Biden-Harris Administration Announces $277 Million In Education Innovation And Research Grants

Photos: YouTube Screenshot\Dept 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) this week 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:  

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