(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – Second Street Elementary in the Frankfort Independent school district and Millard Middle in Pike County were recognized as National Title I Distinguished Schools during the National Title I Conference held in Nashville, Tennessee, this past weekend.
The two schools join approximately 70 others from across the nation honored as National Title I Distinguished Schools.
As mandated under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the Title I Distinguished Schools Recognition Program identifies schools that ensure all children have access to effective instructional strategies and challenging academic content and that demonstrate success in ensuring that all children, particularly educationally deprived children, make significant progress towards learning that content.
Eligibility for the program is based on two main criteria:
· Schools must significantly close achievement gaps among student populations.
· Schools must exceed state-defined adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets under NCLB for two or more consecutive years.
Schools also must have demonstrated the following attributes:
- opportunities for all children to meet proficient and advanced levels of performance
- professional development
- coordination with other programs
- curriculum and instruction to support achievement of high standards
- partnerships among schools, parents and communities
Second Street Elementary serves 550 students in kindergarten through 8th grade, with approximately 240 of those in the middle school grades. All students have access to the same rich curriculum in heterogeneously grouped classes. Students are held to high standards, and support is provided for those that need help achieving those standards. Programs such as extended school services and Homework Help provide additional assistance. In addition to regular language arts classes, a daily 60-minute block of time is devoted to reading at each grade level.
Parental involvement and communication are keys to the school’s success. A weekly electronic newsletter, frequent messages from teachers and opportunities to meet with the principal help parents feel welcome.
A variety of instructional strategies are used that often include experiential learning -- linking school to real life. Students can be found doing water quality studies in the Kentucky River, harvesting fresh-water shrimp, designing and building model roller coasters, using a flight simulator to explore linear relationships and learning through History Alive! and the Connected Mathematics Project.
Since Millard Middle opened five years ago, it has made improvement each year, not only in test scores, but also in community involvement and school pride. With an enrollment of 540 students, most of whom are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, Millard Middle has unique challenges. The school uses several strategies and programs to help close achievement gaps, including teaching all students the same core content. Teachers and staff focus on individualized instruction to address students’ strengths and weaknesses.
The school provides common planning time for teachers and focuses on high-quality professional development. Content-area teachers collaborate regularly to ensure that students receive the benefits of the best practices in teaching.
Millard Middle has been recognized for its success in reading, and its strategies have been analyzed for possible replication among other schools.
Title I is the largest federal aid program for K-12 education and has served more than 150 million children across the nation since 1965. The program emphasizes improving instruction in high-poverty schools.
In Kentucky, nearly 900 schools operate Title I programs, serving approximately 300,000 students.
##