Four city education groups win federal support to expand

The U.S. Department of Education is doling out funds to three city nonprofits and a university through its Investing in Innovation grant program.

The NYC Leadership Academy, a nonprofit that was formed to train local principals and now has national ambitions, will get funds to create a special “Targeted Intensive School Support” model in which school leaders overhaul “chronically underperforming” city schools.

Expeditionary Learning, a school network that a study recently found boosts students’ test scores, will get help with a project to train new teachers to work with the Common Core standards.

Teachers College at Columbia University will get support with an initiative to expand early college programs that focus on science, math, and technology.

And the Children’s Aid Society will receive support in devising an institute to train parent leaders.

The groups have to secure 20 percent of their project’s cost from private sector sources before they can start getting the federal funds. And here’s a deeper look at one program — a ninth-grade algebra curriculum devised by the nonprofit New Visions — that came into existence through an i3 grant.