Four elementary schools in Morgan Hill Unified School District
identified as persistently low-achieving by the U.S. Department of
Education could take advantage of a slice of $416 million awarded
to the state last week.
Four elementary schools in Morgan Hill Unified School District identified as persistently low-achieving by the U.S. Department of Education could take advantage of a slice of $416 million awarded to the state last week.
The School Improvement Grants program is authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act intended to provide all children equal access to education.
Due to their below-expectations scores on the annual statewide tests, San Martin/Gwinn, P.A. Walsh, El Toro and Jackson elementary schools have been identified as Tier III schools along with 49 others in Santa Clara County.
Tier III schools are in Program Improvement, meaning their test scores did not meet the required threshold by all subgroups: Hispanic, socioeconomically disadvantaged, special education and English language learners in MHUSD. Also, a school is eligible for the SIG money if it’s anticipated to receive Title I funds, which are awarded if a schools’ population has a significant number of students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program.
The U.S. Department of Education expects the funds to be used to improve student proficiency, increase the numbers of school that make adequate yearly progress or AYP, use data to inform decisions and create a system of continuous feedback and improvement.
The state will host a reader’s conference July 19 through July 22 with a budget review to follow July 26 and applications will be approved at the state Board of Education meeting Aug. 2.
The deeper a school is in program improvement, such as Jackson which will enter Year 5 this fall, to a greater extent it must comply with certain responsibilities. The SIG program provides resources to fund the schools’ turnaround activities. Schools applying for SIG funding must fully implement one of four school intervention models during the 2010–11 school year. The four models are: The turnaround model that replaces the principal and rehires no more than 50 percent of the school’s staff; the restart model converts or reopens a school as a charter school; the school closure model shutters the school and enrolls those students at other schools; or the transformation model that requires a series of improvement strategies, including increasing instructional time.
Jackson is implementing the transformational model this fall.
The $415,844,376 made available to California is being distributed by formula to the state and will then be doled out by the state to school districts.
“This grant will help fund efforts to turn around persistently struggling schools in order to prepare their students for success in college and careers,” said Jack O’Connell, the state’s superintendent.
Gilroy schools eligible for SIG funding
Brownell Middle, El Roble Elementary, Rucker Elementary and South Valley Middle
