Purpose and Overview:
The Title I program is short for "Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Title I, Part A, is intended to help ensure that all students have the opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state academic standards and assessments. As the largest federal program supporting elementary and secondary education (funded at $11.6 billion nationally), Title I, targets these resources to the districts and schools where the needs are greatest. Title I provides funding that may be used to provide additional (supplemental to state and locally funded programs and services) instructional staff, professional development, extended-time programs, and other strategies for raising student achievement in high-poverty schools. The program focuses on promoting school wide reform in high-poverty schools and ensuring students' access to scientifically based instructional strategies and challenging academic content. Title I provisions provide a mechanism for holding states, school districts, and schools accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students and turning around low-performing schools, while providing alternatives to students in such schools to enable those students to receive a high-quality education.
In the Deer Lakes School District, where the program is open to students in Kindergarten through fifth grade, the Language Arts teacher usually refers a student to Title I. At the end of each school year; each Language Arts teacher is given a recommendation form to complete. The Title I teacher then gathers pertinent information about the child (Reading Achievement scores, third nine weeks grade in reading, unit reading test scores, etc.) This information, combined with the selection from that the teacher fills out is then evaluated. A child can score from zero to 75, with 75 being the most needy. A rank order list is then compiled for each grade level. Students in Kindergarten, first and second grades at Curtisville Primary Center are given top priority, along with third grade students in East Union Intermediate Center, with most of the students being chosen from this list for early intervention.
United States Department of Education at:
www.ed.gov