Federal and State Programs / Title I

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Title I, Part A

Introduction:

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB Act) reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), and is based on four principles that provide a framework through which families, educators, and communities can work together to improve teaching and learning. These principles are accountability for results, local control and flexibility, expanded parental choice, and effective and successful programs that reflect scientifically based research.

Title I, Part A federal funds help to meet the educational needs of low-achieving students in California's highest-poverty schools. Funds are used to support effective, research-based educational strategies that close the achievement gap between high-and low-performing students and enable the students to meet the state's challenging academic standards. Title I-funded schools are either targeted assistance schools or schoolwide program schools. Currently, all NLMUSD Title I schools are operating as Schoolwide program (SWP) schools.

Core Elements of Schoolwide Programs:

The schoolwide approach is based on the premise that comprehensive reform strategies rather than separate, add-on services are most effective in raising academic achievement for the lowest achieving students in a school. A well-designed and implemented schoolwide program touches all aspects of the school’s operation and offers an appropriate option for high-poverty schools seeking to improve achievement for all students, particularly the lowest achieving. The three main core elements of a schoolwide program are (34 CFR 200.26):

A school operating a schoolwide program must conduct a comprehensive needs assessment that identifies the school’s strengths and challenges in key areas that affect student achievement [Section 1114(b)(1)(A) of Title I of ESEA].
The school must develop a comprehensive schoolwide plan that describes how it will achieve the goals it has identified as a result of its needs assessment [Section 1114(b)(1)(B-J)and 34 CFR 200.27 of Title I of ESEA]. The schoolwide plan must:
- Identify reform strategies, aligned with the needs assessment, that are research-based and provide opportunities for all children to meet the State’s proficient or advanced levels of academic achievement;
- Provide instruction by highly qualified teachers;
- Offer high-quality, ongoing professional development;
- Create strategies to attract highly qualified teachers;
- Create strategies to increase parental involvement;
- Develop plans to assist preschool students through the transition from early childhood programs to local elementary school programs;
- Identify measures to include teachers in decisions regarding the use of academic assessments;
- Conduct activities to ensure that students who experience difficulty attaining proficiency receive effective, timely, additional assistance; and
- Coordinate and integrate Federal, State and local services and programs.
The school must evaluate annually the outcomes and the plan’s implementation to determine whether the academic achievement of all students, and particularly of low-achieving students, improved, whether the goals and objectives contained in the plan were achieved, and if the plan is still appropriate as written (34 CFR 200.26).