With Grants, NEA Fund Paves Its Own Path to Reform

T hree districts receive grants to improve instruction and close achievement gaps.

Three urban school districts—Springfield, Mass; Durham, N.C.; and Columbus, Ohio—will receive an equal share of $3.75 million from the foundation of the National Education Association to improve instruction, close achievement gaps, and stimulate parental involvement.

That additional funding is the first major scaling up of the foundation’s 6-year-old, $6 million Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative .

Details of the districts’ new plans differ, but they share common elements, including setting up teams of teachers and administrators in selected schools to review student-achievement data, urging teachers to visit students’ homes, and establishing joint labor-management panels...