Education

Georgia To Receive $16 Million Grant To Help Schools Improve

July 5th, 2016

In this Nov. 20, 2014 photo, eight grader Aklya Thomas and teacher Faren Fransworth use a digital textbook to during a math class at Burney Harris Lyons Middle School in Athens Ga. Georgia schools will use only digital textbooks within the next six years under a proposal one state lawmaker has planned for the 2015 … Continued

John Bazemore / Associated Press

Georgia will soon get $16 million in federal money through what’s known as the School Improvement Grant program, or SIG. The program aims to turn around states’ lowest-performing schools.

Schools that participate have to adopt one of four improvement models. For example, some administrators and teachers might be replaced; a school might convert to a charter school; or it could shut down and reopen under different leadership.

Those options can be controversial, but Leslie Hazle Bussey, chief of staff for the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI), said the program has been successful in Georgia.

“In particular, I think the most effective lever has been the placement of on-site consultants or what they call their SIG specialists, who come out and make visits and really offer some coaching to both district leaders and school leaders,” she said.

Gov. Nathan Deal has proposed a local school turnaround model, called the Opportunity School District. The plan, which goes before voters in November, would allow the state to step in and run so-called ‘chronically failing’ schools.

Bussey said the two programs — SIG and OSD — have different approaches to helping schools improve.

“I think the core idea with OSD is sort of substituting the governor’s office for the local school board, which is a different level of leadership,” she said. “It’s more, sort of, large-scale organizational governance rather than the day-to-day execution of a school.”

Data from the U.S. Education Department show several schools in the SIG program have seen improved academic performance.

Georgia education officials will announce the new SIG recipients in November.