Press release [Oct. 11, 2016]

For immediate release Oct. 11, 2016

Office of Communications (404) 651-7774

Deal announces Innovation Fund grant award winners

Gov. Nathan Deal today announced 18 grant award winners for the Innovation Fund, a competitive grant program that provides funding to local education authorities and schools to further advance student achievement in Georgia.

"The Innovation Fund Grant is an opportunity to fuel the innovative ideas of Georgia's education leaders and students throughout the state," said Deal. "I am confident this funding will give schools and education groups a greater opportunity to develop methods to ensure that every Georgia student is given the tools necessary for academic achievement."

The programs are aligned with the following priority areas: applied learning with a focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) education; development and replication of blended learning school models; birth to age eight language and literacy development; and teacher and leader development for high-need schools.

Grantees will evaluate the effectiveness of their programs and submit their findings to the Governor's Office of Student Achievement. The state will use these findings to determine best practices in each of the priority areas.

The grant award winners and their respective programs are listed below:

Planning Grants

FISCAL YEAR 2017 INNOVATION FUND GRANT AWARD WINNERS

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

PLANNING GRANTS
Baldwin County School District Read Baldwin County Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development Baldwin County $ 5,000.00
Baldwin County School District will plan and refine their vision for Read Baldwin County a program that will unite educators, families, and community agencies in supporting young readers.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Clarke County School District Coaching for Innovation in P-3 Language & Literacy Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development Clarke County $10,000.00
Clarke County School District will plan a program that provides birth-tothird grade providers with professional learning and targeted instructional practices and students and families with support services.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Charles R. Drew Charter School 21CLM: Promoting School Innovation and Success throughout Georgia Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education Atlanta/Statewide $ 9,996.00
Charles R. Drew Charter School in partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology's Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (Georgia Tech CEISMC); honorCode and others will develop a strategic plan to scale the 21CLM program to Drew Charter School's Senior Academy (grades 9 through 12) and throughout the state. Developed with an FY16 Innovation Fund implementation grant, the 21CLM program addresses summer reading loss and supports teachers in implementing more rigorous, creative, project-based learning, instructional approaches. The program accomplishes these objectives through a Literacy in the Making full-day summer program for targeted rising 1st through 3rd graders and STEM makerspace initiatives.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Elm Street Elementary STEAM in 3D - Dream, Design, Do! Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education Rome, GA $5,000.00
Rome City Schools' Elm Street Elementary School will refine STEAM in 3D Dream, Design Do!, a program that uses new instructional methods and cutting-edge technology to advance student learning.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Greenwood Learning Center/Rome Transitional Academy Building STEAM Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education Rome $9,500.00
The Building STEAM program will serve the high-needs populations at two alternative-education programs (housed in the same building) and a highneeds elementary school. This program seeks to motivate traditionally undeserved and under-performing students through problem-based, appliedlearning projects, some with an entrepreneurship focus. The goals of the planning grant are to: (a) determine teachers' professional development needs, (b) provide teachers with professional development based on these needs, and (c) and implement a pilot program with the future possibility of scaling to schools with similar populations.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Houston County Schools Read to Lead Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development Houston County $10,000.00
Houston County will pilot a leveled literacy intervention program for struggling kindergarten through second graders at C.B. Watson Primary School in Warner Robbins, GA. Through parent literacy nights, Read to Lead will also provide families with strategies, books, and resources to help boost their children's social-emotional development, school engagement, and reading achievement.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Liberty Tech Charter School Every Student, Every Day: Applied Service Learning Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education Fayette County $9,912.52
Liberty Tech will use its planning grant to develop and enhance a servicelearning model that will allow students to use classroom content to solve real-world problems in a hands-on, project-based format. Specifically, Liberty Tech will explore the Maker movement, provide teacher professional development, and establish a professional learning community around project-based learning, applied learning and creative space. Through this planning process, Liberty Tech hopes to transform its school into a serviceoriented maker environment for the 2017-2018 school year.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

North Heights Elementary School Growing Up Green Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education Rome, GA $5,000.00
Rome City Schools' North Heights Elementary School will refine Growing Up Green, a program where students apply STEAM classroom content to address the community obstacle of living in a food desert.

Organization Project Name
Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Tattnall County Schools Lead-Read-Succeed: Developing Teachers and Leaders to Achieve Student Literacy Mastery Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development Tattnall County $10,000.00
Tattnall County Schools, in partnership with GLISI, will refine Lead-ReadSucceed, a program designed to build teacher and leader capacity through a combination of team-based professional learning, coaching, and technical assistance for district leaders.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Telfair County Schools Tiny Trojans Early Literacy Program Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development Telfair County $10,000.00
Telfair County Schools will use its planning grant to conduct a community needs assessment, provide teacher professional development, and, finally, create an implementation plan for the Tiny Trojans Early Literacy Program. This program will serve three-year old children as part of a high school elective class in the Early Childhood Education career pathway providing both language and literacy instruction for three-year olds and classroom experience for aspiring teachers.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Screven County Elementary School School and Family Ties Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development Screven County $10,000.00
Screven County Elementary School will explore language and literacy development best practices, assess its community needs, and develop resources to expand literacy services throughout the community.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

West End Elementary SusTEAMability: Sustaining Pollinators Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education Rome, GA $9,900.00
West End Elementary will address the community and world need of the decline of pollinators and the impact this decline has on the world's food supply. Through STEAM and project-based learning professional development and a school-developed systematic, standards-aligned curriculum, West End Elementary aims to increase students' financial literacy, problem solving skills, and entrepreneurship skills.

IMPLEMENTATION GRANTS

Organization Project Name
Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Cobb County School District KickStART Cobb: Using the Power of Arts Integration to Fuel Early Language and Literacy Development Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development Cobb County $ 652,491.67
The KickStART Cobb program will serve kindergarten through third grade students by integrating the arts into language and literacy instruction. Through robust professional development for teachers, collaboration with community partners such as artists in residence, and resource development for parents, KickStART Cobb hopes to fuel early learning. KickStART Cobb will begin in four targeted elementary schools LaBelle Elementary, Powder Springs Elementary, Clarkdale Elementary, and Kennesaw Elementary and will serve close to 2,000 students and their families and 140 teachers.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Whitfield County Schools Beyond the Classroom Birth to Age Eight Language and Literacy Development Whitfield County $ 589,022.85
Through Beyond the Classroom, Whitfield County Schools (WCS) and its community partners will enhance literacy development for children, ages birth to eight, and their families. The implementation grant will expand Power Lunches and Learning Academies--piloted during WCS' Innovation Fund planning grant to six school communities, three in year one and an additional three in year two. Through these programs, Beyond the Classroom will bring literacy into the most at-risk communities by providing children and families access to resources that promote language and literacy development as well as address health, family, and social-emotional needs.

SCALING GRANTS

Organization Project Name
Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School CREATE (Collaboration and Reflection to Enhance Atlanta Teacher Effectiveness) Teacher and Leader Development for High-Need Schools Atlanta $ 589,022.85
CREATE (Collaboration and Reflection to Enhance Atlanta Teacher Effectiveness) works to recruit, boost the capacity of, and retain effective educators in southeast Atlanta high-need schools through professional development focused on collaboration and reflection. An expansion of Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School's Race to the Top Innovation Fund project, the New Teacher Residency Program, CREATE is a unique collaborative of both traditional and public charter schools, as well as universities and a school district, that utilizes Critical Friendship, Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, and mentoring. With this grant, ANCS will provide support and mentoring to additional teachers at current CREATE schools as well as expand the program to three new schools Kindezi, Dunbar Elementary, and Thomasville Heights Elementary.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Carroll County Schools Full STEAM Ahead Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education Carroll County $ 699,997.00
Full STEAM Ahead will scale Carroll County's Step into STEM program developed with an Innovation Fund implementation grant to serve 15-year old students who are at the highest-risk of dropping out from all five of Carroll County's high schools. The program will provide students with an integrated STEAM curriculum, academic and soft skills support, and realworld experiences through partnerships with the county's leading employers. Through Full STEAM Ahead, Carroll County aims to ensure that its students stay in school, graduate, and successfully enter postsecondary educational programs or the workplace with the real-world skills and knowledge they need to succeed.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Gwinnett County Public Schools Gear Up for Graduation! Development and Replication of Blended Learning School Models Gwinnett County $ 293,741.40
Gear Up for Graduation (formerly the STEP Academy) utilizes a blended learning model to provide at-risk, over-aged 8th grade students with the opportunity to complete their 8th and 9th grade coursework in one year and rejoin their peers in 10th grade. Gear Up for Graduation began serving students at Moore and Sweetwater Middle Schools through a Race to the Top Innovation Fund grant, and Lilburn Middle School through a statefunded Innovation Fund grant. Through this scaling grant, Gwinnett County Public Schools will expand Gear Up for Graduation to serve an additional 100 students at Summerour Middle School.

Organization Project Name Priority Area Areas Served Amount Funded Description of Project

Thomas County School System Scaling of Blended Learning to Thomas County Central High School Development and Replication of Blended Learning School Models Thomas County $699,312.00
Thomas County School System (TCSS) will scale the Bishop Hall Charter School blended learning program, developed with an Innovation Fund implementation grant, to 1,496 Thomas County Central High School students with the goal of increasing math achievement. During the scaling process, TCSS will support its teachers with professional development, improved technology, and strong local partnerships enabling them to increase student ownership of learning and college/career readiness.

Planning grants will provide each winner between $5,000 to $10,000 over one year to research and develop an innovative education program aligned with one of the Innovation Fund priority areas.
Baldwin County School District Read Baldwin County
Clarke County School District Coaching for Innovation in P-3 Language & Literacy
Charles R. Drew Charter School 21CLM: Promoting School Innovation and Success throughout Georgia
Elm Street Elementary STEAM in 3D- Dream, Design, DO!
Greenwood Learning Center/Rome Transitional Academy Building STEAM
Houston County Schools Read to Lead
Liberty Tech Every Student, Every Day: Applied Service Learning
North Heights Elementary

Growing Up Green
Screven County Elementary School School and Family Ties
Tattnall County Board of Education Lead-Read-Succeed: Developing Teachers and Leaders to Achieve Student Literacy Mastery
Telfair County Schools Tiny Trojans Early Literacy Program
West End Elementary SusTEAMability: Sustaining Pollinators
Implementation Grants Implementation grants will provide each winner between $600,000 and $700,000 over two years to pilot an innovative education program aligned with one of the Innovation Fund priority areas.
Cobb County School District KickStART Cobb: Using the Power of Arts Integration to Fuel Early Language and Literacy Development
Whitfield County Schools Beyond the Classroom
Scaling Grants

Scaling grants will provide each winner between $250,000 and $700,000 over two years to scale a successful existing program to serve more students, teachers or leaders.
Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School CREATE (Collaboration and Reflection to Enhance Atlanta Teacher Effectiveness)
Carroll County School System Full STEAM Ahead
Gwinnett County Public Schools Gear-Up for Graduation!
Thomas County School System Scaling of Blended Learning to Thomas County Central High School
Descriptions of the winning proposals are attached.
About the Innovation Fund The Innovation Fund invests in public education entities that aggressively develop and scale programs that enable Georgia educators to improve student performance and tackle our state's most significant education challenges. In 2011, The Innovation Fund began as a $19.4 million competitive grant competition created under Georgia's Race to the Top (RT3) Plan. To continue the Innovation Fund's work beyond RT3, Governor Deal appropriated state funding for Fiscal Years (FY) 2015, 2016, and 2017. Since its inception, the Innovation Fund has invested $32 million of state and federal funding through 84 grants to 55 school districts, charter schools, postsecondary institutions and nonprofit organizations to pilot innovative education programs, ranging in focus from teacher and leader induction and development to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) applied learning, blended learning, and birth to age eight language and literacy development. More information about the Innovation Fund can be found on the Governor's Office of Student Achievement website.

Jen Talaber Ryan jen.ryan@georgia.gov