The Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education has announced grants totaling nearly $8 million and a commitment of an additional $10 million in 2013 to support efforts to improve secondary education in developing countries.

Exceeding its original commitment of $5 million, the coalition, which includes the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, MasterCard and Human Dignity foundations, and ELMA Philanthropies Services, awarded grants to nineteen projects designed to increase the participation, quality, and relevance of secondary education in East Africa, Nigeria, and India. Grant recipients include the African Population and Health Research Center, which was awarded $519,000 to boost secondary school participation and learning outcomes among girls in urban settlements in Kenya; Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative, which will receive $519,000 in support of a teacher training model that uses technology to enhance science and English instruction in Kenya and Tanzania; and the Akanksha Fund, which was awarded $477,000 to train a new generation of school leaders to improve learning outcomes among low-income children in India.

Established in 2012, the partnership received more than five hundred proposals for its first grant cycle. The additional funding in 2013 for initiatives targeting economically disadvantaged and marginalized youth between the ages of 12 and 19 will be focused on projects that pilot new approaches, bring to scale successful models, and research critical questions with respect to increasing demand for secondary-level learning, improving teacher skills, promoting employment-relevant skills, and promoting alternative education models. Letters of inquiry are due May 15.

For a complete list of grant recipients, visit the MacArthur Foundation Web site.