Meeting the Moment
Student outcomes have dropped sharply since the pandemic, and education leaders are urgently searching for solutions that work. With the federal role in education receding, states face greater responsibility but fewer reliable resources. The State Implementation Fund offers a direct path forward—providing multi-year grants, expert partnerships, and hands-on implementation support to help state leaders scale proven interventions and demonstrate measurable impact on student learning within three years.
Accelerate believes every student deserves access to proven interventions that help them excel. SIF exists to help states turn that belief into reality, especially for students who have historically been left behind.
Why It Works
States are uniquely positioned to drive change at scale—they set policy, allocate funding, and provide guidance to hundreds of districts. Yet one of education’s most persistent challenges is closing the gap between passing good policy and executing it effectively. That’s where SIF comes in.
Accelerate is uniquely positioned to lead this work. Our team includes former state chiefs, superintendents, and senior officials who understand how to navigate complex policy landscapes while keeping students at the center. For nearly three years, we’ve built deep relationships with state leaders, created the infrastructure to support multi-state implementation, and proven our capacity through rigorous grantmaking, research partnerships, and communities of practice. SIF builds on this foundation—helping states translate authority into action by providing the funding, expert support, and accountability systems needed to scale what works and sustain it for the long term.
Key Stats
6 States
SIF partnerships are already underway in Tennessee, Maryland, Louisiana, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina.
5.5 million
Nearly 5.5 million students are enrolled in K-12 public schools across all SIF partner states.
Over $20m
Over $24 million dollars has already been committed help states implement evidence-backed reforms that deliver real outcomes in literacy, math, and beyond.
FAQs
SIF provides multi-year implementation grants of up to $3 million, planning grants to help states develop strategy, and partnerships with leading researchers and implementation experts. Beyond funding, SIF offers hands-on support—helping states navigate policy development, build infrastructure, establish data systems, and create the partnerships needed to execute reforms successfully. States work with evaluation partners like RAND to track progress and demonstrate measurable improvements in student outcomes within three years.
States are selected based on the strength of their leadership (governors and state education chiefs), their commitment to advancing student learning through evidence-based strategies, their readiness for implementation support, and their willingness to prioritize measurable student outcomes. SIF partners with states that demonstrate both the vision and capacity to drive meaningful change at scale.
The State Implementation Fund was launched in 2024 by the Walton Family Foundation with a $40 million investment to help governors and state education chiefs implement education policy solutions at scale. Accelerate is uniquely positioned to lead this work because of our existing infrastructure for grantmaking, our deep relationships with state leaders, and our team’s expertise in driving systems change. Integrating SIF into Accelerate’s core work allows us to build on our proven track record in tutoring research, grantmaking, and policy to help more states scale evidence-based practices across a wider range of reforms.
While Accelerate’s other grant programs support tutoring providers, districts, and ed-tech innovators, SIF works exclusively at the state level to build the infrastructure and systems needed to scale proven interventions statewide. SIF focuses specifically on implementation—helping states not just adopt policies, but execute them effectively with the support, funding, and partnerships needed to deliver results.
