Success for All Wins $50 Million Investing in Innovation Grant

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Aug 11, 2010, 02:54 ET

BALTIMORE, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Success for All (SFA) is currently used in 1,000 elementary schools across the country, but the program's reach is about to increase dramatically. Due to a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, SFA's network of schools is expected to more than double over the next five years.

The grant is part of the Education Department's $650 million Investing in Innovation (i3) program, which is funding school districts and non-profit organizations to implement research-based school improvement innovations. SFA was one of nearly 1,700 applicants to apply for the funding and one of 49 applicants to win a grant. Final approval requires matching funds of 20%, and SFA is currently seeking $10 million for this purpose.

"The i3 program shows a real commitment to supporting what works," said Robert Slavin, Director of the Center for Research and Reform at the Johns Hopkins School of Education and Chairman of the Success for All Foundation. "SFA has been rigorously evaluated and proven to be effective, so we were confident that we had a strong application."

Grants from the Education Department were awarded in three categories: "scale-up" grants of up to $50 million for programs that have been proven through extensive research to work; "validation" grants of up to $30 million for programs with emerging evidence of success; and "development" grants of up to $5 million for untested but promising research-based ideas.

SFA – one of only four programs to win a scale-up grant – had the highest rated application of all scale-up proposals.

"The scale-up RFP emphasized evidence base and ability to go to scale, both of which are SFA's core capabilities," said Slavin. "We have many years of experience in scaling-up proven programs."

The Success for All Foundation will use the i3 grant money to reduce first-year costs of SFA to qualifying schools, create local SFA coaching support centers in high-poverty districts, improve the availability of high-quality coaching for SFA, and commission a large third-party, cluster randomized evaluation of SFA in high-poverty schools. Over the five year duration of the grant, SFA will serve approximately 550,000 new students in 1,100 elementary schools, in addition to the 500,000 students in 1,000 schools that the program already serves.

SOURCE The Success for All Foundation