Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, said, âWhen a school continues to perform in the bottom five percent of the state and isnât showing signs of growth or has graduation rates below 60 percent, something dramatic needs to be done.â
âTurning around our worst performing schools is difficult for everyone but it is critical that we should the courage to do the right thing by kids,â said Duncan. She announced on April 2, 2010 that D.C. would receive $12,500,668 through the SIG program to turn these low perform schools around.
In order to apply for these funds a school must be a Tier III school. A Tier III school is one that has not normally identified as one of the lowest achieving schools and has failed to meet annual yearly progress for two years. These schools cannot get funding, however, until the lowest achieving schools have received their funding first.
The schools must choose between four different models to implement out of the following: 1) turnaround model 2) restart model 3) school closure and 4) transformation model. Schools are encouraged to apply this spring and the implementation of the particular model will occur this upcoming fall.