Kentucky, 24 other states and the District of Columbia will share nearly $220 million in School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

SIG funds provide grants to state educational agencies that are used to assist school districts as they work to raise student achievement in persistently low-achieving (PLA) schools, now designated as Priority Schools through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind Act (ESEA/NCLB) waiver that Kentucky received in February.

For this round of funding, Kentucky will receive $8,437,046, which is continuation funding that will be allocated to those schools previously identified as being in Cohort 2 of the SIG process. The Kentucky Department of Education has asked for funding for the most-recently identified 19 Priority Schools (formerly the Cohort 3 designation) through the state budget process.

Those schools that will receive this continuation funding are listed below:

• Carter Co., East Carter County High
• Christian Co., Christian County High
• Greenup Co., Greenup County High
• Jefferson Co., Doss High
• Jefferson Co., Fairdale High
• Jefferson Co., Iroquois High
• Jefferson Co., Knight Middle
• Jefferson Co., Seneca High
• Jefferson Co., Southern High
• Jefferson Co., Waggener Traditional High
• Martin Co., Sheldon Clark High
• Newport Ind., Newport High

SIG funds are designed to improve student achievement in Title I schools identified for improvement, corrective action or restructuring, as well as schools that are eligible for, but don’t receive, Title I funding and who have been identified as persistently low-achieving.

To learn more about the School Improvement Grants program, visit http://www2.ed.gov/programs/sif/index.html.