The purpose of Title I is to enable schools to provide opportunities for children served to acquire the knowledge and skills contained in the challenging state content standards and to meet the challenging state performance standards developed for all children.
This purpose is accomplished by such efforts as
2022-2023 Title I Schoolwide Programs
title i overview
Title I of “Every Student Succeeds Act” provides federal assistance to school districts to help fund high quality, challenging instructional programs for children in schools that have highest concentrations of poverty.
Title I is a federal program that provides opportunities for the children served to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to meet challenging state content standards. Resources are distributed to schools where needs are the greatest, in amounts sufficient to make a difference in the improvement of instruction. Title I coordinates services with other educational services, and to the extent feasible, with health and social services programs. Title I provides greater decision making authority and flexibility within the schools and for teachers. However, greater responsibility for student performance in the exchange made for this flexibility.
Title I schools within the Institute are selected based on information obtained from the 5th Day Attendance Count, and the percentage of students who are on free and reduced lunch. A poverty index for the district is determined and the schools are ranked from highest to lowest poverty.
A school qualifies for a Title I School-wide program based on its poverty percentage. School-wide programs may use funds or services in combination with other Federal and State funds it receives, to upgrade the entire educational program within the school. School-wide programs are eligible to use funds to support systemic reform and instructional improvement. All students attending school at a School-wide Title I site may use materials and/or be serviced by personnel funded through Title I.
Targeted Assistance: Currently, the Institute only has School-wide Title I programs and does not have any Target Assistance Title I programs. Targeted Assistance schools must implement a scientifically-based instructional program to assist the identified students.
The amount of funds allocated to each Title I school is based on a per poverty student enrollment allocation. The district Title I allocation is, in turn, allocated to schools based on the number of poverty students in each Title I school as determined by the free/reduced lunch report. Allocation may change from year to year, depending on a change in the number of students receiving free or reduced lunch within each school and/or a change in the Institute’s allocation.
A formal schoolwide planning team should be in place to lead the process of developing the schoolwide program. Primarily, this team should organize and oversee the needs assessment process; lead the staff in developing the schoolwide plan; and conduct or oversee the program’s annual evaluation. Typically, the principal or another instructional leader establishes this core planning team, which might consist of: school and district administrators; teachers representing different grades and content areas; other professional staff in the school such as guidance counselors and curriculum specialists; parents and other community members; and students (in a secondary school). In addition to possessing diverse skills and experience, the team should be knowledgeable about Title I programs and their regulatory requirements.
The law requires that in each Title I school, a comprehensive needs assessment should be conducted in order to identify the needs of the students. The plan developed at each school must reflect needs identified by the needs assessment and programs designed to meet these needs. The needs assessment should discuss discrepancies between what exists and what students need in order to achieve and provide a reason for areas where the greatest need exists. The needs assessment is based on test data and additional data received from attendance reports, teacher surveys, parent surveys, etc. A needs assessment will not only identify areas that need to be addressed by the Title I plan, but will act as a basis for building a priorities list on which subsequent plans can be based.
Once the areas of greatest need have been determined, research-based strategies must be selected to address them. The South Carolina Curriculum Standards should be used as a basis for deciding which instructional strategies should be selected. Only the best and most effective research-based instruction should be included to address the needs of the students within the Title I school.
parent and family engagement
As a parent of a student enrolled at a Title I school, you have the right to know the professional qualifications of the classroom teachers and instructional assistants who work with your child. Federal law allows you to ask for the following information about your child’s classroom teachers and requires the District to give you this information in a timely manner:
1) whether the teacher is certified to teach the subjects and/or grade levels the teacher is teaching,
2) whether the teacher’s certificate is a waiver or substandard certificate
3) the teacher’s academic major, graduate degrees, if any, and
4) the teacher’s certification area.
If you would like to obtain this information about your child’s teacher, please visit: SCDE Educator Qualification Search or call the Office of Federal Programs at 803-849-2461.
Parent and Family Engagement is an integral part of the Title I program. Parents are encouraged to become partners in helping their children achieve and become actively involved in all aspects of the process of the Title I program, from the writing of the plan to its implementation and evaluation.
A strong connection between the home and school is a key element in student success. Materials, strategies, and help from teachers are available to all parents within a Title I school. Opportunities for active parent participation should include, but not be limited to open house, parent and family engagement workshops, school-parent compacts, home visitation, parent-teacher organizations, conferences, monthly newsletters, and more.
The Title I legislation requires schools to utilize a portion of their Title I funds to support parent and family engagement. Parents should contact the school principal with any comments or suggestions regarding the school’s Parent and Family Engagement expenditures.
Each Title I school is required to ask for input from parents regarding the development of a Parent Involvement policy and a school-parent compact.
The Parent and Family Engagement policy explains how the school plans to work with parents to review and improve parent and family engagement programs and describes how parents can participate in planning these programs.
The school-parent compact outlines how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the way in which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve the State’s high standards.
The Parent and Family Engagement Policies for all Title I schools and the Institute are reviewed annually. If you have comments or suggestions in regards to your school’ s policy, please contact a member of your school’s leadership team. If you have comments or suggestions in regards to your school’s policy, please contact the Office of Federal Programs at (803) 849-2461.
If you have any comments or suggestions regarding Title I Plans within the Institute, please contact the Office of Federal Programs at (803) 849-2461. The Institute will submit any parent comments or suggestions with the plan when it is submitted to the South Carolina State Department of Education.
Title I School Report Cards