Rome City Schools

The following schools in the Rome City School District have Title 1 School-wide programs: 

• Anna K. Davie Elementary

• East Central Elementary

• Elm Street Elementary

• Main Elementary

• West Central Elementary

• West End Elementary

• Rome Middle School

• Rome High School

Each school develops a plan known as the School Improvement Plan/School-wide Program Plan to outline goals for the year and to determine what action steps, professional learning opportunities, and family engagement activities will take place in an effort to improve student achievement. Families are valuable stakeholders and are invited to provide input and feedback regarding the plan at the school their child attends. Please contact the Director of Federal Programs at 706-236-5050 if you have any questions regarding the Title I School Designation and/or plans.

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. The comprehensive needs assessment is required, and it must:

• Be based on academic achievement data of all students including disaggregated student groups and migratory students regarding the State’s academic standards.

• Provide information on the subjects and skills for which teaching and learning need to be improved.

• Identify specific academic needs of students and disaggregated student groups who are not achieving at proficiency.

• Be developed with the participation of individuals who conduct the schoolwide program.

 The school must document how it conducted the needs assessment, the results obtained, and the conclusions it drew from the results.

 The comprehensive plan must be developed by a school that operates a schoolwide program using the results of the comprehensive needs assessment. The plan must describe how the school will improve academic achievement throughout the school, particularly for students who have not achieved proficiency so that all students will demonstrate proficiency on the State’s academic standards. The plan must:

• Improve teaching and learning throughout the school.

• Be developed in consultation with the LEA and its school support team or other technical assistance providers. • Describe how the school will conduct the needs assessment, develop the plan and evaluate the results.

• Describe how the school will use Title I and other resources.

• Include a list of State and local programs and other Federal programs that the school will consolidate in the schoolwide program.

• Involve parents, members of the community to be served, teachers, principals, Title I administrators, and, if appropriate, pupil services personnel, technical assistance providers, and other school staff, and students if the school is a secondary school.

The school must develop the comprehensive plan in coordination with other programs, such as Reading First, Early Reading First, Even Start, Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, and the Head Start Act. The comprehensive needs assessment and the comprehensive plan must be developed over a one-year period unless:

• The school was operating a schoolwide program on or before January 7, 2002, in which case the school may continue to operate the schoolwide program but must amend the existing plan to reflect the requirements of NCLB.

The comprehensive plan remains in effect for the duration of the school’s status as a schoolwide program, and it must be available to parents and the public, and the information in the plan must be understandable and in uniform format, including alternative formats upon request. To the extent practicable, it must be provided in a language that the parents understand.

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: 

o Strengthen the core academic program.

o Provide an enriched and accelerated curriculum.

o Increase the amount and quality of learning time, such as providing an extended school year, before school, after school, and summer programs and opportunities.

o Include strategies for meeting the educational needs of historically underserved populations.

o 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 to 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.

Please contact the Director of Federal Programs at 706-236-5050 if you have any questions regarding Title I.