Revision

Title I schools implementing schoolwide programs are required to develop schoolwide plans in accordance with Section 1114(b) of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA).  Guidelines for plan development include the following:

• The plan should be developed with the involvement of:
  • Parents;
  • Other members of the community to be served;
  • Individuals who will carry out the plan, including teachers, principals, other school leaders, administrators, paraprofessionals present in the school;
  • The local education agency;
  • To the extent feasible, tribes and tribal organizations present in the community; and
  • If appropriate
    • Specialized instructional support personnel;
    • Technical assistance providers;
    • School staff; and
  • If the plan relates to a secondary school, students and other individuals determined by the school;
• The plan should be available to the Local Educational Agency (LEA), parents, and the public; information in the plan should be in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, provided in a language that parents can understand; and
• If appropriate and applicable, the plan should be developed in coordination and integration with other federal, state, and local services, resources, and  programs, such as programs supported under ESSA, violence prevention programs, nutrition programs, housing programs, Head Start programs, adult education programs, career and technical education programs, and schools implementing comprehensive support and improvement activities or targeted support and improvement activities under section 1111(d).

The ESEA requires four components to be included in the schoolwide plan. The template below provides a framework that may be used to develop and/or update a schoolwide plan. For each component, the narrative section in the template should be completed in sufficient detail to document how the component has been thoroughly and thoughtfully addressed. Schoolwide plans should be reviewed annually and revised as necessary to promote continuous improvement and to reflect the school’s initiatives to upgrade the entire educational program of the school. To maintain focus, eliminate duplication of effort, and promote comprehensiveness, schools should operate under a single plan if at all possible. A school that already has a plan for school improvement might consider amending it, rather than starting over, provided that the existing plan was based on a comprehensive needs assessment and can be revised to include the four required schoolwide components. This template can be used by schools with existing Indistar® plans to reference indicators and tasks in the Indistar® plan that related to the schoolwide components.

Resources:

Schoolwide program resources, including USED guidance on Designing Schoolwide Programs, Supporting School Reform by Leveraging Federal Funds in a Schoolwide Program, and Title I Fiscal Issues, can be accessed at the Title I website under Guidelines and Procedures/Federal Guidance.

A Virginia Department of Education presentation on Requirements and Implementation of a Title I Schoolwide Program can be accessed at:  http://www.doe.virginia.gov/federal_programs/esea/index.shtml.

Component 1 §1114(b)(6): A comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school that takes into account information on the academic achievement of children in relation to the challenging state academic standards, particularly the needs of those children who are failing, or are at-risk of failing, to meet the challenging state academic standards and any other factors as determined by the Local Educational Agency.

Evidence: A systematic effort involving multiple stakeholders to acquire an accurate and thorough picture of strengths and weaknesses of the school community, thus identifying student needs through a variety of information-gathering techniques. A data analysis summary must be included which incorporates benchmarks used to evaluate program results. The results of your data analysis must guide the reform strategies that you will implement to improve instruction for all students.