Sec. 2. Innovation grants
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Part B of title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 ( 20 U.S.C. 1138 et seq.) is amended— by redesignating section 745 as section 746; and by inserting after section 744 the following: The purposes of this section are to— increase access to postsecondary education opportunities for high-need students; identify and support the most effective interventions to increase postsecondary degree attainment of high-need students; and improve the efficiency of postsecondary education.
In this section: The term eligible entity means any of the following: A State educational agency. A public or private nonprofit institution of higher education. The Bureau of Indian Education. A consortium of any of the entities described in subparagraphs
(A)through (C). A partnership between a State educational agency or public or private nonprofit institution of higher education and one or more of the following: A nonprofit organization. An intermediary organization. A business. A sponsor of a program receiving assistance under the National and Community Service Act of 1990 ( 42 U.S.C. 12501 et seq.). A local educational agency. The term high-need student — means a student, or prospective student, at an institution of higher education who is at risk of educational failure or otherwise in need of special assistance and support; and may include an adult learner, working student, part-time student, student from a low-income background, student of color, former foster youth, first-generation student, student with a disability, student who is deaf or blind or visually impaired, or student who is an English learner. The term intermediary organization means an entity— with strong skills and a track record of success in— identifying effective interventions to address State, regional, or local problems; managing high-quality subgrant processes; and providing technical assistance and support to subgrantees to ensure quality and improve outcomes; and that utilizes an evidence-based decisionmaking strategy when selecting high-performing entities, on a competitive basis, to receive subgrants in order to validate and grow effective interventions. From amounts made available to carry out this section, the Secretary shall award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities to enable the eligible entities to create, develop, implement, replicate, or scale evidence-based and field-initiated innovations, including through pay for success initiatives (as defined in section 124(a)), in order to improve postsecondary access and completion for high-need students. The grants awarded under this section shall, to the extent practicable based on the strength of the applications, include— early-phase grants to fund the development, implementation, and feasibility testing of a practice, program, or intervention that prior research suggests has promise, for the purpose of determining whether the practice, program, or innovation can successfully improve access to, retention in, and completion of, a postsecondary program of study for high-need students; mid-phase grants to fund implementation and a rigorous evaluation of a practice, program, or intervention that has been successfully implemented under an early phase grant described in subparagraph
(A)or another effort meeting similar criteria, for the purpose of measuring (using existing administrative data where possible) the impact and cost-effectiveness of the practice, program, or intervention; and expansion grants to fund implementation and a rigorous replication evaluation of a practice, program, or intervention that has been found to produce sizable, important impacts under a mid-phase grant described in subparagraph
(B)or another effort meeting similar criteria, for the purposes of— determining whether such impacts can be successfully reproduced and sustained over time; and identifying the conditions in which the practice, program, or initiative is most effective. An eligible entity desiring a grant under this section shall submit to the Secretary an application at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may require, including a description of the outcome measures that the eligible entity will use to evaluate the success of the grant. In awarding grants under this section, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible entities that— propose to serve the largest number of students; or serve a high proportion of students from one or more school districts with a school district locale code of 31, 32, 33, 41, 42, or 43, as determined by the Secretary. Each recipient of a grant under this section shall conduct, and submit to the Secretary, a rigorous, independent evaluation of— the effectiveness of the practice, program, or initiative carried out under such grant; the outcomes achieved by such grant, based on the outcome measures described in the application under subsection (d); and the activities carried out under such grant. By not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of the Fund for Innovation and Success in Higher Education Act , and every 2 years thereafter, the Secretary shall prepare and submit to the authorizing committees a report on the grants carried out under this section. Each report issued under this subsection shall— include information from the evaluations submitted under subsection
(f)on the success of the grants, based on the outcomes reported in the evaluations under such subsection; and consider— how the tiered-evidence grant structure described in subsection (c)(2) can be applied to other grant programs authorized under this Act, in order to strengthen those programs; and how the evidence generated by the projects, programs, and initiatives supported by grants under this section can inform how to carry out other grants authorized under this Act. The Secretary shall make each report issued under this subsection available to the public through the website of the Department. .
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