Grants for education innovation and research

From funds reserved under section 7251(b)(2)(A) of this title, the Secretary shall make grants to eligible entities to enable the eligible entities to— The grants described in paragraph (1) shall include— expansion grants to fund implementation and a rigorous replication evaluation of a program that has been found to produce sizable, important impacts under a mid-phase grant described in subparagraph (B) or other effort meeting similar criteria, for the purposes of— In this subpart, the term “eligible entity” means any of the following: A State educational agency, a local educational agency, a consortium described in paragraph (4), or the Bureau of Indian Education, in partnership with— In awarding grants under subsection (a), the Secretary shall ensure that not less than 25 percent of the funds made available for any fiscal year are awarded for programs that meet both of the following requirements: The grantee is— Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Secretary shall reduce the amount of funds made available under such paragraph if the Secretary does not receive a sufficient number of applications of sufficient quality. In order to receive a grant under subsection (a), an eligible entity shall demonstrate that the eligible entity will provide matching funds, in cash or through in-kind contributions, from Federal, State, local, or private sources in an amount equal to 10 percent of the funds provided under such grant, except that the Secretary may waive the matching funds requirement, on a case-by-case basis, upon a showing of exceptional circumstances, such as— the difficulty of raising matching funds in areas with a concentration of local educational agencies or schools with a high percentage of students aged 5 through 17— Each recipient of a grant under this section shall conduct an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the program carried out under such grant. The Secretary may reserve not more than 5 percent of the funds appropriated under section 7251(b)(2)(A) of this title for each fiscal year to—