The Department of Education has released the reporting requirements states will have to meet to receive the second round of State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money, part of ARRA.

This is the biggest pot of education money in the ARRA, it is paid out using existing funding formulas, and it has the least amount of reform "bite." But the reporting requirements around teacher evaluation will get us a long way towards understanding the problem, which is critical to creating a national understanding of the urgency of reform.

You can read the new reporting requirements and take a look at the state application from this press release.

At an event on Thursday, Secretary Duncan and Jim Shelton discussed the details of "i3," the $650 million Investing in Innovation fund that is part of ARRA, the gigantic stimulus bill.

In some ways, i3 is like the Race to the Top Fund, but for districts and charter school networks. And it may have even fewer strings (we won't know for sure until the guidance is published). Duncan and Shelton (formerly of the Gates Foundation, now tasked with running i3) discussed the way the money would be doled out starting in early 2010:

 

Our basic operating premise is that grants for proven programs should be larger than those for promising but largely untested programs. Grants will fall into three categories:

• First, Pure Innovation grants of up to about $5 million dollars for promising ideas that should be tried.
• Second, Strategic Investment grants of up to roughly $30 million for programs that need to build a research base or organizational capacity to succeed at a larger scale.
• And finally, Grow What Works grants that will go as high as $50 million for proven programs that are ready to grow and expand.

Check out the full text of Duncan's remarks here.

Education Week's "Politics K-12" blog reports on the new deadlines. Here's the timeline:

Late July: The Department will publish a notice of proposed rule making in the Federal Register, inviting public comment for 30 days on the proposed grant application and the criteria for evaluating the states' applications.

October: Notice inviting applications will be published in the Federal Register.

December: Phase 1 applications will be due.

March 2010: Phase 1 grants awarded, winners announced.

June 2010: Phase 2 applications will be due.

September 2010: Phase 2 grants awarded, winners announced.