Week 8 Highlights

Title One School

We attended this meeting on Tuesday evening.  Again, the information from the meeting was quite informative and interesting.  It was a great use of the time tonight. 

Mrs. Willis reported on many aspects of what it means to be a Title One school:

Being a Title One school is dependent on the socioeconomic level of the neighborhood

in which the school is located.  In other words, a majority of the population needs to live below the poverty line, as reflected in the income levels of the residents.  There are 7 schools in the Corona/Norco District that qualify for the $400,000 title one funds. One of the many advantages of attending a title one school is that the class size is smaller!  As of today, there are only 23 students in Jedadiah’s class.  Another benefit is that there is more time for instruction allotted in this type of school.  At Home Gardens Academy, Mrs. Willis said that the funds received from the federal government allow for 12 different programs; interventions (7 teachers to assist with all grade levels), staff development, extra classroom materials, the Parent University program, After School Academies, field trips, assemblies, college trips for students, tutoring with math & reading, a college prep laboratory and an additional 2 teachers on special assignment. Another bonus is that these funds allow for Mrs. Willis to see written assessments from every single 680 students on a monthly basis.  She meets with all 28 teachers to hear how each and every student is progressing monthly!  This is amazing to me!!!!!

This past academic year, HGA students met 17 of the 18 targets, making gains in Math by 18% and raising the Academic Performance Index (API) by 33 points to a total of 785 points!  Since only 17 of the 18 goals were met, the school, this year, is in Program Improvement Status, missing the goal by .6% (point 6 percent) in the English Learners goals. In order to move from Program Status Improvement, the school must meet all 18 targets two years in a row.  Next year HGA will do so!