Please share this email with your Title III and Title I Coordinators and Instructional Support Network Staff (ISN). If you are a Superintendent, a Title III/ELL District Coordinator or a DAC in a district without limited English proficient students, you can disregard this message.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the 2007-08 Title III AMAO report for your district or consortium is now ready for release. The English language learners (ELLs) in your district and/or consortium are served under English language instructional programs designed to help them acquire speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in English, while they are working towards peer-appropriate academic competencies. If your district is a member of a consortium, each member receives one combined AMAO report for the consortium.
Under Title III and Title I of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) are charged with meeting annual measurable achievement objectives (AMAOs) by the number and/or percentage of limited English proficient (LEP) students who:
Make progress in learning English,
Attain English language proficiency by the end of the school year, and
Make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on required state assessments.
Your district has already received notification of the AYP status of its LEP subpopulation under Title I and will not be receiving a separate notification for the same goals under Title III. However, AYP is included in the AMAO report.
Based on a review of the English language proficiency assessment results (ACCESS for ELLs â) for the 2007-08 school year, a determination was made as to whether cohort groups of LEP students in your district and/or consortium
a. met cohort progress goals for learning English, as evidenced by an increase in the percentage of LEP students in each cohort who progressed at least one proficiency level from the previous year, and
met cohort attainment goals for English language proficiency, as evidenced by the percentage of LEP students in each cohort who attained the proficient level in 2007-2008.
State, district, and consortia reports and information on how to interpret the reports are posted on the KDE website at the following link:
http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Instructional+Resources/High+School/Language+Learning/English+Language+Learning/Kentucky+TITLE+III++Annual+Measurable+Objectives.htm
Your district and/or consortium reports show the number and percentage of your ELLs in each cohort (based on number of years of language instruction) who made progress by at least one proficiency level, and who attained English language proficiency by the end of the school year. The tables also indicate the state targets for each of these cohorts, and whether your district and/or consortium met those targets (“Yes”) or not (“No”), or whether the targets did not apply to your district/consortium (“Not Applicable or N/A”) because the cohort size was less than 10.
It is a federal requirement that districts and consortia that did not meet AMAO targets notify the parents of their limited English proficient students regarding the English language instructional program’s inability to meet Title III AMAOs. In order to assist in this process, parent notification forms, the “Notice of District Progress” (NCLB-B7b) and the “Notice of Consortium Progress” (NCLB-B7c), can be found at the TransACT website, http://www.transact.com/. The forms are available in multiple languages (Arabic, Hmong, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese) and free to all Kentucky districts. More information about the Title III mandates concerning the responsibilities of lead fiscal agents and consortia members is attached (Attachment A: “Questions and Answers Regarding Consortia of LEAs Under Title III, Part A”).
Districts and consortia that failed to meet AMAOs for the 2007-08 reporting year (Year 1) must notify parents of limited English Proficient students by December 1, 2008 (Attachment B: “Quick Reference Title III District Improvements for 2008-2009”).
Those that failed to meet AMAOs for two consecutive years (Year 2) must notify parents and modify and re-post their Comprehensive District Improvement Plan (CDIP) to the district website by February 20, 2009. This re-posting must explicitly include student achievement (language and academic) objectives, strategies and activities for English language learners (ELLs). KDE staff will provide technical assistance and review modified plans. Upon KDE approval of the modifications, the updated CDIP must be clearly communicated to the local board of education, district and school leadership, and all school councils. Schools serving ELLs must be required by the district to modify their Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP) to reflect the changes to the district CDIP by March 2, 2009.
Districts or consortia that failed to meet AMAOs for three consecutive years (Year 3) must follow all the requirements for Year 2 districts. In addition, following the review and approval of the modifications in the CDIP for Year 3 districts, KDE staff will send a letter to the district superintendent, Title III/ELL District Coordinator and District Achievement Gap Coordinator (DAGC).
KDE will offer technical assistance to districts and consortia that did not meet AMAOs in order to improve the English language development and academic achievement of their ELLs.
If you have any questions regarding the information in this letter, please contact
Shelda Hale, Title III Consultant, at 502-564-2106 or Shelda.Hale@education.ky.gov or Sonia Upton, ELL Consultant, at 502-546-2106 or Sonia.Upton@education.ky.gov