Struggling high schools receive more federal aid

The U.S. Education Department has announced that it has provided an unprecedented amount of aid to turn around struggling high schools, while an independent report found that the nation's high school graduation rate is on the rise.

The federal announcement and the report from America's Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization founded by former secretary of state Colin Powell, reflected a coordinated response to what some experts have called high school "dropout factories."

Through the 2009 economic stimulus law, the government has targeted $3.5 billion to improve persistently low-performing schools. On Tuesday, November 30, the department disclosed that 48% of the 730 schools that have set turnaround plans in motion through those grants are high schools, a higher share, officials say, than high schools normally receive because federal education aid usually is tilted toward elementary and middle schools that qualify for the anti-poverty program known as Title I. Read more in The Washington Post online.