TITLE I INFORMATION FACT SHEET

Griffin Spalding County Schools

2010 - 2011

WHAT IS THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT?

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 2001 is a law that significantly raises expectations for states, local education agencies, and schools.  These expectations include:

(1)   Academics: ESEA states that all students will meet or exceed state standards in reading and mathematics by 2014.   Schools and local education agencies must move toward this goal by achieving Adequate Yearly Progress with all students.  States are required to establish state academic standards and a state assessment system.  The ESEA act holds the state, the local education agency, and the individual school accountable for every student’s academic success. 

(2)   Highly Qualified Staff: The law also states that teachers and paraprofessionals must be highly qualified.  Teachers may not teach subjects for which they are not qualified.  Also, schools must use programs and materials that have been proven to provide achievement results.

(3)   Parental Involvement: Additionally, the law has a strong focus on parental notification and involvement.   The Elementary and Secondary Education Act can be found on the U.S. Department of Education website at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html

WHAT IS TITLE I?

Title I is a part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA ). This act provides money to public schools with high numbers of children from low-income families. Title I is designed to ensure that all children have the opportunity to obtain a high quality education and reach grade-level proficiency.  Title I programs must be focused on improving student achievement and include strategies to support parental involvement. Additionally, Elementary and Secondary Education requires local education agencies to set-aside Title I funds to serve homeless and neglected students who do not attend schools participating in Title I.  These services are comparable to services provided to children attending a Title I school.

WHAT IS A TITLE I SCHOOL?

Title I schools are the schools that are given funding from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  Schools are given funding based on the number of children who qualify for free or reduced priced lunches.

WHAT ARE TARGETED ASSISTANCE SCHOOLS?

A targeted assistance school is a school that must use Title I funds to focus on helping the students most at risk of failure on state assessments.  Funding is used to help participating children meet state standards and ensure students are taught by highly qualified staff.  Typically, the first year a school is designated a Title I school, it begins as a Targeted Assistance School.

WHAT ARE SCHOOLWIDE SCHOOLS?

A schoolwide school is a school in which children from low-income families make up at least 40% of enrollment.  In schoolwide programs, Title I funds are used to serve all of the children in the school.  The purpose of schoolwide Title I programs is to improve the entire educational program in a school which should result in improving the academic achievement of all students, particularly the lowest achieving students.  The core elements of a schoolwide program are (1) needs assessment, (2) plan, and (3) evaluation.  The second year of a school being designated as a Title I school, it typically becomes a Schoolwide School.

WHAT ARE TITLE I NEEDS IMPROVEMENT SCHOOLS?

A Needs Improvement school is simply a school that has been identified as needing to improve in specific areas.  If a Title I school is identified as a “needs improvement” school (those that did not meet the state standards or Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)), then the school must offer public school choice and supplemental educational services under ESEA.  Schools are identified as needs improvement under Elementary and Secondary Education Act until they have made AYP for two years in a row.

(1)   Public school choice: Public school choice allows students zoned for a Title I Needs Improvement school to transfer to a school in the district that is not identified as needs improvement.  The school district is responsible for transportation when students transfer from a Title I school.  All parents who have children in a Title I needs improvement school are notified about their options for transfer by the first day of the school year.

(2)   Supplemental educational services: Students, who qualify for free/reduced priced lunches and who do not transfer under public school choice, have the option to participate in supplemental educational services or tutoring.  These services are offered through the district at least twice a year.  Tutoring is provided by state approved companies.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Additional information regarding Title I can be found on the:

(1)   GA Department of Education website:  http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/

(2)   US Department of Education website:  http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml?src=a

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT INFORMATION

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Parental Involvement is the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities.  The purpose is to ensure that parents play an integral role in their child’s learning and are active in their child’s education at school.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Some opportunities for parental involvement include:

(1)   Parent workshops and trainings

(2)   Parent advisory committees

(3)   School Council member

(4)   PTO, PTSO, PTA

(5)   Parent volunteers

(6)   Parent-Teacher Conferences

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT COORDINATORS

Each school has a parental involvement coordinator who coordinates parent activities.  For more information regarding activities at your school, please call your child’s school. If you have any comments or suggestions, always feel free to contact your parental involvement coordinator.  Your coordinator will take your feedback to the leadership team of the school and will provide helpful tips to school staff.

SCHOOL-PARENT COMPACT

Every year, students, parents and school staff sign a compact or agreement.  This compact outlines how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve the State’s high standards.  This compact is given out at the beginning of each school year.

PARENT SURVEY

At the beginning and end of the school year, schools send out a parent questionnaire.  The results of this survey are used to review the effectiveness of parent activities.  Feedback from these surveys is very important.  The school parental involvement policy and school activities are developed from feedback parents give on these surveys.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT POLICY

The purpose of the school parental involvement policy is to ensure that strong strategies are in place to: 1) build the capacity to involve parents in an effective partnership with the school; 2) share and support high student academic achievement.  The school and parents must jointly develop and agree on the policy.  It is revised every year to meet the changing needs of parents.  Finally, the policy is distributed to parents. 

The school district also has a school parental involvement policy.  It is also revised every year.  A copy of this document is distributed to parents as well. 

PARENT RESOURCE CENTER 

Your child’s school has a parent resource center filled with materials.  The Parent Involvement Coordinator will be conducting various trainings and activities throughout the school year.  For more information, call your child’s school and ask to speak to the Parent Involvement Coordinator. 

The school system has a parent resource center located at A.Z. Kelsey Academy (200 A.Z. Kelsey Avenue).  This center is open Monday-Friday, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm; however, since the Parent Engagement Specialist, Carole Bland,  is often out in the schools, you will need to call and schedule an appointment to be sure she is available to assist you.  Resources are available for checkout from the center and computers are also available for use.  The number to the center is 770-229-3796.  Please make sure to check out this great center!

Finally, there is also a Georgia State PIRC (Parent Involvement Resource Center) located at 600 West Peachtree Street, Suite 1200, in Atlanta, GA  30308.  You may email the Director, Ms. Julie Hollis at jhollis@cisga.org, access their website at www.georgiapirc.net, or call their office at 404-881-3292, fax number 404-888-5789.  The operating hours are from 8:00am – 5:00pm EST. The Georgia State PIRC’s goal is to address barriers and weaknesses in communities such as poverty and illiteracy and to encourage families to realize the benefits of parental involvement and take advantage of services available that lead to the academic success of children. The goals are to enhance the abilities of parents across the state to participate effectively in their children’s education, and to improve student achievement through expanded and effective use of parental involvement programs.

ACADEMIC STANDARDS INFORMATION

NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS

The National Education goals are the focus for education reform and describe how educational systems can be measured.  Congress approved the goals and they are:

(1)   School Readiness – all children in America will start school ready to learn.

(2)   School Completion - high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent.

(3)   Student Achievement and Citizenship - students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency in academic subjects so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship.

(4)   Teacher Education and Professional Development – educators will have access to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills.

(5)   Mathematics and Science - students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement.

(6)   Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning - every adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

(7)   Safe, Disciplined and Alcohol and Drug-Free Schools - every school in the United States will be free of drugs, violence, and the unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol.

(8)   Parental Participation - every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental involvement and participation in promoting growth of children.

GEORGIA STUDENT ASSESSMENTS

Griffin-Spalding administers all state-mandated assessments: Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) Grades 4 & 7, Criterion-Reference Competency Tests (CRCT) Grades 1-8, Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS), Georgia High School Writing Test (GHSWT), Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGT), and the Georgia Writing Assessment Test in grades 3, 5, and 8.  In addition to these tests, we administer local benchmarks in Reading/English Language Arts and math.  At the high school level, we give TSARS predictor tests in the fall to 11^th grade students in the areas of science and social studies.  In addition to these tests, schools develop their own additional assessments to indicate student mastery of standards.

ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is part of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It is an annual measure of student participation and achievement on statewide assessments and other academic indicators.  The State of Georgia, each local school district, and each individual school is held accountable for the academic success of its students.  AYP requires schools to meet standards in three areas: Test Participation, Academic Performance and a Second Indicator such as attendance. The second indicator for elementary and middle schools in the Griffin-Spalding County School System is student attendance.  For high schools in the district, as well as in the state of Georgia, the second indicator is graduation rate.  Georgia uses the Criterion-Reference Competency Tests (CRCT) as the AYP assessment tool for the elementary and middle school grades.

CURRICULUM

The Griffin-Spalding County School System follows the Georgia Performance Standards for K-12 Language Arts, K-10 Mathematics (Grade 11 to be implemented & assessed 2010-2011; Grade 12 to be implemented & assessed 2011-2012; these two grades are still under the QCC Objectives, which can also be located on the GDOE website), K-12 Science, and K-12 Social Studies.  Additional grade and content specific information on the standards that outlines exactly what students are expected to know and be able to do can be found at www.georgiastandards.org.

GEORGIA PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

Georgia Performance Standards are both content and performance standards.  The standards are definitive in what a student should know and be able to do.

REFERENCES:

Information obtained from the following websites:

GA DOE Website: http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/

US DOE Website: http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml?src=a