Education Department Announces School Improvement Grants for 16 States

Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Education announced today that 16 states will receive more than $113 million in grants to continue efforts to turn around our nation's persistently lowest-achieving schools through awards from the Department's School Improvement Grants (SIG) program.

"When we launched this program at the beginning of the Obama Administration, we wanted to give states and school districts an opportunity to put unprecedented resources toward reforms that would increase graduation rates, reduce dropout rates and improve teacher quality for all students, particularly for those who most need good teaching to catch up," said U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. "Together, we've made important gains, but we know there is still a lot of work to be done in transforming our lowest-performing schools so that all students have the chance to be successful and thrive in diverse school environments. That's why we are making sure that, in addition to these funds, the Department continues to look for ways to support socioeconomic diversity in schools, whether it's through SIG funding or other grant competitions."

The Department awards grants to states, which then award competitive sub-grants to school districts that demonstrate the greatest need for the funds and the strongest commitment to provide adequate resources to substantially raise student achievement in their lowest-performing schools. States are also given flexibility to develop their own state-determined intervention model that focuses on whole-school reform and is designed to improve student achievement. Today, the Department approved state-determined models in two states - Georgia and Maryland.

Arizona, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nebraska will receive awards to run a new grant competition and make new awards to schools. Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, and Utah will receive continuation funds for implementing a SIG model; Connecticut, Iowa, Oregon, and South Dakota will make both new and continuation awards. Awards to remaining states will be made on a rolling basis over the coming months.

Since 2009, the SIG program has provided more than $7 billion in grants to support to more than 1,800 of the country's lowest performing schools that have demonstrated the greatest need and the strongest commitment to implementing rigorous reforms to raise student achievement. Turning around chronically low-performing schools, which have been failing students for decades and possibly generations, is some of the hardest and most important work in education, with direct impact on the life outcomes of young people.

Data show that SIG schools are improving faster than other schools, including gains in mathematics and reading proficiency and improved graduation rates. For more information about amounts of the grants, go to www.ed.gov.

Featured

  • Kimball International Launches Season 5 of Alternative Design Podcast

    Commercial furnishings manufacturer Kimball International recently premiered the fifth season of its Alternative Design podcast, according to a news release. The first episode was released on March 17, and new episodes will launch monthly. The podcast discusses forces that shape built environments, from work to housing to healthcare to human wellness.

  • Singlewire Software Report Reveals Gaps in K–12 School Entrance Security

    Single Software recently released its first-ever School Entrance Security Report based on more than 500 responses from U.S. school staff members. According to a news release, the findings highlight a gap between K–12 leaders’ wishes for school safety and how safe the schools actually are, as well as the challenges facing students and staff in that goal.

  • K12 Tutoring Earns Every Student Succeeds Act Level II Validation

    Personalized online tutoring service K12 Tutoring recently announced that it has received Level II validation underneath the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), according to a news release. The independently validated study provides evidence of K12 Tutoring’s role in creating positive student outcomes through effective academic intervention and research-based solutions.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Introduces Claude for Education

    Anthropic has launched a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

Digital Edition