Reed Announces $2.3 Million in School Reform Grants
Dr. Suellen Reed, Superintendent of Public Instruction, today announced that seven Indiana schools in six school corporations will receive grants totaling $2,311,500 under the federal Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program. The grants will allow districts to implement research-based strategies that encourage change by addressing issues including curriculum and instruction, ongoing teacher training, parental and community involvement, funding issues, and school management.
“By focusing on reforms that will have long-lasting impacts, these schools can lead the way in improving learning for all children,” Dr. Reed said. “Using these grants, our schools can cover virtually all aspects of school operations and advance school reform on a broader scale than ever before.”
Listed by county, the grant awards will go to the following schools:
- DeKalb – Waterloo Elementary School, $305,000, and Country Meadow Elementary School, $329,000, DeKalb County Central United School District,
- Franklin – Brookville Elementary School, Franklin County Community School Corporation, $317,575
- Howard – Sycamore Elementary School, Kokomo-Center Township Consolidated School Corporation, $347,600
- Jay – Judge Haynes Elementary School, Jay School Corporation, $300,000
- Marion – Stephen Decatur Elementary School, Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township, $365,850
- Wayne – Crestdale Elementary School, Richmond Community Schools, $346,475
Under federal requirements for Comprehensive School Reform Program (Title I, Part F, January 8, 2002) schools receiving the CSR grants must have met the following criteria:
- Use innovative strategies and proven methods for student learning, base teaching and school management on reliable research and effective practices, and have been successfully replicated in diverse schools.
- Align instruction, curriculum, assessment, professional development, parental involvement, school management and technology to support school-wide efforts to enable all students to meeting challenging state content and performance standards.
- Provide high-quality and continuous teacher and staff professional development and training.
- Have measurable goals for student performance and benchmarks for meeting those goals.
- Be supported by school faculty, administrators, and staff.
- Provide for the involvement of parents and the local community in planning and implementing school improvement activities.
- Use high-quality external technical support and assistance from a comprehensive school reform entity with experience and expertise in school reform.
- Include a plan to evaluate the implementation of school reforms and the impact on student achievement.
- Identify how other resources (federal, state, local, and private) available to the school will be used to support and sustain the school reform effort.
For more information, please
see: www.doe.in.gov/TitleI/csr.html or
www.ed.gov/programs/compreform/index.html.