Federally Funded NCLB Programs in Shelby County Schools

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 is a federal law that includes several grants (Title Programs) for states and school districts. Our system receives some of these federal funds from six Title Programs: Title I A, Title II A, Title II D, Title III A, Title IV A, and Title V A.

Funds for these programs are intended to ensure that all children have the opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state academic standards and assessments.

These programs are designed to improve:

• academic achievement,
• reading skills,
• professional development,
• mathematics and science teaching,
• technologically savvy educational practices,
• English language acquisition,
• safety,
• parent involvement, and
• overall educational reform.

Title I A
Improving the Academic Achievement of the Economically Disadvantaged

Title I, Part A provides formula grants to districts. Districts (systems) then allocate funds to Title I schools based on their number of low-income children. The district must use Title I funds only in high poverty schools that have been selected for services through allowable procedures.

Title I provides flexible funding to provide additional instructional staff, professional development, extended-time programs, and other strategies for raising student achievement in high-poverty schools.

Focuses of the program:

• Promotes school wide reform in high-poverty schools
• Ensures students’ access to scientifically based instructional strategies and challenging academic content.
• Acts as a mechanism for holding states, school districts, and schools accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students
• Is a mechanism for turning around low-performing schools
• Provides alternatives to students in low-performing schools to enable those students to receive a high-quality education.

Title I funds may be used for a variety of services and activities, most commonly for instruction in reading and mathematics. The legislation encourages the use of strategies such as extended day (before and after school programs), extended year, and summer programs to increase learning time.

Title I N & D
Neglected and Delinquent Children

This program provides financial assistance to educational programs for youths in state-operated institutions or community day programs.

The program provides financial assistance:

• To support collaboration between systems' and locally operated correctional facilities.
• To districts with high numbers or percentages of child and youth in locally operated juvenile correctional facilities, including facilities involved in community day programs.

Title II, Part A
Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting

Title II, Part A, increases student achievement by improving teacher and principal quality through recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies.

The program:

• Uses scientifically based professional development interventions
• Holds districts and schools accountable for improvements in student academic performance.
• Was created because research shows that teacher quality is correlated with student academic achievement (Sanders and Rivers, 1996.)
• Was designed to address the variety of challenges found in each community with respect to teacher quality.
• Allows funds to be used for a wide array of interventions.
  

Title II, Part D
Enhancing Education Through Technology

The principal goal of this program is to improve student academic achievement through technology in elementary and secondary schools.

This program:

• Was designed to assist every student in becoming technologically literate by the end of eighth grade.
• Encourages the effective integration of technology resources in teacher training and professional development to establish research-based instructional models.
• Supports the use of technology for promoting parental involvement and managing data for informed decision-making.
• Targets funds primarily to school districts that serve concentrations of poor students.

Title III, Part A,
English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement

Title III, Part A, assists school districts in teaching English to limited English proficient (LEP) students.
Helps LEP students meet the same challenging state standards required of all students.

This program:

• Funds high-quality language instruction programs that are based on effective research, which increases English proficiency and student achievement.
• These funds also provide high-quality professional development to classroom teachers, principals, administrators, and other school or community-based organizational personnel in order to improve the instruction and assessment of limited English proficient students.
  

Click Here for more information about our English as a Second Language (ESL) program.

Title IV, Part A
Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities

The Title IV, Part A, Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act supports programs to prevent:

• Violence in and around schools;
• The illegal use of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco by young people; and
• Foster a safe and drug-free learning environment that supports academic achievement.

Funds are used to support a variety of initiatives including substance abuse, violence, counseling and student assistance programs.

Title V, Part A
Innovative Programs

This program assists local education reform efforts that supports statewide reform efforts and promising education reform programs.
As a continuing resource, it, can be used in a broad range of activities which:

• Encourages innovation and educational improvement to help meet the needs of special education and at-risk and students,
• Supports programs to improve school, student, and teacher performance.

Private Schools

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Benefits to Private School Students and Teachers

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, provides benefits to private school students, teachers and other education personnel, including those in religiously affiliated schools. The following information provides explanations of some of the law's provisions and brief summaries of relevant ESEA programs.

• These services are considered assistance to students and teachers and not to private schools.
• The reauthorized ESEA requires the equitable participation of private school students, teachers and other education personnel in some of its major programs.

The current Title Programs that Private Schools participate in with Shelby County Schools acting as the LEA are: Title IA, Title IIA, Title IID, Title IVA, and Title VA.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, No Child Left Behind: A Desktop Reference (www.ed.gov).