The National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices has awarded grants of $150,000 to Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Mississippi to support the development of a comprehensive strategy aimed at improving chronically low-performing schools.

"This project will help state leaders address the root causes and underlying conditions in the most chronically low-performing schools," said Dane Linn, director of the NGA Center's Education Division.

The "State Strategies to Improve Chronically Low-Performing Schools" initiative will help states enact policies that change the operating conditions--such as staffing and budgetary authority--of low-performing schools and build capacity for comprehensive, state-led turnaround efforts. The grants were made possible with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Prudential Foundation.