Smaller Learning Communities Funding

The application notice is expected at the end of November, with letters of intent due in early January and applications due in mid-February. Some $88 million will be offered this year. Average award size is expected to be $2.2 million, with 40 grants to be offered.

Local educational agencies (LEAs) apply for SLC funding. SLC activities seek to improve student academic achievement in large public high schools with enrollments of 1,000 or more students. SLCs include structures such as freshman academies, multi-grade academies organized around career interests or other themes, "houses" in which small groups of students remain together throughout high school, and autonomous schools-within-a-school, as well as personalization strategies, such as student advisories, family advocate systems, and mentoring programs.

Info: For a copy of last year's application package, which should help in preparing for the FY 2009 cycle, please visit http://www.ed.gov/programs/slcp/index.html