LANSING | Sunnybrook Elementary District 171 is in line to receive $314,000 to help improve student achievement in reading and math at Heritage Middle School.

The district has received word from the Illinois State Board of Education that its application for a school improvement grant has been approved and will be fully funded, Superintendent Joseph Majchrowicz said.

The competitive grant is intended to help schools identified as being in need of improvement.

Heritage was placed on academic status for failing to make adequate yearly progress in reading and mathematics on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test for at least two consecutive years in the subgroup of special education students, Majchrowicz said.

To be considered for the grant, a school had to demonstrate its need and commitment to use research-based strategies and practices that will improve student achievement and move it out of improvement status, according to the state education board's Web site.

"This (the grant funds) is going to give us the opportunity to shrink the gap between our special education scores and our regular education scores," Majchrowicz said. "We have outlined a plan that will seek to improve student achievement, classroom instruction and increase parental involvement in the areas of math and reading."

The grant money will be used to provide professional development training for staff, improve the quality of instruction and tie student achievement to technology. The district plans to use Study Island and AIMSweb systems and programs to collect data, track scores and identify areas of students' academic strengths and weaknesses.

The district also plans this year to hire a math and reading coach to work with students and staff, Majchrowicz said.

"I think we've got a quality system here," he said. "I think (the grant) is going to give us the opportunity to make a quality system even better."

But he also cautions the sizable grant awards the district has received in recent months do not change the district's overall financial health.

"This supplements district revenues. It does not supplant it," Majchrowicz said.

It means the district will be able to add programs, services, hardware and software that it ordinarily would not have been able to afford, he said.