Federal Programs Updates
From the SDE: Migrant Artisans Project (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: Migrant Information (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: Family & Community Engagement (Liz Roper)
From the SDE: Homeless Program Updates (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: QAD, Monthly migrant student lists, ISR, Testing (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: Funding Change 2011-12 (Debbie Owens)
From the SDE: TELPA Cut Scores and Consolidated Application (Jan Lanier)
From the SDE: ESL Updates (Jan Lanier)
From the SDE: Feb Migrant Education Programs (MEP) Newsletter (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: Private School Intent to Participate and Enrollment Data and CREP Private School Survey (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: ESL Opportunities for Grants and Distroct Plans (Jan Lanier)
From the SDE: Update to ISR Form (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: ESL Grants and Funding Opportunities (Jan Lanier)
From the SDE: Private Schools List and Form (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: Monitoring for Transition Students for ESL (Jan Lanier)
From the SDE: Rural Schools Articles (Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: Section 1512 ARRA Reporting Workbooks (Eve Carney)
From the SDE: December 2011 MEP Newsletter
(Paula Gaddis)
From the SDE: District Plans ESL (Jan Lanier)
From the SDE: New Websites for ESL Materials (Jan Lanier)
From the SDE: ESES Flexibility / Brustein & Manasevit Update / Nat'l Title I Conference (Debbie Owens)
From the SDE: Grant Opportunities (Jan Lanier)
From the SDE: TN Parent Involvement Standards Survey (Liz Roper)
From the SDE: TELL – Learning a Snapshot Process Webinar Attachments (Trish Kelly)
I wanted to share information about the Migrant Artisans project-undertaken by the migrant education program during the last school year. The project was funded partially with a grant from the TN Arts Council. Enjoy.
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Change to Migrant Guidance on Occupational Survey Document
We have updated our Occupational Survey Guidance found on the State Web site to reflect the inclusion of migrant education as a part of the monitoring process conducted by the State. The inclusion of migrant education is seen in more than one item in the document, but the change of note is in item #4.
4. Do I have to keep a copy of the completed survey in the student’s file?
Yes. The Occupational Survey is included as a part of the State monitoring instrument and should be kept for one year for State monitoring purposes.
Completed Occupational Surveys may be kept in the student cumulative files at the building level or in a file in a centralized location such as the district office.
Individual Student Record (ISR) Reminder
As we make the final push to the end of the academic year, I wanted to send out a reminder that an ISR form for each migrant student enrolled in your district at the end of the school year is to be submitted via the secure migrant web site, http://tn.msedd.com by July 1, 2012. This July 1 date provided an additional month for submission beyond the 2011 submission date.
If a migrant student leaves the district during the school year, the ISR form should be submitted at that time.
The ISR information is used to populate the national migrant student data base, MSIX, as required under ESEA.
Summer Activities for Migrant Students
Many of your migrant students have been receiving in-home instruction through the migrant program during the school year. This activity will continue through the summer months. In addition, we have been able to fund week-long summer camp learning experiences this summer for our migrant students. The State migrant staff will contact migrant families to enroll them in the camp, if there is one in their area. Finally, we will again be providing a week-long Leadership Institute for our high school students on the campus of ETSU in August. More information will be provided, but know that there is no cost to any migrant student to attend this event and transportation is provided from anywhere in the State by the migrant program.
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FAMILY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Training
The Family Friendly Schools will be hosting a National Conversation on Family Engagement. The conference call is on Wednesday, February 22, 2012, with Dr. Joni Samples and nationally recognized family engagement principal and teacher, Joe Mazza. Joe introduced the country to the 21st Century approach to family engagement through the use of technology. Have you wondered how you can make use of the school's or your personal computer to get parents engaged in the education of their children? Joe has done years of research and practical applications that he is going to share with the teleconference participants. To join the conference call at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time dial1-218-844-8230. The pass code is 917393#. For more information, go to http://familyfriendlyschools.org/EngageProcess/index.htm.
Successful Innovations, Inc. will be hosting the Mid-Atlantic Family Engagement Summit on March 15-16, 2012, in Lynchburg, Virginia, at the Holiday Inn Select. the Conference topics include: Inspire Strategic Family Partnerships, Best Practices in Family Engagement, Engage Diverse Families, and Transformational Strategies For The 21st Century. For conference information, go to http://www.si4all.com/featured-events/. Successful Innovations, Inc. was founded in 2006 by former educational leaders of schools with a large percentage of students on free and reduced lunch. Darlene Mack (former principal), Stefanie Prokity (former principal), and Hilda Stevens retired Literacy Coach) were passionate about finding meaningful ways to increase student achievement and decrease the achievement gap. They believed that the solution to increased performance could be addressed through equipping parents with the knowledge necessary to support their child’s education.
The National Center for Family Literacy will be hosting the 21st National Conference On Family Literacy on March 25-27, 2012, in San Diego, California, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. This conference meets the needs and interests of family literacy professionals and literacy practitioners. Information, resources, research, educational leaders, advocates and supporters — the National Conference on Family Literacy has it all. For conference information, go to http://www.famlit.org/conference.
The Parents for Public Schools National Board Member, Anne Henderson, will moderate a nationwide webinar entitled: Advancing Student Learning with Family-School-Community Partnerships. Sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA), this webinar will be held Thursday, March 29, 2012, at 4 p.m. EASTERN. Anne Henderson is the senior consultant for community organizing and engagement for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Since 1981, Anne has steadily tracked the research on how engaging families can improve student achievement. Her most recent book is Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships, written with Karen Mapp, Vivian Johnson, and Don Davies. To access the webinar, go to https://www119.livemeeting.com/cc/vcc/join. Then, enter the Meeting ID: w7964176 and Entry Code: A796417. For audio dial-in, the phone number is: 888-‐523-‐1227 and the passcode is: 7964176.
The I Care will be hosting a Parental Involvement Breakthrough Conference on June 20-22, 2012, in San Antonio, Texas at the Embassy Suite Hotel San Antonio Riverwalk Downtown. Topics include: Increase Academic Achievement, Improve Standardized Test Scores in Math & English, Increase Positive Parent/Child Interactions at Home, Strengthen Parents’ Character–Building Skills, Reinforce Reading at All Grade Levels, Provide Quantitative Parent Engagement Measures. For more information about the conference, go to http://www.theparentalinvolvementplace.com/conferences/June2012Conference.html. Elbert Solomon, the developer of “I Care,” started out as a high school math teacher before transitioning to Chemical Engineering and corporate business. There he first used Total Quality Management (TQM) principles originated by William Deming, who literally revolutionized the Japanese economy by applying the principles of TQM. During his years as a teacher, Mr. Solomon encountered many children who were not meeting their potential. As he dialogued about this with his wife—a former elementary school teacher and administrator—as well as with other friends and colleagues, one issue emerged: lack of parental involvement.
Written Resources
The Handbook on Family and Community Engagement was created with funding and support from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to the Academic Development Institute and the Center on Innovation & Improvement. The Center on Innovation & Improvement is a national content center supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. This Handbook is intended to provide educators, community leaders, and parents with a succinct survey of the best research and practice accumulated over the years. More important, the Handbook gives us a guide—a lean and lucid roadmap with which we can travel to a new plain in our quest for each and every student’s academic, personal, social, and emotional development.
Making the Most of School-Family Compacts by Anne T. Henderson, Judy Carson, Patti Avallone, and Melissa Whipple. Published in Educational Leadership, May 2011, volume 68, pages 48-53. Available at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/may11/vol68/num08/Making_the_Most_of_School-Family_Compacts.aspx
The Family-School Compact project at Geraldine Johnson Elementary School in Bridgeport was highlighted in Family-School-Community Partnerships 2.0: Collaborative Strategies to Advance Student Learning, lead author Anne T. Henderson for the National Education Association Priority Schools Campaign, 2011. Available at: http://neapriorityschools.org/2011/11/07/family-school-community-partnerships-2-0/
Grant Opportunity
There is a $50,000 grant opportunity across the country for 150 Title I schoolwide elementary schools to offset the first-year Success For All implementation costs. Success for All Foundation is the highest-rated scale-up winner in the U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation’s (i3) competition. They were awarded $50 million to expand comprehensive school-improvement programs to eligible Title I elementary schools. Success for All is used by 1,000 schools nationwide. As a result of the grant, the network of Success for All schools is expected to more than double over the next five years.
Success for All is a whole-school improvement approach that is proven by research to increase student achievement. It features:
- structured lessons and materials,
- professional development to build teachers’ capacity to meet the needs of all students
- data tools to drive instruction
- interventions for struggling readers
- outreach strategies to engage parents and community members
- a cooperative-learning model in which students work together to achieve at a high level, and
- a collaborative leadership network involving teachers and administrators to ensure effective outcomes.
To learn more about the grant opportunity, go to http://www.successforall.org/i3/?pos=sponsTop1&adv=Success.
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February 20, 2012 - Paula Gaddis
Transition to new homeless consultant
As some of you are already aware, I will be taking over as the State consultant for Homeless Education and James Francis will be taking on new job duties here in our office. At this time we are job sharing in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. This transition should take us another month or so. In the mean time, you should feel free to contact whichever of us you wish in order to obtain guidance and continue to submit all documents as you always have under James’ leadership. Further communication will be sent out letting you know when the job change is final.
Additions to the State status page
Two documents related to Homeless Education have been added to the second semester State status page this year. These are the Title X Homeless Immunization Report and the Title X McKinney-Vento Grant Self-Monitoring
The Immunization Report is due July 31, 2012. All LEAs must submit this report. Plan ahead for this deadline in the event that the individual in your district responsible for this report is not on a 12 month contract and may not be present on the days leading up to the due date. The Immunization Report is required through the Tennessee Code Annotated 49-6-5001(g) and annually reports the number of homeless children enrolled in public schools without immunization or proof of immunization and the average length of time required for these children to be immunized or to obtain immunization records. Since the deadline for this report is after the job transition will be complete, these forms will be mailed to me.
The Title X McKinney-Vento Grant Self-Monitoring is only required of a few districts. Due date for this document is May 31, 2012. Recipients of a McKinney –Vento grant that do not participate in an on-site monitoring of the grant during the school year are required to submit this self-monitoring document. For 2012, those LEAs responsible for submission of the document are Davidson County, Elizabethton City, Johnson City, Memphis City, Rutherford County, Shelby County, Sumner County, and Wilson County. Since the deadline for this report is after the job transition will be complete, this document will be mailed to me.
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February 20, 2012 - Paula Gaddis
QAD
QAD stands for Qualifying Arrival Date and is a very important date to pay attention to when considering a student’s eligibility for migrant status. This date is found in EIS. When you do a district search for migrant students in EIS, the QAD is the data the furthest to the right when looking at student information. A student is eligible for migrant status for 36 months from the QAD date. The student may still receive migrant services and benefits through the end of the school year when his/her eligibility expires.
When you do a district search for migrant students, all students who have ever been coded as migrant who are in your district will appear on the list. Be sure to look at the QAD date when considering whether the student is still classified as migrant. If the QAD, for example, is 3-1-2008, the student is no longer considered to be migrant. This is important when you are attempting to verify the monthly lists you retrieve from the secure web site.
It is possible based on the way that the program is designed in EIS for a student to appear to have more than one QAD. If that happens, this just means that the student had a QAD, left the area, then returned and received a new QAD. Always use the most recent QAD when determining if a student is an active migrant.
Monthly migrant student lists
When you are verifying a student’s presence on the monthly lists, be sure to check the QAD. The monthly list your receive may have 5 students listed while the EIS list you pull may have 13. Look at the QAD dates for those on the EIS list. Be sure to discount those whose QAD is past 36 months as well as those students who have withdrawn from the district when reconciling the two lists.
The monthly student list may also contain children and youth that are not registered in the school system but do live within your school boundaries. For example, you may see listed a younger sibling (age 4, for example) to a migrant student that does attend in your district. This may be a family to which you may want to do outreach to see about enrolling the younger sibling into a pre-school program. Look for a the date of birth for students such as these who may be eligible for a pre-school program in your district. The codes for these younger students will be P3, P4, P5 – preschool age (the number indicates their age as of the end of the current program year).
A code of OS stands for out-of-school. The student is not attending school but is of school age, under the age of 18. These youth may have come to the U.S. from a country where they have already completed compulsory education, yet are still within the range of compulsory education in this country.
It is our hope that by providing you with the information for children and youth that we know are present but are not associated with the school system, we may provide you with information that will assist you in your outreach efforts in providing educational opportunities to these individuals.
A final code that you may see is UG. This stands for ungraded. These are youth ages 18-21 which the TN migrant program is still bound to serve through ESEA.
ISR
Please remember to submit an ISR (Individual Student Record) for each migrant student when they leave your district. This should be done within 14 days of the student’s departure. ISRs are also submitted at the end of the school year for any migrant student that is still registered in the district. The submission due date for these end-of-year forms this year is July 1, 2012. This information is required through ESEA to be submitted into a national migrant student data base by each state.
Testing
Please be sure to double check coding of migrant students for the upcoming testing cycle. I have worked with the technology and assessment teams here at the State to be sure the QAD date is considered for any pre-id information filled in on the answer sheets you receive. They should be correct.
Thank you for all of the hard work that you do. Please call or drop me a line with any concerns or questions you have about the migrant program and services and supports available to our students.
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February 20, 2012 - Debbie Owens
Title I and II A Funding Partially Restored
In October, 2011, Congress reduced the Title I-A allocations nationwide by $163 million. USED and states reduced each LEA’s allocation for Title I-A and Title II-A by formula. This reduction was called a “Rescission”. TDOE sent new grant award letters, and each LEA resubmitted its final budget in November and December 2011, to reflect this change.
On December 23, 2011, Congress adjusted the rescission amount from October by returning $142 million nationwide. This adjustment required USED and all states to recalculate the FY12 Title I-A allocations. The December allocations REPLACE the allocations the USED sent out to states in October 2011. This chart shows what each LEA received in Title I-A under the rescission reduction and the amount awarded under the rescission revision change (green cells). In addition, the $9,011 recouped from a county that did not meet Maintenance of Effort (MOE) requirements has been redistributed through the Title I formula. The additional funds will be posted to FACTS on July 1, 2012. LEAs will be informed of their revised Title IIA allocation when those calculations are complete.
Since Tennessee and most other states have already recalculated for the rescission reduction, USED gave permission to all states to “hold” the rescission revision changes until our state FY13 allocations are available. This means your system will be notified of the amount of change (Title I-A on attached chart) but will not be required to create a budget amendment for state FY12 at this time. Each LEA will simply reflect any FY12 carryover amount on the FY13 budget documents.
I
f your LEA has an immediate need of this additional funding, you may submit an amendment to the FY12 budget. Remember, that Title I-A has a carryover limitation of 15% so you must expend funds this year or request a waiver. The final FY12 allocation must be used for this calculation so each LEA should consider the impact of the revised allocation as they plan expenditures to be made prior to September 30, 2012. Please contact your assigned ESEA consultant for assistance with this process.
If you have questions concerning the allocation changes, please contact Brenda Staggs at 615-532-2490 or Carol Neiger at 615-532-1626.
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February 14, 2012 - Jan Lanier
TELPA CUT SCORES
Please use the TELPA cut scores found on this page. The TELPA is only used as a screening tool for ESL services. It should be administered once when the student enrolls. The Home Language Survey (HLS)qualifies the student for this screening when any answer is HLS is a language other than English. Screening determines services. If you have questions, please see the State Board policy 3.207 or contact me. You may wish to test your pre-K students this spring so that they are ready for class in the fall.
PLANNING YOUR BUDGET FOR THE CONSOLIDATED APPLICATION
Two reminders as you plan your budget for your consolidated application this year. First the ratio of students to teacher for ESL changed this year. The new ratio for 2012-2013 will be 1 teacher for each 40 students. There is a possibility of an alternative plan if needed. Please budget accordingly.
Also, this time of year, there are many questions related to the uses of Title III funds. The federal program officer at the US ED uses this chart when monitoring. It might serve as a good guide to you.
Costs must be…
reasonable
A cost is reasonable if, in its nature and amount, it does not exceed that which would be incurred by a prudent person under the circumstances prevailing at the time the decision was made to incur the cost.
allocable
A cost is allocable to a cost objective if the goods or services involved are chargeable or assignable to the cost objective in accordance with the relative benefits received.
allowable
A cost is allowable if it is necessary and reasonable for proper and efficient performance of the award and allocable to the award.
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ESL
- QUESTIONS FOR ASSESSMENT
If you have assessment questions, please address them to tned.assessment@tn.gov The Assessment department is dedicated to giving you the best service possible. Of course, you can always contact me, but I will be working closely with assessment to make sure answers are consistent. - TNTESOL IS ONLY 6 WEEKS AWAY
Have you registered? If not please go to www.tn.gov to see the program and find registration materials. The pre-conference sessions begin March 14. - ELDA BEGINS SOON
If you have questions for the ELDA Helpline at Measurement Inc. call 888.612.0180 or e-mail elda@measinc.com Be sure that you inventory your materials carefully when they arrive and keep the box for returning materials. All ELDA materials should be kept secure. - DISTRICT PLANS FOR ESL
Thanks to all of you who have completed this plan. There are still 74 waiting to be finished. If you are one of the 74, please send this in as soon as possible.
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January 9, 2012 - Paula Gaddis
INTENT TO PARTICIPATE
It is time again to survey the private schools in your boundaries to determine each school’s intent to participate in federal program for the 2012-2013 school year. Student enrollment counts for each private school are also recorded on this form. The form is to be completed by the private school. When you send the form to the private school, use registered mail to document that the school has been contacted. The form should come back to you no later than January 31, 2012.
If the school does not respond, you may find and use third month enrollment through personal contact or perhaps through your attendance officer. We must have an enrollment figure for every private school. The form can be found HERE. A list of all non-public schools in TN is available on the State website (near the top of the page).
CREP PRIVATE SCHOOL SURVEY
Once you have received the Intent to Participate form back from each private school, this data is to be entered by the LEA into the private school survey on the web. Enter the LEA data by private school onto the Private School Enrollment and Participation website, exact address will be forthcoming.
The survey site will open on February 1, 2012 and close on February 17, 2012.
Prior to the opening day of the site, you will receive an email from our office. This email will contain your password information for this year.
This year we will host a webinar on February 7, 2012 for the purpose of explaining/reviewing the process of adding information to the CREP website. More information regarding the webinar will be sent to you prior to this date.
The designation of non-profit or for-profit and enrollment data for all private schools is required. Even though we need enrollment on all schools, please remember that participation in federal programs is limited to non-profit schools only. Planned participation in programs is to be checked according to each school’s response to the Intent to Participate form.
The list of schools posted on the survey site will be a list of all non-public schools in Tennessee appears on the State web site at the link above. Non-public schools include schools defined as for-profit and non-profit. Therefore, you may find schools listed within your boundary that do not qualify for federal programs since they are for-profit.
All school districts are required to submit the Private School Enrollment and Participation data onto the website. If you have no private schools in your district, you must still go to the website and confirm that you do not have any private schools.
Accuracy is extremely important because these figures translate into dollars and must stand up to audit. No allocations can be calculated until all information is collected. If you have changes in private school participation, you must go back to the website and revise your private school participation data.
If you are having challenges with the function of the website, contact CREP directly using the information on the website.
If you believe that an addition, deletion, or name change needs to be made to a school listed within your boundaries, email me. You may contact me by e-mail at Paula.Gaddis@tn.gov or by phone at 615/741-3262 with any questions you have about either of these two activities. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
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DISTRICT PLANS
If you have not turned in your district plan for this year, please do that as soon as possible. If you need assistance, please contact Jan Lanier.
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December 16, 2011 - Paula Gaddis
UPDATE TO ISR FORMS
By now you are all aware of the national MSIX data base, Migrant Student Information Exchange. This is the federally mandated migrant student data base for which the ISR information is used. We have recently been informed that we need to make a change in a piece of the data that we are collecting. We have also added two fields to the form.
The change is with academic records. All academic records must now be submitted on the ISR form as numerical rather than alphabetical. For example, if a student has an alpha grade of A-, this must be converted to numerical such as 90 when you complete the ISR information. This change is necessary for the data to be uploaded appropriately into MSIX. The numerical grade equivalent to the alpha grade with be determined by the district. If you have previously submitted alpha grades, Grace or I will be contacting you if we need to convert to numerical. You do not need to resubmit any previously submitted ISR form.
The additional fields have to do with dropout and graduation. There has been and will continue to be a field to report “Anticipated Graduation Date.” Due to increased requirements of data collection by the federal government, we have also added “Graduation Date” and “Dropout Date” fields. It is understood that many ISR forms that come to us will have no information in either of these fields. For example, the Graduation Date field would only be completed for students who were graduated from the district during their time there. Also, migrant student may leave the district without notifying the district of their move. When they fail to return to school, this does not necessarily mean that they have dropped out.
The two additional fields and the change in academic data have been included in the tab of instructions on the ISR form. I have also attached the newest form to this communication. Please let me or Grace Johnson know if you have questions concerning these changes.
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December 16, 2011 - Jan Lanier
ESL GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
LEGO: Children's Fund Grants
The LEGO Children's Fund will provide grants for collaborative programs, either in part or in total, to organizations that focus on early childhood education and development; technology and communication projects that advance learning opportunities; or sport or athletic programs that concentrate on underserved youth. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: 501(c)(3) organizations. Deadline: January 15, 2012.
C-SPAN StudentCam
C-SPAN's StudentCam is an annual national video documentary competition that encourages students to think seriously about issues that affect our communities and our nation. Students are asked to create a short (5-8 minute) video documentary on a topic related to the competition theme "The Constitution and You." Documentary may focus on any section of the Preamble, Articles, or Amendments of the US. Constitution. Maximum award: $5,000, plus $1,000 in digital equipment for school. Eligibility: individuals or teams of two to three students grades 6-8 or grades 9- 12; Deadline: January 20, 2012.
United States-Japan Foundation: Elgin Heinz Outstanding Teacher Award
The United States-Japan Foundation Elgin Heinz Outstanding Teacher Award recognizes exceptional teachers who further mutual understanding between Americans and Japanese. The award is presented annually to two pre-college teachers in two categories, humanities and Japanese language. Maximum award: $7,500 ($2,500 monetary award, $5,000 in project funds). Eligibility: current full-time K-12 classroom teachers of any relevant subject in the United States who have been teaching for at least five years. Deadline: February 1, 2012.
Intel Foundation: Schools of Distinction
The Intel Foundation Schools of Distinction Program honors U.S. schools that have demonstrated excellence in math and science education. In order to be considered as an Intel School of Distinction, schools must develop an environment and curricula that meet or exceed benchmarks, including national mathematics and science content standards. Maximum award: $25,000. Eligibility: middle and high schools in the U.S. Deadline: February 23, 2012.
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December 15, 2011 - Paula Gaddis
Private Schools List and Form
For those of you on the webinar this morning, I mentioned that the Intent to Participate form for 2012-13 is posted on the State web site. That update, as it turns out, has not been made, yet. I am attaching the form in the event that any of you need or want it before it gets to the web site. Also, I am providing a link to THE most up-to-date list of private schools in TN from the State web site. http://www.tn.gov/education/nonpublic/index.shtml The document you want is near the very top of the page, “2011-12 Non-public School Listing”.
I will still be sending out a formal reminder at the first of the year with this same information. So, this communication should not be considered to be a formal notice to begin the process. That notice will come the first week of January.
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December 15, 2011 - Jan Lanier
Monitoring for Transition Students
A template with suggestions for monitoring transition students is being posted to the website. It has been on the website previously. Feel free to modify for your district needs, or create a more meaningful document.
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December 14, 2011 - Paula Gaddis
Rural Schools Articles
The National Research Center on Rural Education Support web site contains a research dissemination tool and is updated regularly to reflect current information about their study projects as well as links to publications of the NRCRES. The web site contains other resources that may also be of interest to you.
I have attached three articles from the site. Some of you may already be associated with this site and have gotten these articles sent directly to you.
- Distance Education in Rural Schools: Patterns of Use and Barriers to Use
- Social Dynamics, Bullying Involvement, and School Adjustment in Middle School
- Educational Aspirations of Rural Adolescents
Attached are the Section 1512 ARRA reporting workbooks for the following:
NCLB / ESEA projects
(New Final Verification Tab required)
First to the Top – Competitive Projects (Focus Schools, Renewal Schools, Innovation Acceleration Fund, and Competitive Supplemental Fund-awarded in 2010)
Both workbooks have beenupdated with new instructions and required pages.
USED presented a waiver opportunity to States on September 23, 2011. Tennessee applied and was approved for this waiver to extend the period of availability-(ESEA except Title X) until September 30, 2012. Due to the timing of the waiver, many districts had already obligated these funds prior to September 30, 2011.
The completed workbook is due to your NCLB Consultant no later than December 18, 2011 with certification by Director of Schools no later than December 15, 2011. With the holidays and differing calendars across the state, your Consultant may have an alternative date. Remember this is Q4 2011, and the District Period is 2011 (Calendar Year).
I want to thank you for the time and effort you have given over the past 27 months with these reports. Many of you wear numerous “hats” in your district, and I recognize that this reporting became yet another “hat” for you to wear.
As you complete what for many will be the final ARRA quarterly report, please contact your Consultant or me with questions. PLEASE use the updated forms on this final report.
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ANNUAL MEASUREABLE ACHIEVEMENT OBJECTIVES (AMAOs)
Your district will soon have AMAO scores. The hard copies will come to your superintendent and e-mail copies will come to you. TN did quite well with AMAOs. As a State, we made AMAO 1 and 2, but not AMAO 3. After these have been sent, we will have a sort webinar to allow you to discuss them and ask any questions that need to be asked.
DISTRICT PLANS
Please find attached the District Plan
for 2011-2012. You are required to change or update your plan each time you have changes. The major change for this year is the plan for hiring ESL teachers. This is required from the federal monitoring of the State in May 2010. All districts must have a plan in place for screening ESL teachers for fluency in all four domains: reading, writing, listening and speaking. If you go to http://www.tn.gov/education/fedprog/fpeslresources.shtml there is a form there that you may put on your district letterhead, adapt as needed and post to your ESL or education website.
SELF-APPRAISAL
There have been a few questions about the self-appraisal. This is required for ESL programs as a result of Castañeda v. Pickard. All ESL programs must do an annual self-appraisal. This is a new form that was developed for TN with the Education Department, Edvantia, and the Center for Equity and Excellence in Education at the George Washington University. This evaluation will be the starting place for all audits and technical assistance that is needed when AMAOs are not met by districts. For this year, we are asking that you just state if you have the evidence, not that you produce the evidence. This allows you to see what will be needed next year and gives you the opportunity to collect evidence as the year progresses. At the end of each year, we will be able to give you insight into how your district is progressing with ESL. This document will be used as a preview to monitoring, when complaints are registered, to aid in moving your district program toward higher expectations. There is no intent for any punitive measure with this. This is to facilitate growth. If you have questions, please e-mail and I will respond or set up a time for us to talk about this. There is a webinar planned, but no date has been set. Watch for that.
UP-COMING WEBINARS
- To discuss AMAOs and where to move from here
- To discuss the ESL Self Appraisal
- To review the plans for districts which have failed any AMAO
- To discuss accommodations for assessement
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November 21, 2011 - Jan Lanier
New Websites For ESL Materials
I have added some websites for you to use for videos, lesson plans and units.
Assessment Questions
There has not been a replacement hired for or an assignment of an assessment made for Steven Nixon yet. If you have assessment questions, please send them to me. I’ll answer what I can and send the others on the appropriate person. If you do not get your answer in a reasonable time, do not hesitate to contact us again.
Website For Read Tennessee Up And Ready For Use
Note that the website now includes math as well as reading. Please browse through the different areas for teachers, parents, and community. If you have comments or questions, please share Bookmark this website and watch for changes over the next few months.
ELL/EL
In an effort to be consistent with the federal Department of Education, TN will attempt to use EL in lieu of ELL in our language and documents. The older term will be gently phased out and you are likely to see both for a period of time. Thank you for your understanding.
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November 21, 2011 - Dr. Debbie Owens
Below is announcement about the ESEA Flexibility Application, a federal update with more waiver information, and a link for the National Title I Conference...
Tennessee Submits ESEA Flexibility Application (see the waiver section of the Federal Programs homepage)
Federal Update- from Brustein and Manasevit - Here is a recent federal update that explains the process of judging the ESEA Flexibility Waiver.
National Title I Conference: Soaring to Excellence, Jan 21-24, 2012
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November 14, 2011 - Jan Lanier
A Few Grant Opportunities:
Fund for Teachers: Grants
The Fund for Teachers provides funds for direct grants to teachers to support summer learning opportunities of their own design. Maximum award: $5,000 Eligibility: teachers who work with students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12, with a minimum of three years teaching experience, full-time, spending at least 50 percent of the time in the classroom at the time grants are approved and made. Deadline: varies by state.
Captain Planet Foundation: Grants for the Environment
The Captain Planet Foundation funds hands-on environmental projects to encourage youth around the world to work individually and collectively to solve environmental problems in their neighborhoods and communities. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: U.S.-based schools and organizations with an annual operating budget of less than $3 million. Deadline: January 15, 2012.
Earthwatch Institute: Fellowships
The Earthwatch Institute offers educators fully-funded fellowships for hands-on learning with leading scientists doing field research and conservation on one of over 100 projects around the world. Maximum award: fully-funded fellowship. Eligibility: elementary, middle, and high school educators and administrators of any discipline. Deadline: February 13, 2012.
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November 10, 2011 - Liz Roper
Tennessee Parental Involvement Standards Survey
The parental involvement standards survey resulted from a state law, Senate Bill No. 293 that passed in 2009. The law required the Tennessee State Department of Education to develop parental involvement standards in public schools and include compliance information for each LEA and public school. The compliance information is to be posted annually on the Tennessee State Report Cards beginning with the 2010-2011 school year. Because of the mandate a task force convened and reviewed the state policy that was adopted in 2003- the Parental Involvement Standards Policy 4.207 and the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Standards for Family-School Partnerships. Based on the task force recommendations, the State Board of Education in 2010 approved the Tennessee Parental Involvement Standards replace Policy 4.207. (Also see the PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships Assessment Guide)
As a result of the law, the State Department developed a district level and school level Excel spreadsheet to survey compliance on the parental involvement standards. The LEAs completed the survey for the first time in April of 2011. The survey was completed by every district parent involvement coordinator and by one parent involvement liaison in every public school. The 2011-2012 state averages for implementing the parental involvement standards are attached. The highest ranked standards are Standards 1-Welcoming All Families and Standard 2- Communicating Effectively. The lowest ranked standard is Standard 5- Sharing Power.
The survey will be completed again this spring. A webinar will be forthcoming to provide information about the survey. The school level compliance, district level compliance, and state averages for compliance on the six standards will be posted on the TDOE website any time now. I will send an email to announce when the survey information has been posted on the Tennessee Report Cards website.
The Tennessee Parental Involvement Standards for all public schools are listed below. These state requirements are in addition to the district and school level federal requirements for Title I.
Standard 1: Welcoming all families into the school community—Families are active participants in the life of the school, and feel welcomed, valued, and connected to each other, to school staff, and to what students are learning and doing in class and school.
Standard 2: Communicating effectively—Families and school staff engage in regular, meaningful communication about student learning.
Standard 3: Supporting student success—Families and school staff continuously work together to support students’ learning and healthy development both at home and at school, and have regular opportunities to strengthen their knowledge and skills to do so effectively.
Standard 4: Speaking up for every child—Families are informed and enabled to be advocates for their own and other children, to ensure that students are treated fairly and have access to learning opportunities that will support their success.
Standard 5: Sharing power—Families and school staff are equal partners with equal representation in decisions that affect students and families and together inform, influence, and create policies, practices, and programs.
Standard 6: Collaborating with community—Families and school staff work together with community members to connect students, families, and staff to expanded learning opportunities, community services, and civic participation.
To provide more information, the survey collects up to five documents used to implement the parental involvement standards. The survey also asks for the level that each standard was implemented. The level of implementation for each standard:0 = Not there yet,1 = Emerging,2 = Progressing,3 = Excelling.
The five Tools and Resources are:
1. Tennessee School Improvement Plans or TSIPP (school-level only)
2. Tennessee Comprehensive Systemwide Planning Process or TCSPP (district-level only) Parental
3. Involvement Policy or Plan
4. Parent Surveys
5. Comprehensive Monitoring Instrument (can be used for Title I Schools only)
Also see the State Dept. Family and Community Engagement website
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November 8, 2011 - Dr. Trish Kelly
Please see the following attachments associated with last week’s TELL – Learning a Snapshot Process webinar:
a) webinar archive instructions,
b) power point
,
c) and d) results for the eight key indicators in district and school Excel files and
e) response rates.
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Governor Bill Haslam
