Department of Education

ACADEMIC ACCELERATION AND ACHIEVEMENT GRANTS

Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Proposal

CONTENTS

Page

Appropriation, Adjustments, and Transfers ................................................................................ 1

Authorizing Legislation............................................................................................................... 2

Activity: ...................................................................................................................................... 3

Academic acceleration and achievement grants..................................................................... 3
ACADEMIC ACCELERATION AND ACHIEVEMENT GRANTS

1 

Appropriation, Adjustments, and Transfers

(dollars in thousands)

Appropriation/Adjustments/Transfers 2023 2024 2025 

Mandatory:

Discretionary Appropriation 0 0 $8,000,000

Discretionary Total, mandatory appropriation 0 0 $8,000,000 
ACADEMIC ACCELERATION AND ACHIEVEMENT GRANTS

2 

Authorizing Legislation

(dollars in thousands)

Activity

2024

Authorized footnote

2024

Appropriationfootnote

2025

Authorizedfootnote

2025

Budget

Language Acquisi tion: Academic acceleration and achievement grants

(Proposed legislation)

0 0 To be determined $8,000,000
ACADEMIC ACCELERATION AND ACHIEVEMENT GRANTS

3 

Activity:

Academic acceleration and achievement grants 

(Proposed legislation) 

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2025 Authorization: To be determined

Budget Authority (mandatory):

Period of fund availability: 

2024 Annualized CR 2025 Request Change

0 $8,000,000 +$8,000,000

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

In its ongoing efforts to help the Nation’s schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to 

help students reach new heights of academic success, the Administration is proposing a onetime new grant program to assist States and local educational agencies (LEAs) to rapidly 

improve outcomes for underserved students through a variety of proven, evidence-based 

academic acceleration and achievement strategies. Academic Acceleration and Achievement 

Grants would fund the following strategies: (1) increasing student attendance and engagement; 

(2) providing high-quality, high-dosage tutoring and small-group instruction; and (3) expanding 

summer, extended, or afterschool learning time. 

Funds, which would be initially awarded competitively to States and may also be awarded 

directly to LEAs in a subsequent competition, would be based on the quality of plans for the 

expansion of evidence-based attendance and engagement strategies, tutoring, or extended, 

afterschool or summer learning time in underserved schools that need it most. At a minimum, in 

their applications, eligible entities would be required to explain the following:

• how grant funds would complement and build on State, local, and other Federal 

investments (including Title I school improvement funds); 

• How grant funds would be awarded to support Title I and Title I-eligible schools, 

including schools that have been designated for Comprehensive Support and 

Improvement (CSI), Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), or Additional Targeted 

Support and Improvement (ATSI), and schools that have been disproportionately 

impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic that enroll at least 40% of students from lowincome backgrounds;

• how the entity would ensure that student groups that have been disproportionately 

impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including students with disabilities, English 

learners, and other high-need students, would be prioritized for support; and

• how the entity would evaluate project outcomes.
ACADEMIC ACCELERATION AND ACHIEVEMENT GRANTS

4 

Additionally, State and LEA eligibility for funds would be contingent upon making school 

accountability determinations on-time and having met maintenance of effort and maintenance of 

equity requirements. 

The authorization would include a national activities reservation of one-half of one percent for 

technical assistance and evaluation. 

FY 2025 BUDGET PROPOSAL

The Administration proposes the authorization of $8.0 billion over 5 years for Academic 

Acceleration and Achievement Grants to rapidly accelerate student achievement and address 

gaps in opportunity and achievement caused by interruptions in learning due to the COVID-19 

pandemic. Because of strong Federal, State, and local education investments and actions, 

headlined by the largest-ever investment in K-12 education through the American Rescue Plan, 

many students are on the path to academic improvement and success. However, progress is 

uneven, with many students still struggling to get back on track academically – especially those 

in historically underserved communities. Schools with the most significant achievement 

challenges are in need of continued, sustained investment in evidence-based strategies, as well 

as sustained efforts from across the community to build change that will last.

All States, districts, and schools must have in place strong, comprehensive plans to support 

students’ learning, including strategies that support a strong instructional core. This includes 

sound instructional practices and approaches to ensure all students can access rigorous 

content, high-quality instructional materials, tiered approaches to instruction and climate, and 

incorporation of high-quality formative and diagnostic assessment into daily instructional 

practice. It includes strong partnership with parents and families and engagement that equips 

families with the tools they need to support students’ learning and development. It means 

recognizing teachers with competitive salaries and working conditions; providing them ongoing, 

job-embedded professional learning; and giving them time to collaborate and use data together 

to identify and address students’ academic and other needs. And, as evidenced through the 

landmark passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, it means designing school climates 

where students feel welcome, safe and where their social and emotional development and 

mental health needs are supported.

States and LEAs need to continue strengthening their academic acceleration and achievement 

efforts to ensure they are reaching the students and schools who need them the most, and to 

place their efforts on a sustainable path for steady increases in academic achievement, 

including the closing of opportunity and achievement gaps. To that end, research shows that 

three key strategies, when well implemented, can rapidly improve student outcomes: (1) 

increasing student attendance and engagement; (2) providing high-quality, high-dosage tutoring 

and small-group instruction; and (3) providing summer, extended, and afterschool learning and 

enrichment programs. States and schools have invested Federal COVID-19 relief funds to 

support these strategies. 

At the same time, additional Federal investment is needed following the obligation deadline of 

COVID-19 federal education relief dollars and to sustain and scale evidence-based approaches 

to student academic success. The proposed Academic Acceleration and Achievement Grants 
ACADEMIC ACCELERATION AND ACHIEVEMENT GRANTS

5 

would provide a total of $8 billion over 5 years in competitive grants to help fund one or more of 

the following evidence-based strategies depending on need:

• Increase student attendance and engagement: Regular, in-person student 

attendance at school is essential to support student and teacher success. But chronic 

absenteeism sharply increased during the pandemic and continues to be a challenge in 

many schools. Students who are chronically absent are much less likely to read at grade 

level and to graduate high school. According to the Council of Economic Advisers, 

absenteeism accounted for up to 27 and 45 percent of the test score declines in math 

and reading, respectively, in the most recent administration of the National Assessment 

of Educational Progress. Research shows that interventions such as sending texts to 

parents about their children’s school absences can reduce absenteeism by up to 

17 percent. Research also shows that targeted parent and family engagement, such as 

home visits, the adoption of early warning interventions systems that engage families, 

low-cost communications such as texts and phone calls, and the effective use of data to 

identify and address the root cause of student absenteeism, can significantly increase 

student attendance.

• Provide high-quality, high-dosage tutoring: Well-designed and well-implemented 

tutoring programs can significantly accelerate student learning, including enabling a child 

to gain as much as 1.5 years of achievement in math. Research shows that to achieve 

these results, tutoring programs should: (1) provide at least three 30-minute sessions 

per week; (2) be held in small groups (e.g., 1-4 students); (3) occur during the school 

day, wherever possible, which helps support consistent attendance; (4) use wellprepared and supported tutors, which may include teachers, paraprofessionals, teaching 

candidates, retired teachers, AmeriCorps members, and other volunteers or staffs; and 

(5) align with an evidence-based and structured curriculum that supports strong core 

instruction, and that is set up for continuous evaluation for impact. Tutoring can also 

reduce burdens on teachers and complement other school-based activities. These 

include building educator capacity through math and literacy coaches, which research 

shows can improve student achievement, and professional development to support datadriven instruction. States can access technical assistance through the National 

Partnership for Student Success support hub.

• Expand summer, extended, or afterschool learning time: Providing students with 

additional instructional time, including through efforts like afterschool or summer learning 

or extending the school day or year, can help students make up for time lost during the 

pandemic. For example, one study found that when students consistently participate in 

high-quality afterschool enrichment programs, it adds approximately 4 months of 

learning in 1 year. Another analysis of 30 schools found that when the school day’s 

instructional time is extended from 6.5 to 8 hours for students in low-income areas, test 

scores improve between 11 and 24 percent. Summer programs lasting 5 weeks with at 

least 3 hours of academic instruction per day add about 2 months of learning in math 

and 1 month of learning in reading, according to a meta-analysis. Collecting and using 
ACADEMIC ACCELERATION AND ACHIEVEMENT GRANTS

6 

data on student participation and program quality helps these programs succeed, and 

this success enables teachers to deliver instruction more effectively during the regular 

school day.

PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES 

(dollars in thousands)

Output Measures 2025

Estimated amount for awards $7,955,000

National activities (including technical assistance and evaluation) $40,000

Peer review $5,000

Number of SEA awards 30-40

Number of LEA awards (if making both SEA and LEA awards) 20-30

PROGRAM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Performance Measures 

The Department will establish performance measures to assess the impact of the activities that 

receive support under this program. The Department will seek to align program measures for 

the Academic Acceleration and Achievement Grants program with measures for related 

programs, such as the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.

.