West Virginia’s persistently failing schools are going to get a financial boost of federal money.
The $21.9 million is being set aside from the $3.5 billion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money. It will be administered through the School Improvement Grants program from the 2009 budget. According to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), some West Virginia schools have been performing at the bottom 5 percent of the state without signs of improvement or have graduation rates below 60 percent.
The money will be given out to schools in West Virginia by the DOE, and school districts across the state will have to compete for the funds. To qualify for the money, the school district applying must have a state-identified “persistently lowest achieving” status or be a school that hasn’t met annual yearly progress benchmarks for two years, if it is not identified as a “persistently lowest achieving” school.
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