Connecticut is getting $25.7 million from the federal education agency to boost student achievement among more than 200 of the state’s weakest schools, authorities said Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the funds are part of the $3.5 billion that will be made available to states this spring from money set aside in the 2009 budget and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Connecticut must distribute the funds first to “persistently lowest achieving,” or Tier III schools.
According to the state education department’s grant application filed with the agency, most of the 220 elementary and secondary schools listed Tier III are in the Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven areas.
School districts will apply to the state for the funds this spring, Duncan said.
In doing so, he said, they must indicate how they will improve, either by replacing principals, teachers and staff; closing or converting schools; or altering curricula and expanding learning periods, among other strategies.
