For immediate release
June 13, 2016
NC Department of Public Instruction Pursues Grant to Expand Access for Educationally Disadvantaged Students to High Quality Charter Schools
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s (NCDPI)
Office of Charter Schools has applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of
Education to help increase access for educationally disadvantaged students to
high quality public charter schools. The
proposal is a product of strong collaboration between NCDPI, the NC Charter
Schools Advisory Board, and public charter school advocates, including the NC
Public Charter Schools Association and NC Parents for Educational Freedom.
The proposed $30 million, three-year federal grant would enable
NCDPI staff to provide competitive planning and implementation subgrants to support the
start up of additional high quality public charter schools, particularly in
communities where educationally disadvantaged students in the local school
district are performing disproportionately lower on state academic performance
measures.
NCDPI also would provide dissemination subgrants that would leverage
the experience of current leaders in the NC public charter schools community
who have demonstrated success in helping educationally disadvantaged students
grow academically, sometimes very rapidly. These subgrants would support the
successful leaders in spreading practices that have been producing excellent results.
The proposed subgrant programs’ primary goals are to:
- increase the number of educationally disadvantaged
students being served by high quality public charter schools;
- improve the academic performance of educationally
disadvantaged students; and close academic achievement gaps between
educationally disadvantaged and educationally non-disadvantaged students; and
- raise the overall academic achievement for North
Carolina’s public schools.
NCDPI staff submitted the grant application on May 31, and hopes
to hear by late summer/early fall regarding whether the state will receive the
award.
For more information, please contact NCDPI Communications at 919.807.3450.
###
|