COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O. BOX 2120
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23218-2120
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 4
|
TO: |
Division
Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Jo Lynne
DeMary Superintendent
of Public Instruction |
|
SUBJECT: |
No Child Left BehindTitle I Final Regulations: A School Improvement Identification Update |
The No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires Title I schools that do not
meet the state's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets for two consecutive
years to be identified for Title I School Improvement. The federal law requires
states to establish the AYP baseline for 2002-2003 using 2001-2002 school year
data (Virginia's 2002 Standards of Learning test results); however, the newly
released NCLB--Title I Final Regulations also require states to use the 2002
test results to assess 2001-2002 performance of certain Title I schools. Contrary to previous guidance received from
the U.S. Department of Education, the performance of all Title I schools except
the current 34 schools that have been identified for school improvement, must
be assessed using 2002 Standards of Learning test data.
Therefore,
such Title I schools that have received an Accredited with Warning rating in
English and/or mathematics for 2002-2003 will be considered to have failed one
of the two years necessary to be included in the Title I School Improvement
category. Virginia has identified 16
such Title I schools. If your division
has schools in this category, you will be notified in separate correspondence. The second-year assessment for these schools
will be based on the state's definition of AYP that will be applied to school
year 2002-2003.
We encourage
all superintendents and principals of Title I schools in this category to
review Section 1116 of the Title I law to become knowledgeable of the
consequences should these schools fail to make adequate yearly progress for
2002-2003. More importantly,
superintendents and principals should seek to ensure that low-performing
schools maximize their efforts to improve English/reading and mathematics
achievement of all students to prevent these schools from moving into Title I
School Improvement status.
If
you should have questions, please contact George H. Irby, Sr., (mailto:girby@mail.vak12ed.edu), or
Brenda A. Spencer
(mailto:bspencer@mail.vak12ed.edu)
at (804) 225-2869. You may find the No
Child Left Behind Regulations at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SASA/cepprogresp.html
- reg.