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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Smaller Learning Communities

The program provides competitive grants to increase the academic achievement in large high schools through the creation of smaller, more personalized learning environments. High schools with at least 1,000 students use funds to establish strategies such as career academies to create more personalized instruction.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • The program significantly overlaps with private efforts. Although the largest private source for funding, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has shifted some focus away from their small schools initiative, private investments continue to significantly promote small schools.
  • The program has measures with ambitious targets. In most cases, the program has not yet met its performance and efficiency targets. The program has had modest success in one of its primary goals, raising academic achievement.
  • Grantee performance data are not publicly available. While the Department collects and analyzes data for individual grantees, they are not available to the public in an accessible format on the Department's website.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Working with Congress to terminate funding for this duplicative program.
  • Continuing to implement a technical assistance strategy to raise student achievement, such as focusing on literacy interventions for ninth graders.
  • Making performance data for active grants and for all school years available to the public.

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