Contact: Jerri De Leon

PURPOSE

The purpose of Title I, Part A is to ensure that all children, particularly low-achieving children in the highest-poverty schools, have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments.

What is a Title I, Part A schoolwide program?

• A Title I, Part A schoolwide program permits a school to use funds from Title I, Part A and other federal education program funds and resources to upgrade the entire educational program of the school in order to raise academic achievement for all the students.
• Schoolwide programs do not have to identify particular children as eligible for services, show that Title I, Part A funds are paying for supplemental services that would otherwise not be provided, or separately track dollars to “allowable” activities. Instead, schoolwide programs can use their Title I, Part A funds in the manner they choose, as long as they engage in reform strategies that increase the amount and quality of learning and help provide a high-quality curriculum for all children, according to a comprehensive plan to help children meet the state’s student performance standards.

The basic components of a schoolwide program

1. A comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school (including taking into account the needs of migratory children) that is based on information on the performance of children in relation to the state content and student performance standards.

2. Schoolwide reform strategies that—

      • provide opportunities for all children to meet the state’s proficient and advanced levels of student performance;

      • use effective methods and instructional strategies that are based on scientifically based research that—

         – strengthen the core academic program in the school;

         – increase the amount and quality of learning time, such as providing an extended school year, before - and after-school and summer programs, and help provide an enriched and accelerated curriculum; and

         – include strategies for meeting the educational needs of historically underserved populations.

      • include strategies to address the needs of all children in the school, but particularly the needs of children of low-achieving children and those at risk of not meeting the state student academic achievement standards who are members of the target population of any

         program that is included in the schoolwide program, which may include—

-  counseling, pupil services, and mentoring services;

-  college and career awareness and preparation, such as college and career guidance, personal finance education, and innovative teaching methods, which may include applied learning and team-teaching strategies; and

-  the integration of vocational and technical education programs; and address how the campus will determine if such needs have been met; and are consistent with, and are designed to implement, the state and local improvement plans, if any.

3. Instruction by highly qualified teachers.

4. High-quality, ongoing professional development for teachers, principals, and paraprofessionals and, if appropriate, pupil services personnel, parents, and other staff to enable all children in the school to meet the state’s student academic achievement standards.

5. Strategies to attract high quality highly qualified teachers to high-need schools.

6. Strategies to increase parental involvement in accordance with Section 1118, such as family literacy services.

7. Plans for assisting preschool children in the transition from early childhood programs, such as Head Start, Even Start, Early Reading First, or a state-run preschool program, to local elementary school programs.

8. Measures to include teachers in the decisions regarding the use of academic assessments described in section 1111(b)(3) in order to provide information on, and to improve, the performance of individual students and the overall instructional program.

9. Activities to ensure that students who experience difficulty mastering the proficient or advanced levels of academic achievement standards shall be provided with effective, timely additional assistance, which shall include measures to ensure that students’ difficulties are

    identified on a timely basis and to provide sufficient information on which to base effective assistance.

10. Coordination and integration occurs between federal, state, and local services and programs, including programs under NCLB, violence prevention programs, nutrition programs, housing programs, Head Start, adult education, vocational and technical education, and job training.