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.