The EIR program, established under section 4611 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended (ESEA), provides funding to create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based (as defined in this notice), field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students and to rigorously evaluate such innovations. The EIR program is designed to generate and validate solutions to persistent education challenges and to support the expansion of those solutions to serve substantially more students.
The central design element of the EIR program is its multitier structure that links the amount of funding an applicant may receive to the quality of the evidence supporting the efficacy of the proposed project, with the expectation that projects that build this evidence will advance through EIR's grant tiers: "Early-phase,'' "Mid-phase,'' and "Expansion.''
"Early-phase,'' "Mid-phase,'' and "Expansion'' grants differ in terms of the level of prior evidence of effectiveness required for consideration for funding, the expectations regarding the kind of evidence and information funded projects should produce, the level of scale funded projects should reach, and, consequently, the amount of funding available to support each type of project.
Early-phase grants must demonstrate a rationale (as defined in this notice). Early-phase grants provide funding for the development, implementation, and feasibility testing of a program, which prior research suggests has promise, for the purpose of determining whether the program can successfully improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students. Early-phase grants are not intended simply to expand established practices or address needs that are unique to one particular context. Rather, the goal is to determine whether and in what ways relatively new practices can improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students.
For information about funding priorities, see https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-05-23/pdf/2023-10998.pdf#page=2.
Estimated Total Program Funding:
