Biden-Harris Administration Announces $277 Million In Education Innovation and Research Grants to Help Address Academic Recovery

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This is a Press Release from the U.S. Department of Education. 

As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing work to address academic recovery, including supporting student success in math and reading, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) today announced $277 million in new grant awards to advance educational equity and innovation through the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant program. State-administered test scores from the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years show some early signs of rebounding from the major disruptions of the pandemic, but not enough are back to pre-pandemic levels—and the recovery has been uneven—with the students most impacted still furthest behind. We have a long way to go, especially for communities and students who have been exposed to longstanding inequality. These new grant awards can help us get there with $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. “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. The EIR grants have been awarded to 45 grantees to advance educational innovation, research, and develop new solutions to addressing persistent educational opportunity gaps for students who have been historically underserved.

These awards are announced as the Department celebrates the one-year anniversary of the YOU Belong in STEM initiative, which supports the implementation and scaling of equitable, high-quality STEM education for all students from PreK to higher education—regardless of background—to prepare them for 21st century career readiness and global competitiveness.

“Diversity is the strength of our nation; it fuels innovation and progress. In celebration of the YOU Belong in STEM anniversary, the Department is pleased to support these new EIR grantees that advance our goal to create a more inclusive STEM community, while also supporting student success in math and reading,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten. “As the Department continues to advance equity and innovation, we invite everyone to join us in celebrating the YOU Belong in STEM anniversary and the positive impact these EIR grantees will have on shaping the future of education.”

The 2023 cohort of EIR grantees represents a wide range of innovative approaches that Raise the Bar and advance academic excellence, student engagement, social and emotional development and well-being, and create pathways for global engagement for schools across the nation—including more than $100 million in grants for strategies designed to support success in math and reading. For example:

  • The Concord Consortium’s project will employ a strategy to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) education to expand access to AI programs in math and literacy for students underrepresented in the computing field, including African American and Hispanic students, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, living in remote rural areas, or in under-resourced schools, as well as develop teachers’ competency for implementing AI in math program.
  • The Education Development Center will launch a project titled “Math for All: Expanding Professional Learning to Improve Mathematics Outcomes for Students in High-Need Schools” to develop the capacity of teacher leaders to make high-quality math instruction accessible to all students. The project will be implemented across Illinois, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York.
  • WestEd through their Mid-phase grant will serve schools throughout the Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, and Utah regions. The project will meet the critical needs for both disciplinary literacy and foundational reading skills in high-need 8th and 9th graders by leveraging two evidence-based interventions—the Apprenticeship for Academic Literacy curriculum and through modernizing texts, streamlining the curriculum, and integrating foundational reading skills.
  • Unbounded Learning, Inc. will launch their Reading Reimagined project to provide professional learning to grades 2-5 teachers. The project covers foundational literacy, language variation and style shifting, lesson plans, and job-embedded coaching to prepare teachers to provide differentiated instruction designed to help students “style shift” to General American English (GAE). This grantee has partnered with the University of California-Irvine and the American Institutes for Research.
  • The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction will focus its PRISM (Patterns for Reaching and Impacting Students in Math) project to improve math outcomes for high-need students through the creation and testing of strategies to enhance the adoption and use of its Patterns framework, a comprehensive professional learning program designed to improve math outcomes, particularly for high-need students.

Since day one, and through historic investments like the American Rescue Plan, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to help every school accelerate academic achievement, open safely for in-person instruction, and build communities where all students feel they belong. Today’s announcement builds on these extensive investments in K-12 schools to accelerate academic success nationwide.

The new EIR awardees are listed below:

STATE FY23 GRANTEE PROJECT NAME GRANT TYPE AWARD
AK University of Alaska Fairbanks Validated Induction Network Expansion (VINE project) Expansion $14,999,998
AL Alabama State Department of Education – AMSTI New Virtual Reality Technology to Enhance Students’ Algebra Knowledge and Skills Early-phase $3,999,987
AZ Research Collaboratory at ASU, dba Enterprise Collaboratory Development and Testing of EYEPlay Inclusion: An Innovative Approach to Providing Professional Development in Drama-Based Instruction to Teachers and Caregivers of High Communication Needs Children Early-phase $3,999,999
AZ County of Maricopa Osborn School District #8 Nurturing Responsive Connections Early-phase $3,999,498
CA Fresno County Superintendent of Schools Reading and Writing for College and Career Success: Expanding the Reach of the Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum Expansion $14,997,254
CA WestEd Reading Apprenticeship for Academic Literacy Learning (RA4ALL) Mid-phase $8,000,000
CA Sonoma State University Scaling an Innovative STEM+C Education Support Model for Improved Science Learning Mid-phase $7,904,722
CA 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 Early-phase $4,000,000
CA Santa Clara County Office of Education Data Adventures Early-phase $4,000,000
CA Riverside County Office of Education Making Connections in Mathematics: Empowering Students by Empowering Teachers (MCM) project Early-phase $4,000,000
CA Seneca Family of Agencies Compass Care: A family-focused, peer support model for increasing student engagement and achievement Early-phase $4,000,000
CA WestEd Project Pathways: Creating the Pathways to Improve Student Mental Health and Well-Being Early-phase $4,000,000
CO BSCS Science Learning Engaging Science Learning with OpenSciEd Early-phase $3,999,759
FL Impact Florida Game-Based Learning Platform to Enhance Student Science Outcomes Mid-phase $7,997,933
FL School Board of Duval County Duval IDEAS (Inclusion Diversifies Education for All Students) Early-phase $4,000,000
GA Martin Luther King Sr Community Resources Collaborative, Inc Sankofa Chronicles: SEL Curriculum from American Diaspora Early-phase $3,997,320
IA Human Restoration Project Third Coast Learning Collaborative: Developing an Inquiry-Driven Model of School Early-phase $3,995,537
MA Jobs For The Future, Inc. Increasing Dual Enrollment Access and Success (IDEAS) Expansion $15,000,000
MA Education Development Center, Inc. Math for All: Expanding Professional Learning to Improve Mathematics Outcomes for Students in High-Need Schools Expansion $15,000,000
MA President and Fellows of Harvard College Scaling a National Model of Reading Engagement (MORE) to Improve First to Fourth-Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension Mid-phase $7,992,519
MA Concord Consortium, Inc. AI Across the Curriculum for Virtual Schools Early-phase $3,999,322
MA Alliance for Inclusion and Prevention, Inc. SELECT Schools (Social-Emotional Learning to Address Equity, COVID, and Trauma in Schools) Early-phase $4,000,000
MI Michigan State University A culturally responsive project-based learning intervention in secondary science in Alabama and North Carolina Mid-phase $7,722,448
MO The Curators of The University of Missouri Special Trust Prosocial and Active Learning (PAL) Classrooms 2.0 Mid-phase $7,999,969
NC N.C. Department of Public Instruction PRISM: Patterns for Reaching and Impacting Students in Math Mid-phase $7,868,972
NC Village of Wisdom, Inc. That’s Just Good Teaching Program Early-phase $4,000,000
NC University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Strengthening Social-Emotional Learning in High Schools with Integrated Multi-Tiered Mindfulness Programming Early-phase $4,000,000
NJ Educational Testing Service Developing Middle Grade Students’ Social Emotional Learning Skill through Technology Enhanced Collaborative Learning Early-phase $3,999,997
NM New Mexico Public Education Department New Mexico Teacher Residencies (NM Residencies) Mid-phase $7,772,426
NY Unbounded Learning, Inc. Reading Reimagined Early-phase $3,964,403
NY New York Hall of Science Your Light and Air: Leveraging Civic Science to Advance High Need, Grade 6-8 Students’ Science Learning Through Investigations Early-phase $3,996,906
NY Urban Arts Partnership Creative Coders: Middle School CS Pathways Through Game Design Early-phase $3,999,988
OH Preschool Promise Preschool Promise EIR – Conscious Discipline Impact Study Early-phase $4,000,000
OR University of Oregon Foundation Meeting Student Social Emotional and Academic Needs Through Technology-Supported Best-Practice in Instruction Early-phase $2,884,885
OR Oregon Research Institute EmpowerU: Promoting Health-Related SEL Skills Development in High-Needs Populations Early-phase $3,995,537
TX University of Texas Foundation Transforming the Learning of Science for Second Grade Latinx Students Through Meaningful Interactions using Technology Outside of School (Project MITOS) Mid-phase $8,000,000
TX Region 18 Education Service Center Middle School Collaborative Language Acquisition Strategies for Success (MS CLASS) Mid-phase $7,959,640
TX University of Texas Foundation Preparing High-Need Students for Success in Early Science Instruction Early-phase $4,000,000
TX Wood County Ssa/Mineola LSD Second Step to Enhance Rural Students’ Achievement and Wellbeing Early-phase $3,945,003
TX Region One Education Service Center Project LIFT! (Linking Innovation Fostering Transition) Early-phase $3,999,984
UT Waterford Institute Inc. Expanding School Readiness Opportunities in the Rural South The Upstart Rural TASK Force: Taking All to Success in Kindergarten Expansion $13,919,547
UT Cook Center for Human Connection, L3C Helping Helpers Help: An Integrated Model for Empowering Educators and Parents as Partners in Supporting Student Wellness and Learning Early-phase $3,999,999
VA American Institutes for Research Scaling and Evaluating the Impact of The Third Quest (TTQ) Mid-phase $4,497,728
VA Rector and Visitors of The University of Virginia Project ENGAGE: The Impact of CARE for Teachers on Students’ Success Mid-phase $7,999,651
VA American Institutes for Research Thinking Pro: Accelerating Social, Emotional, and Academic Development in High School ELA Classes Early-phase $3,935,583

Click here for more information about EIR and the Department’s discretionary grant programs.