Title I, Part A

1. Title I, Part A Virginia Department of Education Coordinators’ Academy July 30 – July 31, 2013

2. Purpose of Title I • Ensure children have fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain high-quality education; and • Reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state standards and assessments.

3. Focus of Title I The program focuses on promoting reform in high-poverty schools and ensuring student access to scientifically-based instructional strategies and challenging academic content.

4. Understanding Targeted Assistance and Schoolwide Programs

5. Targeted Assistance (TA) Schools The TA delivery model provides supplemental assistance to targeted schools to assist eligible students in meeting the state’s challenging academic achievement standards. ESEA, Section 1115

6. Selecting Eligible TA Students • The school selects eligible children by identifying those who are failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet the state’s challenging student academic achievement standards. • Schools make the determination based on multiple, educationally related, objective criteria established by the school division and supplemented by the school. • Children who are economically disadvantaged, children with disabilities, migrant children, or limited English proficient children, are eligible for services under this part on the same basis as other children selected to receive services. • ESEA, Section 1115 (b)(2)

7. Selecting Eligible TA Students • Certain groups of children are automatically eligible for services: • Any child who participated in Head Start, Even Start, or Title I preschool services at any time within the previous two years; • Any child attending a community day program or living in a state or local institution for neglected or delinquent children; • Any student served in the previous two years under the Migrant Education Program; and • Any child who is homeless and attending any school served by the school division. NCLB, Section 1115 (b)

8. Schoolwide Programs • Schools with 40* percent or more poverty have the flexibility to use Title I, Part A, funds along with other federal, state, and local funds to upgrade the entire educational program in a school to improve the academic performance of all students, particularly the lowest achieving students. * With the approval of Virginia’s ESEA Flexibility Request, schools identified as priority or focus may become schoolwide even if the school does not have a poverty percentage of 40 percent or more. ESEA, Section 1114

9. Schoolwide Program • The program builds upon whole school reform strategies, rather than add-on services. • School staff take responsibility for the success of each student. • The integration and coordination of efforts result in greater student success. • All federal, state, and local funds earmarked for a Title I schoolwide program delivery model may be combined to create whole school reform.

10. Schoolwide Programs A school is not required to: • Identify specific students as eligible to participate in a schoolwide program; or • Demonstrate that the services provided within the school with Title I, Part A, funds are supplemental to services that would otherwise be provided.

11. Core Elements of a Schoolwide Program To operate a schoolwide program, a school must: • Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school; • Use data from the needs assessment to develop a comprehensive schoolwide plan in accordance with Section 1114(b) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB); and • Annually evaluate the schoolwide program’s effectiveness in terms of improving achievement and revise the plan as necessary.

12. Ten Required Components • Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) of entire school “A systematic effort to acquire an accurate thorough picture of strengths and weaknesses of a school community, thus identifying the needs of the students in your school through a variety of information-gathering techniques” …. It informs and guides ALL program aspects. 12

13. Ten Required Components Comprehensive needs assessment is……. not just finding the right students for the program; it’s finding the right program for each of the students. 13

14. Ten Required Components 2. Reform strategies to enhance student achievement and meet state standards 14

15. Ten Required Components 3. Use of highly qualified teachers 15

16. Ten Required Components 4.High-quality and ongoing professional development for teachers, principals, and paraprofessionals 16

17. Ten Required Components • Strategies to attract high-quality, highly qualified teachers to high-need schools • Strategies to increase parental involvement 17

18. Ten Required Components 7. Coordination of services in transition from preschool programs to elementary school programs 18

19. Ten Required Components 8. Measures to include teachers in decision-making as related to academic assessments 9. Activities designed, in a timely manner, to assist students experiencing academic difficulties 10. Coordination and integration of local, state, and federal funds 19

20. Comprehensive Needs Assessment Needs Assessment Revisions Needs assessment creates an an ongoing process. Action Plan Evaluation Program Implementation

21. Resources Designing Schoolwide Programs Non-regulatory Guidance, March 2006: www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/designingswpguid.doc Title I Schoolwide Plan Peer Review Rating Rubric: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/federal_programs/esea/title1/part_a/index.shtml