Welcome to the WISELearn Open Educational Resource (OER) Innovative Grants Webpage!
Program Overview
CESA 4 is excited to announce the opportunity for early learning instructional resource grants of up to $10,000 each. These grants are targeted to support Wisconsin’s early learning environments and are provided through WISELearn. The outcomes or products from these early learning grants, will be shared for others to use as Open Educational Resources (OER) via the WISELearn Resources Library. Open educational resources are teaching and learning materials that have been made easier to use via licensing them (usually under Creative Commons) to be freely used, distributed without restriction, and often modified without additional permissions.
WISELearn OER Innovative Grants are exclusively for Wisconsin public school districts or CESAs partnered with a consortium of schools. These grants fund projects that fall under a variety of content and/or focus areas. Applications are being accepted for early learning projects in the areas of Mathematics, ELA, Science, Social Studies, SEL, etc. All application areas focused on early learning are welcome.
The WISELearn OER Innovative Grants support professional learning for and implementation of high quality early learning instructional materials. Teachers deserve high-quality instructional materials and ongoing support to implement those materials. Mounting evidence suggests that providing teachers with access to high-quality, standards-aligned instructional materials and curriculum-based professional learning can result in improvement in student outcomes, making this a research-based school improvement strategy. For more information about high quality instructional materials and professional learning, please visit https://dpi.wi.gov/impl.
Projects that are eligible for the WISELearn OER Innovative Grants are focused on one or more of the following:
Selection and/or adoption of high-quality, early learning instructional materials.
The focus of this option is on selecting or adopting high-quality, standards-aligned instructional early learning materials according to nationally recognized, third-party reviewers (e.g. EdReports.org). For instructional materials that have not been reviewed by a nationally recognized, third-party reviewer (e.g. publisher claims materials are aligned to standards), the purpose is to engage in a review of the instructional materials to determine their quality and alignment to standards using a nationally recognized standards alignment rubric like EdReports.org or IMET. This option is intended to create a repository of tools within the WISELearn Resources Library that districts can use to support the selection and/or adoption of high-quality, early learning instructional materials.
Implementation of high-quality, early learning instructional materials.
The focus of this option is on implementation of high-quality, standards-aligned early learning instructional materials according to nationally recognized, third-party reviewers or alignment rubrics like EdReports.org or IMET. Such implementation should include planning for and/or implementing on-going, job-embedded professional learning focused on meeting the needs of every learner and the use of high-quality, standards-aligned early learning instructional materials. This option is intended to create a repository of tools and/or exemplar plans within the WISELearn Resources Library which support the implementation of high-quality, standards-aligned early learning instructional materials for use across the state.
Creation and Dissemination of Early Learning Materials
The focus of this option is to create high quality, standards aligned, early learning open educational resources and provide wide-scale dissemination of district-generated, standards aligned instructional materials available through the WISELearn Resources Library.
Enhancing Collaboration Focused on Early Learning
The focus of this option is on collaboration with various partners to develop and identify open educational resources, supports, and best practices. It is intended to help in the ongoing implementation of early learning open educational resources and other high quality instructional materials for use across the state via the WISELearn Resources Library.
Early Learning Resource Curation
The focus of this option is on curation and adaptation of high quality, currently available early learning open educational resources. It is intended to create repositories of instructional materials in specific content area(s) within the WISELearn Resources Library.
Proposal Requirements
In order to be considered for funding, proposals must show a plan of action to address one of the following content or focus areas as well as one or more of the project areas:
Content/Focus Area Options:
Early Learning: English Language Arts
Early Learning: Mathematics
Early Learning: Science
Early Learning in Other Content Areas (not ELA, Math, or Science)
Project Focus Areas:
Selection and/or adoption of high-quality, early learning instructional materials
Implementation of high-quality, early learning instructional materials
Creation and dissemination of high-quality, early learning instructional materials
Enhancing collaboration focused of high-quality, early learning instructional materials
High-quality early learning resource curation
Award and Budget Information
Type of Award
Up to $10,000 per grant for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Submission Details
For the application, please visit: 2024-2025 WISELearn Innovation Project Application.
Submissions may come from a Wisconsin public school, district office, or CESA. Only one proposal may be submitted per organization.
Application submissions are due on Friday, June 14, 2024.
Additional Note:
Questions?
Contact Kaye Henrickson, WISELearn Innovation Project Coordinator - khenrickson@cesa4.org