Innovation Grants

Innovation Grants

Overview: Austin Ed Fund believes that transformational educational ideas often come from teachers, students, and administrators within the district. Innovation Grants are open exclusively for AISD educators and encourage new and creative ideas for classroom learning.

Geographic Scope: Austin Independent School District (AISD), Austin, Texas

Status: Application window currently closed. Applicants should check back throughout the school year for future opportunities.

Contact Information:

Phone: 512-414-1700 EXT. 51687

Email: austinedfund@austinisd.org

Address: 4000 S IH35 Frontage Road, Austin, TX 78704

Background: Since fall 2015, Austin Ed Fund has awarded $440,000 to 99 creative teacher-generated projects across AISD.

Eligibility

• Individuals or teams employed by Austin ISD involved in instruction of students or related support services
• Student input encouraged but project must be led and submitted by AISD staff member
• Consecutive year restriction: Applicants not eligible for awards in consecutive school years (schools are eligible in consecutive years)
• Past awardees eligible to apply the school year following their completed project implementation year
• Past Student Opportunity Fund awardees eligible if final report completed before application window

Priority Content Areas

• Whole Child Every Child (Fine arts & creative learning, cultural proficiency, health & wellness, Social and Emotional Learning)
• STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math)
• Literacy

Award Categories

Idea Grants: Up to $2,000 for individual classrooms

Incubator Grants: Up to $10,000 for campus, multi-classroom and/or department projects with replication/sustainability potential

Multi-Year Grants: Up to $10,000 over 2 years (discretionary; applicants must have completed reports and be in good standing)

What Will NOT Be Funded

• Salaries
• Facility maintenance or construction costs

Selection Criteria

• Enriching: Enhances student academic performance
• Innovative: Creative approach or proven best practice new to campus
• Demonstrated need: Supports district/campus goals and addresses area of need supported by data
• Alignment: Within priority content areas
• Evaluation: Has measurable outcomes to be reported upon completion
• Logical: Well-written, clear, transparent proposal with specificity of goals, clarity of methods, clarity of fund usage, and alignment between goals and evaluation

Incubator-level projects more competitive if they include:

Sustainable outcomes with medium- or long-term impact potential

Systemic potential for replication

Real-world applications

Collaborative partnerships across departments, disciplines, schools, or community organizations

Recipient Responsibilities

• Use awards for intended purposes
• Fully implement projects and spend funds by end of spring semester following award notification (unless multi-year)
• Submit phone interview and final report including fund usage by end of school year
• Share lessons learned with colleagues in staff development sessions
• Keep Austin Ed Fund updated if lead applicant changes
• Return any unused grant money to Austin Ed Fund