Gov. Nathan Deal today announced four Innovation Fund grant award winners. The Innovation Fund is a competitive grant program that provides funding to school districts, traditional public schools, charter schools and regional education service agencies to transform education for Georgia’s students. 

“The Innovation Fund provides educators with new tools to implement improved methods of teaching to enhance student achievement and workforce readiness,” said Gov. Deal. “By cultivating environments conducive to greater innovation and imagination, we are connecting students with new opportunities for growth and development. This funding transforms the educational experience and will help to better prepare our students for continued success beyond the classroom. I extend my congratulations to this year’s award winners and look forward to seeing the impact these grants will have on Georgia’s young minds.”

The selected programs align with two of the Innovation Fund priority areas: birth to age eight language and literacy development and teacher and leader development for high-need schools. Each grantee will evaluate its program’s effectiveness and submit its findings to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement.  The state will use these findings to determine best practices in birth to age eight language and literacy development and teacher and leader development.

The grant award winners, along with a description of the type of grant awarded, are listed below.

Implementation Grants

Implementation grants will provide each winner up to $700,000 over two and a half years to pilot an innovative education program aligned with one of the Innovation Fund priority areas.

Clayton County Public Schools

VOICE: Video Observations Improving (Teacher) Collaboration and Effectiveness

Telfair County Schools

Telfair County Tiny Trojans

Scaling Grants

Scaling grants will provide each winner up to $700,000 over two and a half years to scale a successful existing program to serve more students, teachers, or leaders.

Charles R. Drew Charter School

Atlanta Public Schools

STEAM Beyond Borders: Connecting Georgia's Educators Through STEAM/PBL Professional Development

Whitfield County Schools

Beyond the Classroom

Read descriptions of the winning proposals Download this pdf file. here . 

About the Innovation Fund

The Innovation Fund provides a pipeline of grant programs that helps public education entities design, pilot, redesign, implement, and scale radically innovative education programs that maximize student achievement and transform education for Georgia’s students.  In 2011, The Innovation Fund began as a $19.4 million grant competition created under Georgia’s Race to the Top (RT3) plan. To continue the Innovation Fund’s work beyond RT3, Governor Deal has appropriated state funding since Fiscal Year 2015. Since its inception, the Innovation Fund has invested over $35 million of state and federal funding through 237 grants to 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 STEAM (science, technology, engineering arts and math) applied learning, blended learning, and birth to age eight language and literacy development.