The U.S. Department of Education this week unveiled its selections in another grant competition aimed at education innovation. The department chose 49 applicants -- school districts, nonprofits, universities -- who submitted proposals in the Investing in Innovation, or i3, challenge.

The award recipients can claim their piece of $650 million from the grant program once they secure a private sector match of 20 percent.

Once again, Maine came up short in a federal competition aimed at spurring education innovations. But unlike Race to the Top, this wasn't a state-guided effort.

Federal evaluators fielded six applications from organizations in Maine. Here's a taste of those Pine Tree State proposals:

• Readfield-based Syntiro, which coordinates a number of professional development offerings for school districts, submitted a $5 million proposal, called RTI Plus One, to help seven rural school districts implement "Response to Intervention" plans aimed at narrowing the achievement gap between low-income Maine students and others.

• Oxford-based SAD 17 led the Androscoggin Digital Literacy Project, a $4.7 million program that proposed training teachers at four high schools and three middle schools in Androscoggin and Oxford counties to better teach students "the digital literacy skills that are critical for college- and career-readiness." The program is aimed at improving students' reading comprehension when the reading material is largely online. The collaborative enlisted Boston College and a unit of the University of Connecticut as partners.

• In Washington County, a collaborative that included a Stanford University math program, School Unions 104 (Eastport) and 106 (Calais) and local nonprofits proposed a $700,000 initiative called Sunrise Investment in Innovation. The program proposed employing the Stanford program, called EPGY, as a way to boost the amount of time students spend on math instruction. EPGY, according to the program website, is a computer-based, long-distance way of customizing math instruction to particular students' needs.

• The Gulf of Maine Research Institute put forth a $2.5 million project that would institute a kit-based science curriculum called Dive Deeper that lasts more than 20 class periods. "Our nation's children are falling behind in science. This is in part because instructional time has been reallocated to literacy and math and in part because the way we teach science does not reflect the way children learn," the application reads. "Dive Deeper will spark an interest in science in our next generation, increase the quality and quantity of instructional time devoted to science, and support the development skills needed for college and careers in the 21st century."

• "Pathways to Success" is one of two proposals offered by Portland Public Schools. This $11.2 million proposal proposes a medley of initiatives aimed at raising academic achievement: extended school days, small learning communities of high school students, professional development and school-wide implementations of standards-based learning. The initiative enlists the help of LearningWorks, a Portland nonprofit.

• "To Ride Alongside a Light Beam" is the second Portland Public Schools proposal. The $700,000 request is targeted at Portland's Riverton and East End elementary schools, which have high numbers of Limited English Proficient students and are considered low achieving. The project is one that enlists the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra and music teachers to offer instrumental instruction to students who are refugees and new immigrants. "Displacement brings not only the joys of living in a free and democratic society, but also heartaches, loneliness, poverty and many other challenges," the application reads. "The Portland schools will help their students meet these extraordinary challenges by offering an innovative and sustainable instrumental music program...."

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