What is Title I?

With the exception of Cartersville High School, all other Cartersville City Schools are Schoolwide Title I schools. The purpose of schoolwide Title I programs is to improve the entire educational program in a school which should result in improving the academic achievement of all students, particularly the lowest achieving students. The goal of such a program is to assist those students to demonstrate proficiency on academic standards. A school is eligible to be a schoolwide program:

• If the LEA determines that the school serves an eligible attendance area.
• If the school is participating under Section 1113 (eligible school attendance areas).
• For the first year of the schoolwide program the school serves a school attendance area in which not less than 40 percent of the children are from low-income families or 40 percent of the students enrolled in the school are from low-income families.

Schoolwide programs are not required to identify specific students as eligible. They must supplement (enhance) rather than supplant (take the place of) the services participating students would receive if they were not participating in the schoolwide program.

Schoolwide Title I schools must use funds available under Title I, Part A only to supplement the total amount of funds that would, in the absence of the Federal fund, be made available from non-Federal sources for that school including funds needed to provide services that are required by law for students with disabilities and with limited English proficiency. An eligible school must consolidate and use funds or services under Title I with other (at least one) Federal, State, and local funds. Additionally, eligible schools may use Title I, Part A funds to establish or enhance pre-kindergarten programs for students below the age of 6 years.

The core elements of a schoolwide program are a comprehensive needs assessment, a comprehensive plan, and an evaluation. 

A schoolwide program must include the following components:

• Schoolwide reform strategies
• Instruction by highly qualified teachers
• Parental involvement
• Additional support for students
• Transition activities for preschool students (for elementary schools)

The schoolwide program must incorporate the following reform strategies:

• Provide opportunities for all students to meet the State's proficient and advanced levels of student academic achievement.
• Address the needs of all students in the school, particularly the needs of low-achieving students and those at risk of not meeting proficiency.
• Address how the school will determine if those needs have been met.
• Use effective methods and instructional practices that are based on scientifically based research and that:

1. Strengthen the core academic program.
2. Provide an enriched and accelerated curriculum.
3. Increase the amount and quality of learning time, such as providing an extended school year, before school, after school, and summer programs and opportunities.
4. Include strategies for meeting the educational needs of historically underserved populations.
5. Are consistent with, and are designed to implement improvement plans.

A schoolwide program must ensure instruction by highly qualified teachers and provide ongoing professional development. The schoolwide program must:

• Include strategies to attract highly qualified teachers.
• Provide high-quality and ongoing professional development for teachers, principals, paraprofessionals and, if appropriate, pupil services personnel, parents, and other staff, to enable all students in the school to meet the State's student academic standards.
• Align professional development with the State's academic standards.
• Devote sufficient resources conduct effective professional development.
• Include teachers in professional development activities regarding the use of academic assessments to improve the achievement of individual students and the overall instructional program.

A schoolwide program must involve parents in the planning, review, and improvement of the schoolwide program plan and must have a parental involvement policy which:

• Includes strategies, such as family literacy services, to increase parental involvement.
• Describes how the school will provide individual student academic assessment results, including an interpretation of those results, to the parents.

A schoolwide program school must include activities to ensure that students who experience difficulty attaining the proficient or advanced levels of academic achievement standards will be provided with effective, timely additional support, including to:

• Ensure that those students' difficulties are identified on a timely basis.
• Provide sufficient information on which to base effective assistance to those students.
• A schoolwide program in an elementary school must include plans for assisting preschool students in the successful transition from early childhood programs, such as Head Start, EvenStart, Early Reading First, or a preschool program under IDEA or a State-run preschool program, to the schoolwide program.