LITTLE ROCK — U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says Arkansas will receive $5.7 million in grants to improve the schools that are performing the poorest.
The award is part of the Education Department’s school improvement grants program. The department says Arkansas has received $51.8 million since the program was redesigned in 2009.
Schools will apply to the state for the funding. The U.S. Education Department says to receive funding, a school must implement one of four models: replacing the principal and hiring some new staff members, converting a school into a charter school, closing a school and sending students to a better-performing school or replacing the principal and revamping curriculum.
Duncan says more than 1,200 low-achieving schools nationwide have received funding under the program.