Greater Clark Schools, Wilson Education Center Receive Education Grants

The Indiana Department of Education has announced recipients of its Innovation Grant funding.The ten winners across the state will share $2.4 million that will go toward student achievement programs. Greater Clark County Schools is receiving a $280,000. Teachers from the district will collaborate to create a model curriculum for the new education standards implemented this year, said Greater Clark Superintendent Stephen Daeschner.“Its kinda a quasi-lesson plan, it’s a quasi-structure that we’ve been using and we have great data that says its making a great difference in the academic achievement. But this (grant) will take it to another level," he said.Daeschner will ask principals to recommend effective teachers to participate. Each grade and subject will be tackled by small teams of teachers, said Daeschner.Even though the district has seen significant gains in student achievement, not all teachers have the resources to best prepare them for teaching the common core state standards, he said. And that’s where the teams funded by the grant will come in.“So we’re doing it now to a degree it just is not of the quality that we expect out of these teams," said Daeschner.The Wilson Education Center in Charlestown also received a grant. Its $250,000 will go toward improving students’ reading skills in 12 counties in southeastern Indiana.