TEA NCLB Parental Involvement
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September 9, 2010
Obama Will Make Back-to-School Speech at Philadelphia School
President Barack Obama will deliver his second annual back-to-school spech at 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time this Tuesday, September 14, 2010, at the Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school was recently selected a 2010 National Blue Ribbon School.
The speech will be broadcast live on the White House website at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live. For more information about watching the speech, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/back-to-school.
New USDE Publication Says ESEA Proposal Will Empower Teachers
The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has published a new brochure highlighting how the Obama administration’s proposal for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) will empower teachers.
Titled “Built for Teachers: How the Blueprint for Reform Empowers Teachers,” the 20-page brochure was written by and for teachers. It highlights issues in the administration’s plans to revise and reauthorize the ESEA, focusing on issues of particular concern to teachers. Specifically, it addresses educational challenges posed by the current No Child Left Behind Act and how the Blueprint answers these challenges. The brochure also raises common questions about the reauthorization of the ESEA, including state competitions for federal dollars, as well as specific issues facing charter schools and urban and rural schools.
The text of the brochure is available at: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/teachers/publication_pg2.html.
It can also be ordered by writing to ED Pubs, Education Publications Center, U.S. Department of Education, P.O. Box 22207, Alexandria, VA 22304, by faxing a request to 703-605-6794, or by e-mail at edpubs@inet.ed.gov. The brochure can also be ordered by phone by calling toll free at 1-877-433-7827 (1-877-ED-PUBS). To order online, go to http://edpubs.gov.
August 9, 2010
NEW School Choice Parent Notifications Due August 9, 2010
Please use the School Improvement Resource Center (SIRC) site to obtain this information until further notice. The state-required parent notification letter (PNL) and instructions were released on the SIRC website at: http://www5.esc13.net/ses/parent_notification_10-11.html.
To meet the federal Title I regulations, all identified 2010-2011 School Improvement Program (SIP) campuses are required to disseminate the required School Choice (SC) options on or before August 9, 2010, to parents and TEA.
Any campus not served with Title I funds is eligible to be offered for school choice, regardless of the state accountability rating or Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status.
Title I campuses in School Improvement status which had met AYP in 2009 and would potentially exit School Improvement status were not required to send the parent notification until after the 2010 Preliminary AYP release. If the campus did not exit and progressed to the next stage in School Improvement, the notification must be sent to parents and TEA by August 9, 2010.
Parent notification letters may either be mailed, sent via electronic mail (campus must have a viable email address), sent home with the student, or distributed by other verifiable means. If the LEA selects any method other than mailing the letters to parents, the LEA must receive a signature of receipt which must be maintained locally for documentation purposes. TEA may conduct a validation of the signatures of receipt.
A copy of the parent notification letter and/or packets is required to be mailed to TEA at the time they are disseminated from the LEA to the parents. Failure to meet this parent notification deadline or failure to disseminate accurate information in the letter may cause the district’s next year’s Initial Compliance Review (ICR) score and subsequent Performance Based Monitoring (PBM) interventions to be elevated. Please mail a copy of the parent notification letter at the time it is disseminated to parents to:
Anita Villarreal, Director of Title I School Improvement
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
NEW Q&A SIP School Choice Parent Notifications
Does the LEA need to disseminate another PNL if the only change for my campus is a change in SIP Stage and/or Indicator(s)?
Yes. The LEA needs to disseminate a follow-up notice that could be in the form of a memo, a flyer, or some other form of auditable documentation to inform the parents of the change. The LEA must disseminate this notice to parents by August 9, 2010, and mail a copy to:
Anita Villarreal, Director of Title I School Improvement
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
Does the LEA need to disseminate another PNL if the school choice options have changed since the June 1st letter was disseminated?
Yes, if the school choice options have changed, the LEA must disseminate another parent notification letter found in the following website: http://www5.esc13.net/ses/parent_notification_10-11.html.
The LEA must disseminate this notice to parents by August 9, 2010, and mail a copy to:
Anita Villarreal, Director of Title I School Improvement
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
Does the LEA need to repeat the process of asking the surrounding LEAs if they would accept SIP school choice transfers if this process was completed prior to the June 1st letter for 2010-11?
No, however, the LEA must still maintain auditable documentation of the efforts that were made.
Does the LEA need to disseminate information again if on June 1st parents were notified that the SIP campus was not able to offer the SIP school choice option?
If the LEA is still unable to offer school choice after the 2010 Preliminary AYP release, the campus will not be required to send another notification related to school choice. If after the 2010 preliminary release, school choice options are now available, then the LEA must send an updated letter.
Does the LEA need to notify parents if the campus exits SIP after the Preliminary 2010 AYP release on August 5, if the campus had offered SIP school choice options?
Yes, the LEA needs to disseminate a follow-up notice to parents if the campus exits SIP in August and the campus sent out the June 1 letter offering school choice. The notice could be in the form of a memo, a flyer, or some other form of auditable documentation and must be disseminated to parents by August 9, 2010. A copy must be sent to:
Anita Villarreal, Director of Title I School Improvement
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
NEW! 2010-11 Supplemental Educational Services (SES) Parent Notification Letters (PNLs) Released Districts with campuses in Title I, Part A School Improvement Stage 2 and above must notify parents of eligible students about the Supplemental Education Services (SES) option.
Please use the School Improvement Resource Center (SIRC) site to obtain this information until further notice. The state-required parent notification letter (PNL) and instructions were released on the SIRC website at: http://www5.esc13.net/ses/parent_notification_10-11.html.
Requirement(s): SES PNLs must be disseminated to parents of eligible students on or before Monday, August 23, 2010. The SES packets must include the following documents:
1. Parent Notification Letter (PNL)
2. Providers’ One-Page Summaries
3. Provider Service Area Spreadsheet
4. SES State Enrollment Form
A copy of the PNL and/or packet(s) are required to be mailed to TEA at the time they are disseminated from the LEA to the parents. SIP campuses that do not submit this notification may forfeit their ability to reallocate these funds for other allowable activities and/or it may cause the district’s next year’s Initial Compliance Review (ICR) score and subsequent Performance-Based Monitoring (PMB) interventions to be elevated. Please mail a copy of the SES PNL and packet at the time they are disseminated to parents to:
Anita Villarreal, Director of Title I School Improvement
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
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June 9, 2010
NCES Report Reveals 25 Percent Dropout Rate
Approximately 25 percent of U.S. public high school students fail to graduate from high school on time, according to a new report issued last week by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
The report, issued June 2, 2010, also shows that nearly 40 percent of African-American and Hispanic students drop out of school, prompting Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to declare that “too many of our schools are failing to offer their students a world-class education.” He added that the Obama administration is addressing the problem by proposing that $4 billion be made available for turning around the lowest-performing high schools, including the 2,000 campuses that produce half of the 613,379 dropouts referenced in the NCES report.
The full report, titled “Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2007-2008,” is available on the NCES website at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2010341. A copy of Duncan’s statement on the report’s findings is available at: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/statement-national-governors-association-and-state-education-chiefs-common-core.
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January 8, 2010
REMINDER: Second 2009-10 SES Parent Notification Letter Guidance and Submission Process
LEAs with campuses in Title I, Part A School Improvement Stage 2 and above must notify parents of eligible students about the SES option at least twice during the school year. However, LEAs that meet their Title I, Part A (regular and ARRA) 20 percent obligation are not required to disseminate a second SES parent notification letter because the district already exhausted its funding obligation. A second SES parent notification letter is only required if a district has not met its Title I, Part A 20 percent obligation (regular and ARRA).
The state-required PNL and instructions are located on the TEA’s Division of NCLB Program Coordination’s website at: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/nclb/titleia/sesPNL0910.html.
The second SES packet must be disseminated to parents of eligible students not currently enrolled in the program. LEAs should disseminate the second packet during the second semester. The SES packets must include the following three (3) enclosures.
1. Providers’ One-Page Summaries http://www5.esc13.net/ses/parent_notification_09-10_ProviderSummaries.html
2. Provider Service Area Spreadsheet http://www5.esc13.net/ses/parent_notification_09-10.html
3. SES State Enrollment Form http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/nclb/titleia/AppendixD.html
A copy of the parent notification letter and/or packet(s) is required to be mailed to the TEA at the time they are disseminated from the LEA to the parents. SIP campuses that do not submit this notification may forfeit their ability to reallocate these funds for other allowable activities and/or it may cause the district’s 2010 Initial Compliance Review (ICR) score in the 2011 NCLB desk audit process and subsequent Performance-Based Monitoring (PMB) interventions to be elevated. Please mail a copy of the SES PNL and packet at the time it is disseminated to parents to:
Rita Ghazal, SES State Coordinator
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
For questions regarding this requirement, please contact Rita Ghazal, SES State Coordinator, at (512) 936-9374 or rita.ghazal@tea.state.tx.us.
REMINDER: Initial SES Parent Notification Letter Update
The Division of NCLB will review the initial SES PNLs in two phases. The first phase is completed. Phase one included a compliance review of the parent letter. Phase two includes a compliance review of the three (3) required enclosures. Thank you for all of your hard work in completing this requirement. The division received a record number of accurate phase one submissions. LEAs requiring PNL corrections will be contacted by Friday, January 15, 2010. Otherwise, no action is required.
REMINDER: 2009-10 LEA Supplemental Educational Services Website Reporting
The TEA has begun conducting a review of LEA websites to review the below SES data reporting requirements. LEAs that have not already posted the required SES data to their district and/or campus(es) websites should continue to work with district staff to post the required information.
Districts with campuses in Title I School Improvement Stages 2 or above are required to post specific information related to Supplemental Educational Services (SES) on their website. Guidance requires LEAs to post four required data components to the Internet as close to the school start date as possible, and that the data are regularly updated throughout the school year (see SES Guidance questions G-10 through G-13).
To comply with this website reporting requirement, LEAs must display the following on their website, beginning with 2007–08 data:
1) the number of students eligible for SES.
2) the number of students participating in SES.
3) a list of approved SES providers that can serve the LEA.
4) the location where SES will be provided, by provider.
Districts that do not have a website, or for questions regarding this data requirement, please contact Rita Ghazal, SES State Coordinator, at (512) 936-9374 or rita.ghazal@tea.state.tx.us.
REMINDER: 2009-10 Supplemental Educational Services Parent Complaint Policy
Districts with campuses in Title I School Improvement Stages 2 or above are required to have a parent complaint policy addressing parent concerns related to inaccessibility of Supplemental Educational Services (SES). LEAs must provide the TEA with a written plan addressing such concerns. (See also guidance questions D-4 and D-5.) LEAs may fax or mail these to the TEA.
To send via U.S. mail:
Rita Ghazal
Division of NCLB Program Coordination
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78701-1494
To send via fax:
(512) 463-5337
Attention: Rita Ghazal
For questions regarding this requirement, please contact Rita Ghazal, SES State Coordinator, at (512) 936-9374 or rita.ghazal@tea.state.tx.us.
REMINDER: SES POLICY GUIDANCE - Updated Supplemental Educational Services (SES) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
On July 14, 2009, the Division of NCLB Program Coordination released a SES resource to assist campuses and districts understand the provision of SES. The resource, frequently asked questions, addresses many common questions about the April 8, 2009, SES Guidance document. The FAQ document was updated on Friday, September 18, 2009; the updated guidance document creates new SES policy guidance and program implementation requirements. It includes new questions that address issues that were undeveloped or unaddressed in the July 2009 FAQ guidance, and it responds to inquires that the TEA received from LEAs and SES providers. It is located on the NLCB website at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/nclb/PDF/SES-FAQs.pdf.
REMINDER: Second SES Parent Notification Letter (PNL) Dissemination Clarification (See FAQ 29)
Question: If a student is already enrolled in SES, are LEAs required to disseminate the second parent notification letter (PNL) and/or any additional PNL packets to the child’s family?
Response: No. Districts are not required to disseminate the second PNL and/or any additional PNL packets to the parents of eligible students already enrolled in SES. The purpose of disseminating additional PNL packets after the initial August PNL is to give parents of eligible children more options to choose SES for their child. Therefore, if a parent already selected SES and enrolled their child, additional PNLs are not required for these parents.
REMINDER: Supplemental Educational Services (SES) Learning Tool Delivery Clarification
Question: At what point during SES enrollment/implementation does this learning tool 10-day delivery period begin?
Response: Students enrolled in SES and assigned to a provider must receive applicable learning tools as soon as possible, but not later than 10 days from the date the student’s student learning plan (SLP) is approved.
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