The Tennessee Department of Education will be awarding a $50,000 grant to Dayton City Schools to encourage compensation reform and enhance school turn-around strategies.
“This money will be vital in shaping how much our students improve over the next few years,” said Rep. Jim Cobb. “By employing new strategies and techniques, our school systems will raise their standards and help Tennessee students compete in global economy.”
First to the Top, the comprehensive education reform passed by the General Assembly this year, allows the department to create a competitive supplemental fund totaling
$1.5 million over the course of the next four years, $375,000 per year, for innovation in school districts whose share of funds is within the bottom 20 percent of total Local
Education Agency First to the Top funds.
Dayton City Schools will be receiving the $50,000 to assist in developing alternative teacher salary schedules. For year one, this competitive portion of the First to the Top grant offered up to 28 school districts the opportunity to supplement the Scopes of Work to address compensation reform and school turn-around strategies.
Grants were awarded based on the strength of the proposed expenditures to develop alternative salary schedules and/or to turn around low-performing schools. Expenditures for this competitive funding may include professional development, planning, personnel and equipment.