A majority of urban district officials say the School Improvement Grant program will make a difference in the long run for schools that are struggling the most, according to a report by the Council of the Great City Schools, an organization that represents 65 of the nation’s largest school districts.
But the report also notes that the SIG program, which received $3 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help states turn around their lowest-performing schools, has not come without challenges for states, including a tight timeline for getting new and complicated reforms off the ground.
It says states and districts have also had a tough time finding and training good teachers and principals to work in some of the nation’s most challenging schools.