At the end of February, the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) announced a new competitive AmeriCorps grant program to support school turnaround efforts.
It will provide $15 million in public funds over three years to reinforce and accelerate intervention efforts in the nation’s lowest-performing schools. The new School Turnaround AmeriCorps program will support AmeriCorps members placed in persistently underachieving schools. Through this collaborative effort, they seek to increase student academic achievement, attendance and high school graduation rates, and college and career readiness in those schools.
An initial investment of $15 million will support three years of the program. The School Turnaround AmeriCorps program will target the schools participating in the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program and engage approximately 650 AmeriCorps members each year for three years.
Organizations applying for grants will be encouraged to focus on strategies that increase family engagement, improve school safety and attendance, address students’ social, emotional, and health needs, improve academic achievement, and increase graduation and college enrollment rates.
The following entities are eligibly to apply: public or private nonprofit organizations, schools, districts, institutions of higher education, cities and counties, Indian Tribes, and labor organizations, along with partnerships of these groups.
The program also extends the efforts of Together for Tomorrow, a cooperative initiative among the Department, CNCS, and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to boost community engagement in improving outcomes at chronically under-performing schools.
A notice of intent to apply must be submitted to CNCS by April 2, 2013 via e-mail at: americorpsgrants@cns.gov. Applications are due on April 23, 2013. More information about the notice of intent and application instructions may be found here. Grants will be awarded by mid-July.
