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Two Clarksville Montgomery County School System Schools receive $400,000 in Grants

State Invests Millions in Closing Achievement Gaps through Focus School Grants

Tennessee Department of EducationNashville, TN – The Tennessee Department of Education announced today the 56 winners of the Focus School grant competition, which will provide an estimated $19.2 million investment to schools across the state during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years.

The winning schools will be awarded between $100,000 and $300,000 each year depending on enrollment size and satisfactory performance. The award will be used to create and sustain improvement plans that close student achievement gaps among subgroups, such as racial and ethnic groups, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, students with disabilities and English-language learners.

Clarksville Montgomery County School System’s Moore Magnet Elementary School and St. Bethlehem Elementary School will each receive $200,000 over a two-year period.

CMCSS Chief Academic Officer Dr. Sean Impeartrice said, “Moore and St. Bethlehem’s faculty and staff have analyzed their data and completed the grant process in order to make an impact on student achievement and gap closures.  This was a competitive grant process and the state recognized both schools’ grant applications as highly credible and tied to best practices.  Each school spent countless hours exploring best practices and creating the grants in hopes of providing additional training, programming, and resources for their learning communities.”

The grant program is designed to support Focus Schools – the 10 percent of schools in Tennessee with the largest achievement gaps between groups of students – in developing deliberate, data-driven strategies to ensure growth for student subgroups that have underperformed their peers.

“Using this grant, Tennessee’s Focus Schools will create real opportunities to close student achievement gaps while providing examples of success and lessons learned for all schools across the state,” said Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman.

Moore Magnet Elementary Principal Kim Smith said, “The faculty and staff of Moore Magnet are elated to be a recipient of the Tennessee Focus Grant.  As STEM becomes a cornerstone of the 21st century classroom education and Common Core State Standards are implemented, we recognize that this grant will provide the critical resources necessary to help all our students reach their educational potential.”

St. Bethlehem Elementary Principal Tracy Hodges said: “The faculty and staff at St. Bethlehem are dedicated to the success of our students. Their continual efforts were demonstrated in our TCAP achievement scores which demonstrated strong gains among all students and across all content areas. The award of the Focus Schools Competitive Grant will allow us to continue with this work but also be more intentional in closing the achievement gap among subgroups through the purchase of resources and professional development aligned to the specific needs of our student population. I am confident that our continued collaborative efforts will prove successful.”

The state named 167 Focus Schools in August, a part of Tennessee’s accountability system developed through its waiver from No Child Left Behind, and 152 of those Focus Schools applied for the grant.

School faculty, along with parents, outside experts and community partners, submitted plans in September based on the latest research in the areas of individualized student support, staff professional development, extended learning time, community engagement and performance management.

For those Focus Schools that were not awarded grant funds, the state plans to enlist the support of external academic specialists who will provide personalized, embedded technical assistance to Focus Schools as they work to close existing gaps.

Additional information regarding Focus Schools and the accountability system can be found at tn.gov/education/accountability.

For more information, contact Kelli Gauthier at 615.532.7817 or Kelli.Gauthier@tn.gov.

2012-14 Focus School Grant Recipients

School Name

District

Charleston Elementary Bradley
Taylor Elementary Bradley
Waterville Community Elementary Bradley
Anderson Elementary Bristol
Woodbury Grammar School Cannon
Valley Forge Elementary Carter
East Chester Elementary Chester
H.Y. Livesay Middle Claiborne
Powell Valley Elementary Claiborne
Mayfield Elementary Cleveland
Parrottsville Elementary Cocke
Hillsboro Elementary Coffee
Holice Powell Elementary Dyer
East Junior High School Fayette
Fayetteville High School Fayetteville
Franklin Elementary Franklin SSD
Johnson Elementary Franklin SSD
Spring Hill Elementary Gibson SSD
North Elementary Grundy
Union Heights Elementary Hamblen
Brown International Hamilton
Tyner Academy Hamilton
Hancock Elementary Hancock
Northside Elementary Hardin
South Haven Elementary Henderson
East Elementary Humboldt
New Market Elementary Jefferson
Piedmont Elementary Jefferson
Talbott Elementary Jefferson
John Sevier Middle Kingsport
Lincoln Elementary Kingsport
Inskip Elementary Knox
Ripley High School Lauderdale
Whitthorne Middle Maury
Selmer Elementary McNairy
Amqui Elementary Metro Nashville
Carter-Lawrence Elementary Metro Nashville
Pearl Cohn High School Metro Nashville
Ruby Major Elementary Metro Nashville
Milan Middle Milan SSD
Sweetwater High School Monroe
Moore Magnet School Montgomery
St. Bethlehem Elementary Montgomery
A.H. Roberts Elementary Overton
Benton Elementary Polk
Spring City Elementary Rhea
Midway Elementary Roane
Midway Middle Roane
Coopertown Elementary Robertson
Krisle Elementary Robertson
Crestview Elementary Tipton
Peabody High School Trenton SSD
East Middle School Tullahoma
Centertown Elementary Warren
Dresden Elementary Weakley
Doyle Elementary White
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