MADISON – The U.S. Department of Defense has award a $1.7-million grant to Madison City Schools.

Madison Superintendent Dr. Dee Fowler said the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) funds will position the district “to provide excellent professional development for teachers and administrators in effective technology integration, instructional strategies and College And Career Ready Standards (CCRS).”

Only 25 U.S. school districts with military connections are receiving a share of DoDEA’s $32 million in grants. With headquarters in Alexandria, Va., DoDEA functions as a field activity for the defense secretary.

Madison’s grant money will provide “intensive intervention” for students in mathematics from teachers or “para-educators,” he said. A para-educator is a school employee supervised by a teacher or other professional.

The money also “will enhance the district’s social-emotional support for students through additional counselors and the S2S (Student to Student) initiative,” he said. At a recent Madison Board of Education meeting, a presentation explained the Military Child Education Coalition Conference that “helps military-connected students adjust from frequent relocations.”

The 2014 grant competition focused on expanding STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and foreign languages. In Madison, Discovery and Liberty middle schools now are offering STEM electives, while kindergartners and first-graders are learning Spanish.

Fowler said the Madison district “values its partnership with Redstone Arsenal and with defense-connected families.” More than 1 million students from military families attend public schools in the United States.

For grant eligibility, school districts “must have an active military-connected student population of five percent or more, with a population of 15 percent or more military-connected students at the school level,” Fowler said.

“Although funding levels are related to military student enrollment, the proposed programs will serve all students at the target schools,” he said.

For more information, visit odea.edu.