The new Academic Competitiveness Grant Program is designed to encourage students to take more rigorous high-school courses and to place a greater emphasis on math and science education in this country. It targets low-income college students. As reported in last month’s Education Online, this new federal grant program makes $790 million available in the 2006-07 academic year and $4.5 billion over the next five years.

South Dakota had planned to use its Regents Scholars Diploma guidelines to define a “rigorous” program. However, that plan has changed. For the 2006-07 school year, South Dakota will use the following academic criteria to determine a student’s eligibility:

• Four years of English
• Three years of math (including Algebra I and a higher level course such as Algebra II, Geometry, or Data Analysis and Statistics)
• Three years of science (including at least two courses from biology, chemistry or physics)
• Three years of social studies
• One year of a foreign language

Students also may be eligible through a second option focused on Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses and test scores. This option requires a minimum of two AP or IB courses in high school and a minimum passing score on the exams for those classes. Students must score 3 or higher on AP exams and 4 or higher on IB exams. 

Currently, the federal government is allowing states to use three options to determine eligibility for the grants.  

“We worked quickly to establish these options so that deserving students could benefit from the grants this year, while states had the flexibility to recognize their unique rigorous programs,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in a news release. “As time goes on, standards will be tightened and toughened. But these initial options will give states and students the time to adjust if they start planning now.”

For more information on Academic Competitiveness and National SMART Grants, visit www.ed.gov.

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