The U.S. Department of Education has awarded $5.89 million to Arkansas to improve its persistently lowest achieving schools.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Friday that the grant is part the School Improvement Grants program.
The $5.89 million being given to Arkansas is being distributed by formula to the state and will then be competed out by the state to school districts.
Duncan says school districts will apply to the state for the funds this spring. When a school district applies, it must indicate that it will implement one of four school intervention models in each of its persistently lowest-achieving schools for which it receives the funds.
The models are the turnaround model, the restart model, the school closure and the transformation model.