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. Among the schools to win is Parrottsville Elementary School.

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.

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.

For more details, please see the latest edition of the Newport Plain Talk.