Education First is thrilled to announce that three of our state agency partners—New Mexico, Montana and North Carolina—have been awarded federal funding through the U.S. Department of Education’s Competitive Grants for State Assessments (CGSA) program. Out of four state grants awarded nationwide this year, our partners secured three, bringing $11 million in federal investments to support hundreds of thousands of students and educators.

Through strategic coaching and grant writing support, our team worked closely with state leaders to turn innovative visions for assessment, accountability and data systems into winning project plans.

Overview of State Initiatives

• New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED):
  Through the Integrated Learning, Instruction, Assessment, and Decision-Making (ILIAD) initiative, NMPED aims to solve a central challenge in balanced assessment systems: making classroom-based evidence of student mastery usable, comparable and trustworthy by connecting local evidence to validated statewide proficiency scales.
  
• Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI):
  OPI will expand its Montana Aligned to Standards Through-Year (MAST) System by creating educator-facing tools, delivering professional learning opportunities and building family-facing supports necessary for MAST data to drive instructional improvement at scale.
  
• North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI):
  DPI’s Skills for the Future 2.0 project will build and scale a skills assessment ecosystem centered on critical thinking as the bridge connecting academic achievement, durable skills and workforce readiness.

Catalyzing Philanthropic Support & Impact Track Record

In Montana and North Carolina, our technical assistance was funded by the Community Funding Accelerator, illustrating how strategic philanthropic investments can successfully unlock substantial public funding.

This achievement continues a strong history of partnership and success. Over the last three cycles of the Competitive Grants for State Assessments program, 90% of the states Education First has supported have won their grant applications—totaling 10 grants worth $32 million across seven states.

To learn more about this year’s grant awardees, view the official announcement on the U.S. Department of Education CGSA Awards Page.