School wide Title I program provides flexibility in use of funds
About two dozen classroom associates in the Greene County school district will spend time in the coming weeks and months sharpening their own reading, writing and math schools. The associates were notified last week they must meet the U.S. Department of Education’s definition of “highly qualified” to keep their jobs next year.
The new requirement comes as part of the Jefferson-Scranton district’s move to a school wide Title I program rather than the targeted assistance program of years past. East Greene has had a school wide program the last four or five years; East Greene had no issues with staff in meeting the requirements, according to superintendent Tim Christensen.
“Highly qualified” associates have completed at least two years of college (finishing a degree is not required), or are certified as para educators, or have achieved a pre-determined score on the COMPASS test, a readiness test used by community colleges to rank applicants. Christensen said about half of the district’s 45 associates already meet the requirement. The remaining associates have until the start of the new school year to meet the mark.
For decades, funding in the Title I program has been used to provide additional help to students identified as being most at risk of not meeting state academic standards in reading and math. The program was typically a pull-out program, with students leaving their classroom for individualized or small group help. The targeted assistance program does not have income guidelines associated with it.
With the newer school wide program, schools in which 40 percent or more of the students are at or below poverty guidelines, with the right planning, can provide Title I-funded help to any or all students. Students most at risk continue to get more help than others, but all students can benefit. Also, Title I funds can be used for professional development for all staff, not just those who work with identified Title I students.
“The school wide program gives us much more flexibility in terms of the students we can work with and also flexibility in spending funds,” Christensen explained. “A school wide program still allows us to pull out students to work with them, but it also allows the Title teachers to go into the classrooms and work with groups of students.”
The district has made a determined effort to increase reading proficiency in its students, including adopting a literacy policy that requires summer school attendance for students not reading at grade level. Students who are not at grade level in May but attend summer school and make progress will be pass to the next grade. Students not at grade level who don’t attend summer school will be tested in August, and if they aren’t at grade level for the year they finished in May, they’ll be retained in that grade for another year. An estimated 70-plus elementary students will be pointed toward summer school, which staff sees as an opportunity for academic growth, not a punishment.
The switch in Title I programs is part of the effort. “We continue to focus on improving reading, and a school wide Title 1 program provides us the best opportunity to reach the greatest number of students,” Christensen said.
