Burmaster awards continuous improvement grants

State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster awarded $6.6 million in grants to fund continuous improvement projects that will raise student achievement in school districts throughout the state.

“The efforts of these districts to partner with their communities to improve student achievement serve as models for the rest of the state,” said Burmaster. “These grants will help close the gap between economically disadvantaged students, students of color, and their peers.”

Grants to districts were distributed for six continuous improvement activities. The largest portion of funding, $3.8 million, is allocated to district school improvement grants. The grants may be used for a number of activities including increasing student tutoring; expanding summer school programming; providing professional staff development; purchasing supplemental instructional materials; developing early intervention programs with students, teachers, parents, and the community; and strengthening student literacy and numeracy through community and parent involvement.

Fifteen grants will fund recruitment and retention of effective educators in high-needs schools. The $625,000 in quality educator grants will support initial educators; help school districts recruit experienced, effective educators; and improve the retention of effective educators to enhance instruction and improve student achievement.

Seventeen districts are sharing $560,000 in grants for early literacy projects. The grants can be used to create partnerships to encourage early literacy through physical activity and nutrition lessons during school or in after-school settings; expand early literacy opportunities and teacher competencies; strengthen partnerships among schools and public libraries; or enhance existing Even Start Family Literacy programs.

Alliance for Attendance grants totaling $610,000 will target school attendance in eight school districts. “Clearly students cannot learn the lessons taught in our classrooms when they are not in school,” Burmaster said. “Milwaukee piloted the collaborative framework of the Alliance for Attendance by bringing the community together to find solutions to improve daily attendance. That model has expanded to other parts of Wisconsin to impact attendance, increase students’ academic achievement, and close the achievement gap.”

Four districts—Antigo, Janesville, La Crosse, and Milwaukee—received $165,000 in funding for the Responsive Education for All Children (REACh) Initiative. REACh helps schools make systemic improvements that reduce barriers to learning and enable all students, including those with disabilities, to experience academic success. The grants help districts implement a coordinated, multi-tiered model of evidence-based instructional options, universal screening, and ongoing progress monitoring.

A portion of the state’s federal grant was used to fund the final year of Comprehensive School Reform activities in the Menominee Indian School District and Milwaukee Public Schools. Both districts had done extensive planning and fact-finding, established goals for improvement, and selected a method by which those goals would be achieved before they received Comprehensive School Reform funds two years ago. The program had its funding eliminated in the 2006 federal budget.

Continuous improvement grants for the 2006-07 school year are funded from the federal Title I Program, part of the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001, also known as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The districts received funding based on school progress on the four annual measurable objectives used to determine adequate yearly progress under Wisconsin’s plan to meet accountability requirements of NCLB. The objectives are test participation, graduation and attendance criteria, and achievement levels in reading and mathematics.

Last updated on 12/18/2006