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Industry Resources |
Glossary of Federal Education Terminologyby Education
TURNKEY Systems, Inc. Title I Legal Framework - Consists of the following in terms of overriding precedence: (a) Title I legislation as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act currently referred to as "No Child Left Behind"; (b) rules and regulations which recently have been developed beginning with "negotiated rule-making" by different stakeholder groups to arrive at a consensus on items needing clarification and interpretation; (c) nonregulatory guidance (NRG) which, in the past, has been in the form of the Title I Policy Manual and, most recently, in separate guidance issuances which are generally in concert with regulations, but often provide additional flexibility (which, however, may create audit problems in the future); (d) letters of determination, which are issued by USED in response to very specific questions on a case-by-case basis, and which could be applied generally where similar cases exist across the country. Title I Schoolwide Programs - Schools with 40 percent or more poverty in which other Federal funds can be combined or commingled to serve all children, not just Title I-eligible students. The law and regulations clearly state that schoolwide programs do not have to report on how funds are expended as long as the intent and purpose of schoolwides are attempted to be met. Targeted Assistance School - A school with a high enough enrollment of students from low income families to be selected to receive Title I services. However, funds can be used to only serve children from low-income families and not all students in school. Some noneligible students can be served for incidental purposes. Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) - The criterion or definition selected by a state (and approved by USED) which students must achieve on state assessments for a school to be considered as not having failed; may be "cut off" point or other growth measures of student performance as selected by the state and approved by USED. School Identified for or Targeted for Improvement - If a school fails to meet the state’s definition of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on state assessments for two consecutive years, it must provide parents a choice option to transfer their children to other schools and at least 15 percent of the Title I funds allocated to the school must be used for training teachers and/or instructional paraprofessionals. If failing for three consecutive years, the school must also provide supplemental services from a provider approved by the state; if failing for more than three consecutive years, then further corrective action must be taken ranging from replacing staff or the entire school curricula. Supplemental Services - Services which must be made available to parents for their children enrolled in schools failing for three consecutive years. Services may include onsite tutoring or online distance learning if approved by the state, which must determine whether services are based upon scientifically-based research. Advanced Funding - A concept developed approximately five years ago by Congress to circumvent expenditure caps on discretionary education budget items. This is done by appropriating a certain amount of money in a FY budget appropriation, but not being allocated funds until the beginning of the next fiscal year; this has resulted in a majority of funding for most ESEA programs, including Title I, not being allocated until two to three months after school begins, which has created changes in purchasing cycles. Forward Funding - Concept developed in 1982, whereby Congress typically appropriates the level of funding in September through December to be made available to districts the next school year. The concept of "advanced funding" has eroded most of the intent of "forward funding." Supplement, Not Supplant - The concept of "supplement, not supplant" has been an integral part of ESEA funding for over three decades, but has been significantly eroded under No Child Left Behind provisions. The intent of the provision was to ensure that Federal funds are used to supplement state and other local funds committed to education services and not to be used to make up for shortfalls in state and/or local funds. The most obvious situation where supplanting is occurring is in Title I schoolwide programs; schools do not have to report how such funds are being used nor can states require reporting of such Federal funds. Maintenance of Effort - Similar to the "supplement, not supplant" provision, maintenance of effort clauses have been built into Title I since its inception to prevent state and local education agencies from reducing their support for education programs when Federal funding increased. There are no maintenance of effort provisions in No Child Left Behind. In approximately half of the states, including most of the Southeastern states, state legislatures have had a tendency to reappropriate Federal funds thus lumping Federal and state funds together; this allows legislators to reduce state funding when Federal funding increases, such as is the case now with the Title II D/Technology Enhancement Block Grant. Fifty Percent Transferability Provision - No Child Left Behind provisions allow for up to fifty percent of any Federal program -- with the exception of 21st Century Community Learning Centers and Title I -- to be transferred to other programs. Draft nonregulatory guidance (NRG) published in the Fall of 2002 gives examples of transferring Title IID/Technology Enhancement funds to other Titles to be used to meet the intent of the other Titles, which is an example of the flexibility built into No Child Left Behind. Title I Formula - The basis for determining state and county allocations of Title I funds include: (a) the "basic" grants which all Title I schools receive a similar per-pupil allocation; (b) "concentration" funds, which are a supplemental allocation for districts who have enrollments of at least 15 percent from low-income families; (c) "targeted" and "incentive grants," added in the FY 2002 Title I formula, which provide proportionately larger amount of funds to states and districts with high percentages of poverty students (e.g., large urban districts). All of the $2 billion increase for FY 2002 was in the new "incentive" and "targeted" components of the formula. Title I District Reserve and Set Asides - Funds are allocated by states to districts before they go into the Title I "reserve"; then specific funds are allocated to individual schools. Under No Child Left Behind, schools that have been identified for improvement for two years (three years failing), must set aside (at least initially), 20 percent of Title I for potential expenditures incurred in transporting students or paying for supplemental services selected by parents; 15 percent must be set aside for schools failing for two consecutive years to be used for staff development; districts may carry over from one year to the next up to 15 percent of their Title I funds unless such carryovers are prohibited by state law (e.g., Indiana). "Would-have-been" carryover funds are often used in late Spring/early Summer to purchase products, when districts anticipate receiving large increases in Title I funds for the next year. Ten Percent Rule/Incidental Use Provision - For the last decade the Title I "ten percent rule" has evolved allowing a district or school to use Title I funds to serve non-Title I students in "targeted assistance schools" for up to ten percent of the time. In 1997, the "incidental use provision" under Section 613 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act allowed IDEA funds to be used to purchase products that could be used for incidental purposes with non-special education students as long as the cost would be the same, there would be no additional wear and tear, and no special education students would be denied access. This allowed a software title, which was part of a wide area network or school based license to be purchased with IDEA funds and used by all students in a school. Core Academic Subjects - The term "core academic subjects" means English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography. Highly Qualified Paraprofessional - A paraprofessional who has not less than two years of post-secondary education or demonstrated competence in a field or academic subject for which there is a significant shortage of qualified teachers. Highly Qualified Teacher - When the term "high qualified teacher" is used with respect to any public elementary school or secondary school teacher teaching in a State, it means that: The teacher has obtained full state certification as a teacher (including certification obtained through alternative routes to certification) or passed the State teacher licensing examination, and holds a license to teach in such state, except that when the term is used with respect to any teacher teaching in a public charter school, the term means that the teacher meets the certification or licensing requirements set forth in the state’s public charter school law. The definitions of "highly-qualified" teacher and/or instructional support aide are evolving. A newly-hired teacher paid out of Title I funds must be certified by the state and/or demonstrate competencies in core subject areas even though he or she may be certified as a specialist in another area (e.g., speech language therapist). Under certain conditions a person in an alternative certificate route operated by the state can be hired without being fully certified if that person is continuously taking professional development courses or training. A highly-qualified instructional support aide in a Title I schoolwide, regardless of the funding source used to pay the salary, must be certified using a state or local assessment as demonstrated competencies and teaching basic skills, or must have a two-year college degree or equivalent. Much more wiggle room and flexibility is included in recent nonregulatory guidance than in the law because of the extensive problems this provision has created. Scientifically Based Research - The term "scientifically
based research:" a. employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation
or experiment; Acronyms and Abbreviations
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