State Grants to Lowest-Achieving Schools include 1 in Mount Vernon

MOUNT VERNON, NY — The State Education Department awarded $95 million in School Improvement Grants to 39 Priority Schools across the state — including schools in East Ramapo, Mount Vernon and Yonkers — Commissioner MaryEllen Elia announced Monday.

They are among the state’s persistently lowest-achieving schools, which are categorized as Priority Schools.

The federal funding will allow these Priority Schools to implement whole-school change models with the goal of improving outcomes for students by achieving dramatic school-level achievement gains so that the school is in good academic standing within three years.

"School Improvement Grants are a welcome investment in some of our most challenged schools,” Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa said in the announcement. "Turnaround can only happen when schools receive sufficient support and resources. These grants will help our struggling schools to engage in transformative practices that have the potential to dramatically improve educational outcomes for our children.”

Here are the local schools receiving School Improvement Grant awards. Each is looking to jointly launch a whole-school redesign.

• In East Ramapo, Chestnut Ridge Middle School was awarded $2,497,895 under the Innovation and Reform Framework-College/Career
• In Mount Vernon City School District, Edward Williams School was awarded $2,500,000 under the Innovation and Reform Framework-Family and Community
• In Yonkers, Cross Hill Academy was awarded $2,500,000 under the Innovation and Reform Framework-Family and Community.

“Every student in every school across New York must have the opportunity to succeed and to do that we need to help our struggling schools improve,” Elia said. “This grant program provides these schools with the chance to effect change and implement strategies that will give their students the best shot at future success.”

Priority Schools can use the grant funding to implement one of six federally designated or state-determined models:

• Turnaround: Replace the principal and at least half the staff as part of the process of phasing out and replacing the school with a new school(s), or completely redesigning the school.
• Restart: Convert the school to a charter school under a charter management organization, replace the school with a new charter school that will serve the students who would have attended the public school, or contract with an Educational Management Organization, such as a local Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), institution of higher education, or other non-profit partner organization as identified in Education Law 211-e, to govern and manage the Priority School and its implementation of the SIG plan.
• Transformation: Replace the principal, but without the requirement to replace at least half the staff. Rather, the implementation of approved Annual Professional Performance Review plans would serve as the basis for rewarding effective teachers and removing ineffective teachers after ample professional development opportunities.
• Innovation Framework: Select one of three NYSED-proposed design pathways: College and Career Readiness School Design, Family and Community School Design, or Individualized Learning School Design, and partner specifically with an Educational Partnership Organization (EPO) to jointly launch a whole-school redesign.
• Evidence-based: Implement, in partnership with a strategy developer, an evidence-based whole-school reform strategy that meets United States Department of Education (USDE) What Works http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/ evidence standards.
• Early Learning Intervention: Replace the principal and offer full-day kindergarten, establish or expand a high-quality preschool program, and implement an approved APPR plan that would serve as a rigorous evaluation and support system.

In certain cases the school district, in collaboration with the local community, may conclude the best option for its students is to close the existing school and transfer students to existing higher achieving options within the district.

For applications proposing to implement a model other than closure, the full project period for this grant is five years. Continuation funding after each period of the project is contingent upon progress toward meeting achievement goals, leading indicators, fidelity of implementation of required model actions, and maintenance of all grant requirements.

The final awards are subject to the review and approval of the State Comptroller.

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