Office of Innovation and Improvement Development grants Pre Application CFDA Number 84.411P | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Office of Innovation and Improvement Development Grants Pre-Application competition (CFDA 84.411P) is part of the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund, which was created under section 14007 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The central aim of i3 is to encourage the creation, testing, and growth of promising educational practices that can address long-standing problems in K-12 education. In practical terms, the program is meant to help applicants develop and validate new or improved approaches and then, if they prove effective, expand those approaches so they reach many more students than a pilot effort could serve.

This particular opportunity covers the pre-application stage for Development grants. Development grants within i3 generally focus on generating evidence for newer strategies or early-stage innovations that are not yet backed by the strongest levels of proof required in other grant tiers, but that still show enough promise to justify federal investment and evaluation. The overarching requirement is that funded work must be designed to produce better outcomes for high-need students. The notice highlights the kinds of outcomes the Department expects applicants to target, including improving student achievement or student growth, closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, increasing high school graduation rates, and increasing college enrollment and completion. The emphasis on high-need students signals that proposals should be built around populations or schools facing significant challenges, and that the intervention should be intentionally structured to move measurable indicators in the right direction.

Eligible applicants, in broad terms, include local educational agencies (LEAs) and nonprofit organizations, but nonprofits must apply in partnership with one or more LEAs or with a consortium of schools. This partnership structure is a key feature of i3, because the program is designed to support work that is grounded in real school settings and can be scaled through existing public education systems. While the synopsis references "Others (see text field ... for clarification)," the defining eligibility concept in the description is that applicants must fit within the LEA category or be a nonprofit that can demonstrate a qualifying partnership arrangement.

The funding instrument type is listed as a cooperative agreement, which usually means the Department anticipates having a more active role than it would under a standard grant. In many federal programs, cooperative agreements can involve closer coordination, additional reporting or technical requirements, and more direct federal involvement in key aspects of the project, while still leaving the day-to-day work to the recipient. The opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding, meaning awards are competitive and based on the published selection criteria and priorities from the official Federal Register notice. The listing indicates an expected 19 awards and an estimated total funding amount of $112,400,000 for this competition. There is no cost-sharing or matching requirement indicated, which typically lowers the barrier for applicants that might not have access to significant private funds.

The application process is electronic through Grants.gov, and the posting stresses an important technical detail: applicants must search for the application package using the base CFDA number 84.411, without the letter suffix. In other words, the suffixes (like 84.411P for pre-applications and 84.411C for full applications) should not be included in the Grants.gov search. This matters because searching with the suffix can prevent applicants from finding the correct package or can lead them to the wrong listing. The competition is specifically for Development grant pre-applications, but it sits within a broader two-stage pipeline in which applicants submit a pre-application first and, if selected, proceed to submit a full application under the corresponding full-application CFDA listing.

Key dates included in the synopsis show that pre-applications were made available April 1, 2015, with a deadline for a notice of intent to submit a pre-application of April 20, 2015. The original deadline for transmittal of pre-applications was April 29, 2015, but the current closing date was updated to May 5, 2015. The posting date is March 31, 2015, with a listed creation date of April 15, 2015, and the archive date is June 4, 2015. These dates indicate a short turnaround window typical of competitive federal education grant opportunities, making early registration and troubleshooting on Grants.gov especially important.

The announcement repeatedly notes that the text provided is only a synopsis and that the controlling requirements are in the official Federal Register notice. That official notice is where applicants would find the binding details on eligibility nuances, required evidence levels, allowable activities, selection criteria, definitions (such as how "high-need students," "student achievement," "student growth," and "graduation rate" are defined for this competition), and any programmatic priorities or competitive preference points. The Federal Register is accessible online through the Government Publishing Office, and the synopsis points applicants there for authoritative guidance.

For applicant support and technical help, the synopsis provides the Grants.gov Helpdesk phone number (1-800-518-4726) and email (support@grants.gov) for issues related to electronic submission. It also provides Department of Education contacts for program and administrative questions, including Joyce Mays (Management Analyst, 202-245-6122, joyce.mays@ed.gov) and Program Manager Kelly Terpak (202-453-7122), along with the i3 program mailbox (i3@ed.gov). These contacts are important because federal competitions often have strict rules about submission errors, formatting, and late applications, and applicants typically need to resolve questions well before the deadline.

In short, CFDA 84.411P is the pre-application entry point for i3 Development grants, aimed at supporting innovative, evidence-building interventions that improve meaningful educational outcomes for high-need students. It is a competitive, discretionary Department of Education opportunity with a substantial total funding pool, anticipated multiple awards, no matching requirement, and a required electronic submission process through Grants.gov using the base CFDA search number 84.411, with final details governed by the Federal Register notice.

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