After Winning, Then What?

Over the last six years competitive grants have played a large role in triggering changes in the early education space, which has been a growing priority for the Obama administration. While the competitions themselves tend to receive attention from policymakers and the media, the actual implementation process, which is critical to the success of the program, is too often overlooked. Last year, for New America’s Early Education Initiative, journalist Paul Nyhan conducted case studies of winners of four competitive grant programs that have benefited the early education field– Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC), the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), Investing in Innovation (i3), and Promise Neighborhoods– to discover what happens after the awards are doled out.

We’ve compiled these case studies into After Winning, Then What? An Inside Look at Four Winners of Federal Early Education Grant Competitions, a policy brief providing an overview of the four grant programs and offering an inside look at the implementation process. This brief reveals what kind of progress is possible — and what limitations exist — when policies are advanced through small competitive grants. Nyhan reveals how these programs have helped accelerate reform in early education in several states and communities as well as why flexibility and adaptability are essential to successful implementation. He also explains how grantees have overcome obstacles related to ambitious timelines and program evaluation.

Read the full brief here.