Five schools in Colorado that got millions of dollars from the federal School Improvement Grant may lose those grants after failing to move the needle on student achievement after two years of big financial support. The schools can appeal the decision, according to the Denver Post.
Colorado is not the first state to decide to terminate SIG grants in part because of lack of progress or implementation problems. As of last spring, 10 states had done so, according to a report by the Center on Education Policy, a research and advocacy organization in Washington. Still, there’s no provision in the federal SIG framework that gives states any indication of when it’s appropriate to pull the plug on the funds.
SIG is one of the Obama administration’s flagship programs. But it’s less popular in Congress, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have tried to make big changes to the program and its four turnaround models, which calls for actions such as getting rid of a school’s principal. And House Republicans have tried to eliminate the SIG program entirely.
