Mass. Hands Out $2.5M In College Grants

The state is handing out $2.5 million in grants to state colleges based on their plans to boost academic performance.

The money, scheduled to be handed out Tuesday, will go mostly to schools that proposed strategies to raise graduation rates, strengthen science instruction and career development, and close achievement gaps among minorities.

The determine who gets the grants under the Vision Project, the Department of Education's master plan for colleges and universities, higher education commissioner Richard Freeland appointed a panel of five specialists from outside Massachusetts.

The Boston Globe reports that the panel solicited extensive proposals from all 29 state schools, then judged each based on 10 criteria, such as how innovative the plans were and how much of their own money the schools could contribute.