Title I Schoolwide Programs: Improving Schools for All Children

Three decades have passed since the historic enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The most recent reauthorization of the ESEA, the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (IASA), reaffirms the federal commitment to focusing on equity of and access to quality education for disadvantaged students. As in 1965, Title I remains the cornerstone of the reauthorized ESEA, providing assistance to those children who need it the most. However, it adopts different strategies for meeting those needs. The new Title I signals a fundamental change in the direction of the program. The focus has shifted from an emphasis on isolated remedial add-on services to a concentration on leveraging overall improvement in the highest-poverty schools through comprehensive schoolwide improvement in teaching and learning. The goal of this improvement is to enable educationally disadvantaged children to meet the same high academic standards expected of all children. For this reason, the new Title I is designed to work with other IASA programs and reinforce overall reform efforts in schools, districts, and states.     

Title I and School--Family--Community Partnerships: Using Research to Realize the Potential

Title I's requirements for parent and community involvement in both schoolwide programs and targeted assistance schools, along with requirements for funding such involvement, challenge Title I schools to think seriously about and to plan for involvement that will help make a difference in children's learning. In this article, we (a) review the requirements and how they may be interpreted (especially the requirement for school-parent contracts); (b) briefly summarize recent research on the effects of school-family partnerships on students, teachers, and parents; and (c) discuss two major research-based comprehensive programs for building school-family-community partnerships that provide a foundation upon which Title I schools could develop, in conjunction with parents, their own comprehensive and effective programs.     

Implementation Fidelity in Title I Schoolwide Programs

This study examines the extent to which schools that received Title I funds for schoolwide programs implemented the plans they developed. Findings were that schools implemented some of the plan components, such as hiring Title I teachers and teaching assistants, but that instructional innovations included in the plans were not implemented. The article concludes with recommendations for districts and schools, proposed to promote implementation fidelity.     

Strengthening the Ties Between Title I and Family Literacy

When schools work together with families to support learning, children are inclined to succeed not only in school but throughout life as well. Three decades of research show that parental participation in schooling improves student learning. Title I, as amended by the Improving America's Schools Act (Public Law 103-382), reflects these research findings and emphasizes the importance of family involvement as a means to help address more completely the full range of student needs that affect their learning. Although parental involvement can take many forms, in this article I focus specifically on family literacy services. The Title I statute requires any Title I program to include "strategies to increase parental involvement, such as family literacy services." In addition, any school district with a Title I allocation above $500,000 must spend at least 1% of its allocation for district- and school-level parental involvement activities, which can include family literacy activities. Title I also recognizes that schools and patents share responsibility for the education of children. Therefore, each Title I school is to develop school-parent compacts that outline how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share responsibility for improved student achievement and the means by which schools and parents will work together to help children achieve high state standards. School-parent compacts area logical tool for addressing family literacy needs. Equally important, Title I has a history of parental involvement that literacy can help enrich further.     

Title I Schoolwide Programs: District Support for Achieving Success

This article presents a district-level case study of the rural school district of Berkeley County, South Carolina. The district approaches the implementation and monitoring of schoolwide programs in creative ways that result in substantially improved student performance. District support for school planning, fund management, research and evaluation, innovative programs, compliance monitoring, parenting, and staff development is duplicated at the school level for 21 sites serving over 12,000 students through an annual budget that exceeds $3.5 million. The conclusion of the case study is that flexibility for school planning and program implementations presently allowed through Title I schoolwide programs greatly enhances opportunities for improving student achievement only when comprehensive school planning, accompanied by school-based funding, becomes an integral component of school district philosophy.     

An integrated assessment of the effects of Title I on school behavior,resources, and student achievement

We examine the effects of Title I on school behavior, resources, and academic performance using a rich set of school finance and student-level achievement data from one large urban school district using a regression discontinuity design. We find that Title I eligibility raises Federal revenues of schools by about $460 per student. This is partially offset by decreases in revenues from state categorical aid grants, so that the net increase to schools is about $360 per student. We find no impact on overall school-level test scores, but also no impact among the subgroups of students most likely to be affected by Title I. A novel finding is that schools appear to respond to the incentives embedded in the Title I allocation process by manipulating the fraction of their students signed up for free lunch to secure more Federal funds.     

Finding a Golden Mean in Education Policy: Centering Religious and Public Schools

The separation between Church and State, private and public education, is blurring, and coming together, as the government gives families vouchers to attend private and religious schools. Religious groups are starting and supporting their own charter schools, and local jurisdictions (cities and counties) are providing free transportation and food services to children attending private schools. What emerges, and is the focus of this analysis, is the new “middle ground,” a “golden mean,” by which public schools learn diversity and choice while private/religious schools are helped by public programs and funds. The oldest, perhaps, was Lyndon Johnson's compromise with the Catholics to get Title 1 passed as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that sends public school teachers into private schools to help children in need. This study examines the emergence of a middle group in public–private education, and how the policies are working and what's changing. It argues that the child is the center of education, and government and private agencies are changing and should come together to serve the clients, the children.     

Policy issues: Student Performance and Congressional Support

In the first issue of this journal, I wrote about policy issues with which all stakeholders associated with at-risk children and youth should be involved (Carroll, 1996). Continuing in the policy arena, I now speak to student results. The Title I program serves more than 5 million children with a $7 billion appropriation, and school districts need only report to the state the achievement of Title I participants who are tested as part of the annual state assessment program at three grade groupings--Grades 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 10 to 12. Districts and states are no longer required to conduct pretest and posttest assessments that show the normal curve equivalent growth of children. Instead, adequate yearly progress toward meeting the states' definitions of advanced, proficient, and partially proficient student performance measures is the new yardstick of accountability and program success. These definitions apply no later than the year 2000-2001, when the states must have their student assessments aligned with their content and student performance standards. Even though the new Title I regulations ease up on frequency and coverage of assessment, Title I schools and programs should not. Schools must assess the performance of all their students and show results if we are to garner continued financial and program support from members of Congress and out constituencies at the state and local levels.     

Title I: The Evolving Research Base

For the past 35 years, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has been the largest and most important federal resource for reforming high-poverty schools. Drawing on recent research, this article documents what we know about Title I's overall effectiveness and discusses how it may become a more effective intervention. The author concludes by making 3 policy recommendations for fostering better research and better programs: implement a rigorous and uniform national accountability system; support continued research and development of replicable programs and methods for improving schooling for disadvantaged children; and encourage large-scale randomized experiments of promising programs and practices.     

Relationship Between Educational Resources and School Achievement: A Mixed Method Intra-District Analysis

This study examines the relationship between educational resources (fiscal, personnel and facilities) and school achievement within a large urban/suburban elementary school district. A sequential mixed methods approach reveals inequitable resource allocation trends and patterns between schools within a school district by producing different student outcomes. The educational resources positively correlated to higher school achievement are: higher teacher salaries, newer schools, more multi-purpose space per pupil and less portable classrooms. Without question, White students receive more of these resources than Latino students, low-income students and English Language learners. This study also conducts a multiple comparative case study analysis comparing between Title I and non-Title I schools, within Title I schools and within non-Title I schools. The study contains policy and practice implications to improve opportunity and school achievement in urban/suburban school districts.     

Introduction: Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Special Education

A critical issue facing the field of education is the need to improve teachers' preparation to effectively manage student behavior in the classroom. Many pre- and in-service teachers receive exposure to evidence-based behavioral interventions, such as schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports, during teacher preparation programs; however, face-to-face instructional time is always at a premium given the range of learning experiences that must be acquired prior to licensure. Consequently, many educators begin their careers without strong classroom management skills, which has many unfortunate consequences, including the decision for some to leave the field within the first three to five years. In this study, we evaluated content acquisition podcasts based on validated instructional design principles. We focused on determining the extent to which preservice teachers could learn core information related to schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports using a short multimedia vignette compared to students who learned content using traditional methods (e.g., reading and note taking). Results show students who learned by watching content acquisition podcasts significantly outperformed students who had unlimited time to read a chapter on SW-PBIS and had access to other learning materials on a test of knowledge related to schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports. Implications for practice and future research are presented.     

The efficacy of computer‐based supplementary phonics programs for advancing reading skills in at‐risk elementary students

In this study we examined the benefits of computer programs designed to supplement regular reading instruction in an urban public school system. The programs provide systematic exercises for mastering word‐attack strategies. Our findings indicate that first graders who participated in the programs made significant reading gains over the school year. Their post‐test scores were slightly (but not significantly) greater than the post‐test scores of control children who received regular reading instruction without the programs. When analyses were restricted to low‐performing children eligible for Title I services, significantly higher post‐test scores were obtained by the treatment group compared to the control group. At post‐test Title I children in the treatment group performed at levels similar to non‐Title I students.     

What Makes a High School a Good High School for Students with Disabilities

This article summarizes the findings and themes from the three high schools we studied. All three schools engaged in five schoolwide strategies for educating students with disabilities. They provided a broad array of academic courses and program options; provided schoolwide support structures that could be combined and customized to the needs and strengths of individual students; worked intentionally to connect students to the school and build their motivation to succeed; created a connected and caring adult community to serve students' academic and social/personal needs; and developed responsive leaders who managed the tensions inherent in the commitment to prepare students with disabilities to be successful in their lives beyond school. The article also reviews the different ways these three school instantiated these strategies. We describe the “theory of action” that integrates the five schoolwide strategies into a synergistic approach in each school and explore implications of the Good High Schools study for practice and for future research.     

Sexuality education: how children of lesbian mothers ‘learn’ about sex/uality

Sexuality is something that children experience from an early age. It may be a cause of individual concern and anxiety, but is seldom, if ever, deconstructed at any stage of a child's education. Institutionalized fear and misunderstandings of Section 28 (1988) have effectively removed discussion of sexuality, homosexual or otherwise, from the English school curriculum. This structural silence on sexuality is all too frequently repeated at home. In this article I interrogate how children from lesbian parent households ‘learn’ about sexuality, looking at the effects of their parents' (homo)sexual orientation on their ‘sexuality education’. I consider how sex education is taught in schools; what children traditionally ‘learn’ about sexuality. I then look at whether sexuality education is any different for children from lesbian parent families; whether these children have greater sexuality knowledge, and, if so, how this has been ‘learnt’. I suggest that it may be the ambient presence of sexuality—as both a topic of conversation and mothers' unspoken sexual identity—that means lesbian parent families offer a distinctive form of sexuality education. This article draws on empirical research on sexuality and lesbian parent families with lesbian parent families who lived in the Yorkshire region, UK.     

论开放性地理课程资源在教学中的运用效果

基础教育的改革应当适应市场经济和知识经济需要,体现素质教育特征,它具有基础性、民主性、选择性和开放性。开放性是指基础教育的课程资源不限于书本里和课堂上,学校、家庭、社会当中有着更为丰富的课程资源。分析开放性课程资源在地理教学中运用的可能性及效果,有利于提高课堂教学质量,改善教学方法,激发起学生学习的兴趣,使学生在学习中上升为自觉学习的＂主体＂位置,学习的积极性就会大大提高,综合能力就会大大增强,并使学生从地理课的学习延伸影响至其他学科的学习。     

School Principals’ Influence on Trust: Perspectives of Mothers of Children with Disabilities

ABSTRACT

The authors employed a qualitative research design to explore issues of trust in family–professional relationships. They specifically focused on the nature of trust between mothers of children with disabilities and school principals. Analysis of the mothers’ responses to face-to-face interview questions yielded two primary categories related to their perspectives regarding principals: (a) personal and professional principal attributes and (b) principal actions within the education system, with students, and with students’ families. Subcategories were developed that further delineated the relationships participants had with the principals of their children's educational programs. The authors address implications for school leadership and the establishment of trustworthy family-professional relationships, especially as they impact the lives of students and families in need of special education support.     

Longitudinal Achievement and Chapter 1 Coordination in High-Poverty Schools: A Multilevel Analysis of the Prospects Data

Hierarchical linear modeling was employed to study the relations between the degree of Chapter 1 and regular-program coordination in high-poverty schools and students' longitudinal achievements while controlling for the compositional features of the schools. Variables derived from the national Prospects survey were developed to represent school-level coordination and composition. These variables were used to predict the learning rates of 1st- and 3rd-grade cohort students over 2 (Cohort 1) and 3 (Cohort 3) school years. The results were not consistent across cohorts or subjects; however, some school characteristics significantly predicted the students' learning rates in more than 1 of the 4 possible analyses. The main findings were (a) additional days of school were associated positively with 1st-grade cohort math and reading achievements, (b) students in rural 1st-grade cohort schools learned at significantly slower rates in reading and math relative to their urban peers, and (c) schools that coordinated their Chapter 1 programs with other school services had students who learned at faster rates. These and other findings revealed some situations in which high-poverty schools can influence, through schoolwide reform efforts, the academic achievements of their at-risk students.     

Including multicultural education in science education: Definitions,competencies, and activities

Overall, too few science teachers are being prepared in this country, and ethnic minority students are rarely enrolling in science teacher education programs. Thus, it is particularly important that multicultural education be included in science teacher education programs. I do not believe that science teacher educators will be able to prepare significantly more minority science teachers in the near future to teach the growing number of minority students in schools. Consequently, science teacher education programs must begin producing multicultural teachers. If we do not, then millions of children will not receive an adequate science education, let alone a good one.     

COLLABORATION AMONG EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS AND FACULTY THROUGH A REGGIO INSPIRED LONG‐TERM PROJECT

To effectively teach young children, early childhood teachers must be prepared to collaborate with families of diverse backgrounds. Studying the unique cultural contexts of children and families in American early care and education programs and communities will offer early educators information needed to develop empathy for the families with whom they wish to partner. This study investigated the attitudes of Chinese graduate students in the United States toward American early care and education programs. Chinese graduate students are a unique and growing population of approximately 189,000, 40% of whom have at least one child attending American early care and education programs. Chinese graduate students’ educational expectations for their young children and reasons behind these expectations were also explored. Findings showed that participants’ views of American early care and education reflected Chinese culture and life experience. In terms of American education, these Chinese graduate students compared the American programs’ curricula to the Chinese national curriculum, a curriculum they successfully mastered. Implications for early childhood teacher education programs are discussed.