Date: February 6, 2003

To: District Superintendents
County Superintendents
Categorical Program Directors

From: Jack O’Connell
State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Subject: 2001-02 Annual Report of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for Title I Schools

This memorandum includes your local district’s Annual Report on attainment of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for schools in your district that receive Title I, Part A funds under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001.

New Definition of AYP

At its January 2003 meeting, the State Board of Education (SBE) adopted a new definition of AYP that is consistent with the NCLB regulations. This new definition:

• maintains the Academic Performance Index (API) as currently defined with the addition of reporting requirements for students with disabilities and English learners; and
• generates an additional report that conforms to the new NCLB requirements. The new report includes a "percent proficient" based upon the percentage of students scoring at the "proficient" or "advanced" level on the California Standards Tests. Results will be reported separately for English/language arts and mathematics.

The changes resulting from the new definition of AYP will go into effect with the Spring 2003 assessments.

Since 2000, the reporting of the academic progress of Title I schools has been aligned with the state accountability system under the provisions of the 1999 Public School Accountability Act (PSAA). Student achievement data from the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program and the Academic Performance Index (API) for 2001-02 has been used to:

• determine the AYP of all Title I schools, and
• identify schools that are eligible to exit Program Improvement.

In 2001-02, a Title I school achieved its AYP based on the results of the Spring 2002 assessments if it met its 5% school-wide growth target as well as the comparable growth targets for all numerically significant student groups in the school, as set by the API. Under the current system, a targeted assistance school from the upper half of the API distribution achieved AYP by meeting the API growth target set for the socio-economically disadvantaged student group only. However, the ways in which schools meet AYP will change for the spring 2003 test results based on the SBE’s newly adopted definition of AYP.

Notification of AYP Status in Summer 2003

Prior to the passage of NCLB, California had a mid-school year notification (December) of AYP achievement by schools. However, CDE expects to release AYP information based on Spring 2003 assessment data in August, 2003, as required by NCLB. The timely release of the Spring 2003 assessment results will provide districts/schools with notice of changes in the status of existing PI schools, and the identification of new PI schools, under NCLB before the beginning of the traditional school year. This will allow districts time to prepare to implement new requirements under NCLB at the beginning of the 2003-04 school year for schools whose status changes.

Placement of PI Schools Under NCLB

Schools designated as PI schools prior to the enactment of NCLB were informed of their placement under NCLB for the 2002-03 school year in a letter issued May 30, 2002; that letter can be found at the CDE web site.

In accordance with federal regulations, CDE will exercise this year’s option to not identify any new Program Improvement schools based on a school’s AYP status from the 2001-02 assessments. However, it should be noted that any such school that fails to achieve AYP as a result of the Spring 2003 assessment will become a school in Year 1 of Program Improvement for the 2003-04 school year (traditional calendar).

In addition, previously identified PI schools will remain in their current placement for the remainder of the 2002-03 school year. Any of these schools that fail to achieve AYP as a result of the Spring 2003 assessment will advance to the next PI year beginning with the 2003-04 school year (traditional calendar).

The 2002 API results will be used only to exit any PI schools that achieved AYP in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

Districts with schools in state corrective action must continue to implement their Joint Intervention Agreements (JIAs) and offer choice and supplemental services as required by federal law. Additional guidance will be disseminated for those schools under a JIA after the spring 2003 assessment results.

Title I Final Regulations and New Guidance for Public School Choice and for Supplemental Educational Services

The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has issued Title I Final Regulations and Draft Non-Regulatory Guidance for Public School Choice and for Supplemental Educational Services. Local education officials must work proactively to improve low-performing schools while fully informing and encouraging parents to take advantage of school choice and supplemental services options.

Some key changes to school choice and supplemental services are summarized below. The full text of each of these documents can be viewed at the USDE web site: http://www.ed.gov/parents/schools/choice/choice.html

School Choice

The final Title I regulations and school choice guidelines contained several new clarifications on school choice. Most importantly, it is clear that lack of capacity is not an acceptable reason to deny students the option to transfer to another school that is not PI within a district. The district must create additional capacity or provide choices of other schools. Some of the other new clarifications include the following:

• If a student exercises the option to transfer, the district must allow the student to remain in that school until the student has completed the highest grade level at the school.
• The district is obligated to pay for the transportation costs only during the time the school of origin is designated as a PI school.
• If funding limits the provision of choice-related transportation, the district must still offer transfer options to a parent who chooses to cover the transportation costs.
• In limited situations in which the option to transfer is not possible, the district may offer supplemental educational services to eligible students who meet the "low-income" requirement.
• Districts must offer students with disabilities the opportunity to be educated in non-PI schools; however, they do not have to be offered their choice of the same schools as those offered to non-disabled students.

Supplemental Educational Services

The final Title I regulations make clear that districts must ensure that all eligible students, including those with disabilities and those who are limited-English-proficient, receive appropriate supplemental educational services.

Expenditure of Funds for Public School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services

A district must spend an amount equal to 20% of its Title I, Part A allocation to pay for choice-related transportation and supplemental educational services unless a lesser amount is needed to meet the demand. The district may use other allowable federal, state, local, or private resources to pay for transportation costs and supplemental services. If the demand for supplemental services exceeds an amount equal to 5% of the total district allocation, the district must not spend less than 5% on those services. {For example, if a district’s Title I, Part A allocation is $100,000, it would be required to spend no less than $5,000 for supplemental services and $15,000 for transportation.}

AYP Performance Report

The enclosed Performance Report describes the status for all Title I schools in your district. In addition to sharing this report with the Title I schools in your district, please review the content of your report for accuracy and inform CDE of any proposed corrections that need to be made by March 5, 2003.

Please send proposed corrections to:

California Department of Education
Title I Policy and Partnerships Office
1430 N Street, Suite 6208
Sacramento, CA 95814-5901
Fax: (916) 319-0151

Technical Assistance and Available Resources

CDE’s Title I Team collaborates with the two Comprehensive Assistance Centers (CACs) and the Regional School Support and Improvement Centers (RSSIC/S4) to provide technical assistance to districts with Title I schools and, specifically, PI schools. A list of members of the Title I Team, S4 Directors and contacts for the CACs can be found at the CDE web site at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/pf/pf/resources.asp

Additional contacts for assistance regarding family-school partnerships; the development of the LEA Plan for districts that receive Title I and other NCLB funds; the development of a comprehensive school site plan utilizing the Single Plan for Student Achievement and the latest information regarding the NCLB can be found at:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/nclb/sr/le/singleplan.asp

ATTACHMENT A

The following table describes the key requirements that districts and PI schools must continue to implement during the 2002-03 school year based on the specific NCLB year to which a school was assigned in the May 30, 2002 letter (for a copy of the letter, go to Program Improvement Correspondence - Title I, Part A - Accountability).