Promoting K-12 Student Achievement at Military-Connected Schools | HE1254 21 R 0008

Opportunity Information: Apply for HE1254 21 R 0008

The Promoting K-12 Student Achievement at Military-Connected Schools grant (Funding Opportunity Number HE1254 21 R 0008; CFDA 12.556) is a discretionary education grant offered by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). It is designed to strengthen academic opportunities for students in military-connected communities by supporting high-quality world language programming across the K-12 pipeline, with the end goal of helping students progress from elementary through secondary school and reach advanced proficiency levels in one or more target languages.

At its core, the opportunity focuses on the establishment, improvement, or expansion of world language programs serving elementary and secondary students. DoDEA is looking for innovative applications, meaning proposals should go beyond maintaining the status quo and instead present thoughtful, effective approaches to building language proficiency over time. The emphasis on students advancing through grade levels suggests DoDEA values coherent, sequential language instruction that is aligned across schools and grades, rather than isolated or short-term language exposure.

A key expectation is sustainability and broader usefulness. Any Local Education Agency (LEA) that receives an award must use grant funds to support programming that shows promise of continuing after the grant period ends. In practical terms, applicants are expected to plan for how the program will be maintained once federal dollars are no longer available, such as through district budgeting, staffing models, partnerships, or embedding the program into standard curricula. Alongside sustainability, the program requires approaches that can be disseminated and duplicated in other LEAs. This means DoDEA is not only funding local impact, but also looking for models, tools, practices, and lessons learned that can be shared and replicated by other school districts serving military-connected students.

Projects funded under this grant may also include a professional development component. While not required in every case, this allows applicants to build educator capacity as part of the program design, such as training teachers in effective language instruction practices, proficiency-based teaching and assessment, curriculum alignment, or strategies for supporting mobile student populations common in military communities.

DoDEA plans to make multiple awards, depending on the availability of funds. Individual grant awards range from a minimum of $500,000 to a maximum of $3,000,000. Funded projects may run for up to five years, which supports longer-term implementation and scaling, including time to develop curriculum, hire or train staff, implement instruction, track student progress, and refine the program based on results. Eligibility is limited to independent school districts, and the original application closing date for the posted opportunity was May 7, 2021.

• The DoD Education Activity in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Promoting K-12 Student Achievement at Military-Connected Schools" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.556.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-03-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-05-07. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $3,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Independent school districts.

Apply for HE1254 21 R 0008

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