Indiana wins $10 million federal grant to scale high‑impact tutoring with Notre Dame and WestEd

The Indiana Department of Education announced on Jan. 14 that it has received a $10 million Education Innovation and Research grant from the U.S. Department of Education to scale high‑impact literacy tutoring across the state in partnership with the University of Notre Dame and WestEd.

Jacqueline Kronck, the department’s chief strategy officer, said the grant will fund a hub‑and‑spoke model with Notre Dame serving as the primary coordination hub and WestEd acting as an independent external evaluator. “This grant allows us to build Indiana’s capacity for high impact tutoring,” Kronck said, adding that the program will embed the science of reading and training for well‑prepared adults to tutor students in targeted interventions.

Board members and department staff described the model as one that keeps decision‑making close to local schools while using Notre Dame’s learning design team to provide structured training, evidence‑based instructional resources and assessments, and continuous improvement support. Kronck cited South Bend pilot work where a Tutor ND initiative grew from two pilot schools and produced substantial gains in reading pass rates in the initial sites.

WestEd’s role, the department said, will be to measure and report on impact so the state can refine implementation and ensure public stewardship of the funds. Officials told the board the work would begin in January and that Notre Dame would recruit and support additional universities across the state to scale similar programs in other regions.

Indiana officials framed the grant as an addition of capacity to ongoing statewide literacy efforts. The presentation highlighted recent statewide gains in early literacy and said the program aims to support the state’s longer‑term goal of high reading proficiency for students. Department staff described the EIR award as competitive and said Indiana was among a small number of states selected for the grant.

The board did not take a formal vote on the grant at the meeting; staff said implementation planning and evaluation are next steps.

What this means locally: The department said the grant will fund training for tutors, evidence‑based instructional materials, and an evaluation framework; further details on funding allocations to districts, participating universities, and timelines were not specified at the meeting.