The state is giving Atlanta Public Schools a $700,000 grant for innovative programming.

The schools, in partnership with Atlanta Speech School’s Rollins Center for Language and Literacy and Westside Atlanta Charter School, will develop an intensive language-and-literacy professional development program in eight elementary schools in the Douglass High School Cluster.

The grant is one of 12 Innovative Fund grants, totaling $4.1 million, for local schools.

“I am confident this funding will help give schools and education groups a greater opportunity to focus on STEM development and student growth,” Deal said.

Those who won the grants will evaluate the effectiveness of their programs and submit their findings to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. The state will use these findings to determine best practices in science, technology, engineering and math, applied learning, early language and literacy development and blended learning.