Priority Schools

In June, 2012, the U.S. Department of Education granted Virginia waivers from certain requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). For detailed information, see Virginia's ESEA Flexibility.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) flexibility waiver provisions specify that schools meeting one of the following criteria are identified as priority schools:

Title I school in which overall achievement in reading and/or mathematics does not meet annual benchmarks – as needed to identify a number of schools equivalent to five percent of the state’s Title I schools;
Title I high schools with a federal graduation indicator of 60 percent or less for two or more of the most recent consecutive years;
Title I school that fails to test 95 percent of students overall and in all subgroups in reading and mathematics for three consecutive years;
Title I schools and other schools receiving federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) funds and identified as a Tier I or Tier II school (present Cohort I and Cohort II schools)

Priority Schools Manual (Word)

Intervention Models

School divisions receiving School Improvement Grant (SIG) 1003(g) funds or Title IA 1003(a) funds for priority schools must implement one of the following four USED intervention models in their persistently lowest achieving schools:

Turnaround Model
Restart Model
School Closure
Transformation Model

Resources below assist in the implementation of these models:

The Reform Models (Word)
How to Select a School Improvement Model – from the Center on Innovation & Improvement (CII)
Virginia’s Lead Turnaround Partner Initiative (PPT)
Crosswalk Between RFP and SIG (Word)
RFP#DOE-2010-03 Low Achieving Schools Turnaround Partners (PDF)
- Notice of Contract Award (PDF)
- Cambridge Education (PDF)
- Edison Learning (PDF)
- Johns Hopkins University (PDF)
- Pearson (PDF)
- More about VDOE Request for Proposals
Transformation Toolkit for Implementing the SIG Transformation Model (PDF) – Center on Innovation & Improvement
Mass Insight: Designing MOUs for Lead Turnaround Partners (PDF)
Mass Insight: Lead Turnaround Partners (PDF)
Mass Insight: School Turnaround Models – Emerging Turnaround Strategies and Results (PPT)

Webinars

Indistar Technical Assistance

The Virginia Department of Education Office of School Improvement offers a series of webinars for Priority Schools on the use of the Indistar Web-based planning tool.

Video | Presentation (PPT) – Session 1 Recorded Webinar: Introduction to the Indistar Web-based Planning Tool

Cohort Materials

For approved applications from local educational agencies (LEAs) receiving School Improvement Grants (SIG) beginning with federal fiscal year 2009, see Cohort Materials.

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