SCHOOLWIDE PROGRAMS DEFINITION AND DETAILS ... 131 COMPONENTS OF A SCHOOLWIDE PROGRAM ... 132 SCHOOLWIDE PROGRAMS (SWP) TOOLS AND RESOURCES ... 134
SCHOOLWIDE PROGRAMS DEFINITION AND DETAILS
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 goal of such a program is to assist thosestudents to demonstrate proficiency on academic standards. A school is eligible to be a schoolwide program if:
• If the local educational agency (LEA) determines that the school serves an eligible attendance area.9
• If for the first year of the schoolwide program, the school serves a school attendance area in which not less than 40 percent of the students enrolled in the school are from low-income families. NOTE: Georgia’s Title I ESEA Flexibility Waiver allows for Title I schools that have been designated as Priority or Focus to waive the minimum 40 percent poverty requirement to be eligible to be served as schoolwide Title I schools. In other words, those Title I Priority and Focus schools that have a poverty percentage lower than 40 percent may now serve the students in their school as a schoolwide Title program.
However, the district must still ensure that a schoolwide plan has been developed, approved and implemented.
• If the school consults with stakeholders and makes decision to become schoolwide.
An Overview of Schoolwide Programs
A schoolwide program is a comprehensive reform strategy designed to upgrade the entire educational program in a Title I school; its primary goal is to ensure that all students, particularly those who are low-achieving, demonstrate proficient and advanced levels of achievement on State academic achievement standards. This schoolwide reform strategy requires that a school--
• Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment;
• Identify and commit to specific goals and strategies that address those needs;
• Create a comprehensive plan; and
• Conduct an annual review of the effectiveness of the schoolwide program and revise the plan annually or as necessary.
Adopting this strategy should result in an ongoing, comprehensive plan for school improvement that is owned by the entire school community and tailored to its unique needs. Schoolwide programs are not required to identify specific students as eligible. They must supplement (enhance) rather than supplant (take the place of) the services participating students would receive if they were not participating in the schoolwide program.
For additional information on schoolwide to A Resource Guide to Consolidating Funds in Georgia’s Title I Schoolwide Schools refer to the manual available on the GaDOE’s Web site under Resources:
http://www.gadoe.org/School-Improvement/Federal-Programs/Pages/Resources.aspx
COMPONENTS OF A SCHOOLWIDE PROGRAM
To assist schoolwide program schools and local educational agencies to meet their responsibility to provide for all their students served under this part the opportunity to meet the State’s challenging student academic achievement standards in subjects as determined by the state, each schoolwide program under this section shall create a plan to address the eighteen required components of a schoolwide program listed below:
• Use such program’s resources under this part to help participating children meet the State’s challenging student academic achievement standards expected for all children.
• Use effective methods and instructional strategies that are based on scientifically based research directly tied to the comprehensive needs assessment and academic standards that strengthens the core academic program of the school and that:
o Provide opportunities for all children in the school to meet or exceed Georgia’s proficient and advanced levels of student performance.
o Are based upon effective means of raising student achievement.
o Use effective instructional methods that increase the quality and amount of learning time. Field Trip Note: Districts must include documentation to support that any educational field trip used as an instructional strategy is aligned to the comprehensive needs assessment found in the schoolwide plan and must be connected to the support of assisting students to achieve proficiency or advanced status in relation to the State Academic content standards. Documentation must be provided during the budget approval process. Required based on FY12 US ED monitoring.
o Address the needs of all children, particularly targeted populations, and address how the school will determine if such needs have been met and are consistent with improvement plans.
• Provide instruction by highly qualified teachers.10
• Professional development for the staff to enable all children in the school to meet performance standards.
• Strategies to increase parental involvement.
• Plans for assisting preschool children in the transition from early childhood programs to local elementary school programs.
• Measures to include teachers in the decisions regarding the use of assessment to provide information on, and to improve, the performance of individual students and the overall instructional program.
• Coordination and integration of Federal, State, and local services and programs.
• Activities to ensure that students who experience difficulty mastering standards shall be provided with effective, timely assistance, which shall include:
o List state and local educational agency programs and other Federal programs that will be included.
o Description of how resources from Title I and other sources will be used.
o Plan developed in coordination with other programs, including those under the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act, and National and Community Service Act of 1990.
10 Refer to Highly Qualified Staff.
• Activities to ensure that students who experience difficulty mastering standards shall be provided with effective, timely assistance, which shall include:
o Measures to ensure that students’ difficulties are identified on a timely basis.
o Periodic training for teachers in the identification of difficulties and appropriate assistance for identified difficulties.
o Teacher-parent conferences that detail what the school will do to help the student, what the parents can do to help the student and additional assistance available to the student at the school or in the community.
• Description of how individual student assessment results and interpretation will be provided to parents.
• Provisions for the collection and disaggregation of data on the achievement and assessment results of students.
• Provisions to ensure that disaggregated assessment results for each category are valid and reliable.
• Provisions for public reporting of disaggregated data.
• Plan developed during a one year period, unless LEA, after considering the
recommendation of its technical assistance providers, determines that less time is needed to develop and implement the schoolwide program.
• Plan developed with the involvement of the community to be served and individuals who will carry out the plan including teachers, principals, other school staff, pupil service personnel, parents, and students (if secondary).
• Plan available to the LEA, parents, and public.
• Plan translated to the extent feasible, into any language that a significant percentage of the parents of participating students in the school speak as their primary language.
• Plan is subject to the school improvement provisions of Section 1116.
In addition, the school providing a schoolwide program must also evaluate their plan by reviewing, on an ongoing basis, the progress of all children. If necessary, the school must adjust their plan to provide additional assistance such as an extended school year, before and after school programs, summer programs, and training for teachers on how to identify students requiring additional assistance and how to implement student achievement standards in the classroom.
SCHOOLWIDE PROGRAMS (SWP) TOOLS AND RESOURCES
• All resources listed below and more are provided at the links below:
Programs/Pages/Title-I-Worksheets.aspx and http://www.gadoe.org/School-Improvement/Federal-Programs/Pages/Resources.aspx
Local Educational Agency (LEA) Form for Initial Implementation of Schoolwide Programs. Under the “Resource” heading, select “A Resource Guide to Consolidating Funds in Georgia’s Title I Schoolwide Schools”. .
Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) Title Programs Schoolwide Planning Timeline. Under the “Resource” heading, select “A Resource Guide to Consolidating Funds in Georgia’s Title I Schoolwide Schools”.
Schoolwide Program Checklist for Use by Local Educational Agency (LEA) Coordinator and
Title I Education Program Specialist. Under the “Resource” heading, select “A Resource Guide to Consolidating Funds in Georgia’s Title I Schoolwide Schools”.
Finalizing the Schoolwide Plan—A Rubric for Monitoring and Evaluating. Under the
“Resource” heading, select “A Resource Guide to Consolidating Funds in Georgia’s Title I Schoolwide Schools”. .