The Texarkana Arkansas School has been awarded the highly competitive federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) Grant from the Department of Education in the amount of $14,787,921. The award will be paid over a five-year period.
The MSAP grant will allow the Texarkana Arkansas School District to implement the Montage Project. This innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) project is the district’s next step toward continuous improvement of enhanced and meaningful learning for all students at the College Hill Middle School, North Heights Junior High, and Arkansas High School. The project will expand the successful elementary magnet strands up through the 5th through 12th grades.
The common threads at each of the three project schools will include:
- Guided inquiry using extended projects that teach concepts and skills that generate complex products;
- Curriculum based on the Arkansas State standards which use authentic problems set in real-world contexts which deepen students’ science and math literacy;
- The use of modeling and visualization for bridging experiences and abstractions.
- Students’ collaborative construction of meaning through differing perspectives based on shared experiences; and
- The use of workplace tools for developing face-to-face and virtual learning communities
Research reveals that positive impact of one-to-one computing programs on student learning. In a meta-analysis conducted by Michigan State University, researchers found that one-to-one technology programs, on average, had a statistically significant positive impact on student test scores in English/Language Arts, writing, math, and science. Each of the three project schools will encourage the frequency and breadth of student technology use for writing, internet research, note taking, completing assignments, reading and much more.
“We are excited about receiving this MSAP grant and are grateful the federal government recognized the powerful efforts of our schools and community to continue to address student achievement by providing the necessary resources,” commented Dr. Becky Kesler, Superintendent. ” This grant will help our district continue to prepare students for college and 21st century careers.”
In total, the MSAP awarded 32 grants for fiscal year 2017. These awards total approximately $91.7 million and are spread across 16 states. The Texarkana Arkansas School District is the only school in the state of Arkansas that received the MSAP grant.