currently have funding slated for this program.)

Included in the winning applicants are 9 STEM-related projects (listed below). Four are “validation” grants and the other five are “development” grants.

For more details, visit www2.ed.gov/programs/innovation/index.html.

STEM-Related Projects

Type: Validation
Applicant Name: ASSET, Inc (Achieving Student Success through Excellence in Teaching)
Project Title: ASSET Regional Professional Development Centers for Advancing STEM Education

Type: Validation
Applicant Name: George Mason University
Project Title: Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA)

Type: Validation
Applicant Name: Smithsonian Institution-National Science Resources Center, LASER
Project Title: The LASER Model: A Systemic and Sustainable Approach for Achieving High Standards in Science Education

Type: Validation
Applicant Name: WestEd-Teacher Professional Development Program
Project Title: Scaling Up Content-Area Academic Literacy in High School English Language Arts, Science and History Classes for High Needs Students

Type: Development
Applicant Name: Bellevue School District-Bellevue School District
Project Title: STEM, Rigor, and Equity in a Comprehensive High School

Type: Development
Applicant Name: California Education Round Table Intersegmental Coordinating Committee-Alliance for Regional Collaboration to Heighten Educational Success (ARCHES)
Project Title: STEM Learning Opportunities Providing Equity

Type: Development
Applicant Name: Education Connection-Center for 21st Century Skills, School Services
Project Title: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education for the 21st Century (STEM21)

Type: Development
Applicant Name: Erikson Institute
Project Title: Mathematics: A Whole Teacher approach to Professional Development

Type: Development
Applicant Name: Exploratorium-Institute for Inquiry
Project Title: Integrating English Language Development and Science: A Professional Development Approach

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