MDIRSS Title I
Title I and Academic Support Programs Overview
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was originally enacted in 1965 as a cornerstone of President Johnson's "War on Poverty." The goal of the federal program is a high-quality education for every child, providing extra help to students who need it most. These are children furthest from meeting the standards the state has set for all students. Title I resources are directed to schools with high poverty levels, based on the number of low-income families.
The Title I school works to:
- Identify students most in need of educational help (students do not have to be from low-income families to receive help).
- Set goals for improvement of student achievement.
- Measure student progress.
- Develop programs that supplement regular classroom instruction.
- Involve parents in all aspects of the program.
The State of Maine's goal for Title I programming is to enable participating students to achieve the Learning Results. To meet this goals, Title I programs are required to include components that research suggests are essential to a successful academic program.
Programs must:
- Be based on effective means for improving achievement of children.
- Ensure that planning for participating student is part of existing school planning and instruction.
- Use effective instructional strategies that
- Give primary consideration to providing extended learning time.
- Provide an accelerated, high quality curriculum.
- Minimize removing children from the regular classroom during regular school hours for Title IA instruction.
- Coordinate with and support the regular education program.
- Provide instruction by highly qualified staff.
- Provide professional development opportunities with Title IA and other resources for administrators, teachers and other school staff who work with participating children.
- Provide strategies to increase parental involvement, such as family literacy services.
The Identification and Selection of Students "Most at Risk of Failure"
Schools play a key role in selecting children to participate in Title IA programs. The district establishes multiple, educationally related, objective criteria for the identification and selection of students to participate in Title IA programs. Then the school uses the district criteria to identify and select, from among its eligible children, those who are in the greatest need of assistance.
Title I eligibility decisions are made by a Team of professional, including classroom teachers, Title I staff, the building principal and any other involved teacher. The Team will use Spring assessment scores along with teacher input and other relevant student information in order to make eligibility decisions. Using these multiple sources of information and the established criteria, Teams will determine Title I eligibility prior to the end of each school year (June 15th). Adjustments may be made to the Title I roles in the Fall based on incoming students and Fall assessment scores (October 15th).
The profile of the Title I eligibility Team will be based on the school's needs and size. We recommend:
- Grade Span Teams-- K-2, 3-4, 5-8 for Pemetic, Tremont, MDES and Trenton
- Grade Level Teams-- Conners-Emerson
- Developmental Reading Team-- MDIHS
Eligibility Criteria (see link) have been set for literacy using the following objective or subjective measures and sources of information:
o Developmental Reading Assessment 2nd Edition (DRA2)
o Analytical Reading Inventory
o Observation Survey
o Pre-Literacy Skills Screening (PLSS)
o Developmental Guide to Early Literacy (DGEL) or Maine Educational Assessment (MEA) writing rubrics
o NWEA Northwest Evaluation Assessment Measure of Academic Progress
o Scholastic Reading Inventory (Read 180 and Scholastic Reading Counts)
o Teacher observation and input
o Student background and school history
o Additional classroom based assessment, district wide common assessments and other appropriate work samples
* Overview information from the Maine DOE web site www.state.me.us/education/iasa/title1a (revised February 2004)