In choosing the slate of winners for innovation grants totaling $650 million, the U.S. Department of Education decided to invest heavily in big-name teacher-training and school turnaround organizations while reserving one-fifth of the money for more-experimental programs it believes show promise. Last week, the department announced that 49 districts, schools, and nonprofit groups beat out more than 1,600 other applicants in the Investing in Innovation, or i3, competition, which is aimed at improving achievement for students at risk of academic failure. About $200 million will go to four groups--(1) the KIPP Foundation; (2) Ohio State University; (3) the Success for All Foundation; and (4) Teach For America--that won what are known as "scale up" awards worth up to $50 million each. Fifteen groups won "validation" awards of up to $30 million. And 30 won "development" grants of up to $5 million--the least-restrictive category, for promising ideas that don't have much of a track record. The 49 winners, whose headquarters are concentrated mostly on the East Coast and in California, will focus their work in 250 different project locations spanning 42 states plus the District of Columbia. But there's a big caveat before the groups selected can cash in: They must secure private-sector matching funds worth 20 percent of each grant by Sept. 8, or they risk losing the grant.