Title V

Title V, Part A

Innovative Programs

(a) PURPOSES- The purposes of this part are the following:

(1) To support local education reform efforts that are consistent with and support statewide education reform efforts.

(2) To provide funding to enable State educational agencies and local educational agencies to implement promising educational reform programs and school improvement programs based on scientifically based research.

(3) To provide a continuing source of innovation and educational improvement, including support programs to provide library services and instructional and media materials.

(4) To meet the educational needs of all students, including at-risk youth.

(5) To develop and implement education programs to improve school, student, and teacher performance, including professional development activities and class size reduction programs.

In the reauthorization of the former Title VI program as Title V-A, Congress expanded the number of innovative program areas in which LEAs may use funds. Formerly, there were nine innovative program areas. There are now 27. LEAs have the flexibility to design and implement innovative projects and activities within one or more of the 27 areas to serve educational needs that they have identified. The projects and activities that LEAs implement must meet three statutory requirements. They must be (1) tied to promoting challenging academic achievement standards, (2) used to improve student academic achievement, and (3) part of an overall education reform strategy. [Section 5131].

In planning for the use of their Title V-A funds, as well as for the annual program evaluation that LEAs are now required to conduct (see section G below), it may be helpful to recognize the relationships between or among some of the 27 innovative program areas. An LEA may find that its proposed use of funds to carry out a project or activity under one program area will also address another program area. To assist LEAs in planning for the use of their Title V-A funds and in evaluating their programs at the end of each year, the following categorization of the Title V-A innovative program areas has been developed.

Education Reform and School Improvement

Ø Promising education reform projects, including magnet schools [Section 5131(a)(4)].

Ø School improvement programs or activities under sections 1116 and 1117 of the ESEA [Section 5131(a)(9)].

Ø Programs to establish smaller learning communities [Section 5131(a)(19)]. (For further guidance, see the Department’s guidelines on the Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) program).

Ø Activities that encourage and expand improvements throughout the area served by the LEA that are designed to advance student academic achievement [Section 5131(a)(20)].

Ø Programs and activities that expand learning opportunities through best-practice models designed to improve classroom learning and teaching [Section 5131(a)(22)]

Ø Programs that employ research-based cognitive and perceptual development approaches and rely on a diagnostic-prescriptive model to improve students’ learning of academic content at the preschool, elementary, and secondary levels [Section 5131(a)(26)].

Ø Supplemental educational services, as defined in section 1116(e) of the ESEA [Section 5131(a)(27)]. (For further guidance, see the Department’s forthcoming regulations for the Title I, Part A program.)

Teacher Quality, Professional Development, and Class-Size Reduction

Ø Programs to recruit, train, and hire highly qualified teachers to reduce class size, especially in the early grades, and professional development activities carried out in accordance with Title II of the ESEA, that give teachers, principals, and administrators the knowledge and skills to provide students with the opportunity to meet challenging State or local academic content standards and student academic achievement standards [Section 5131(a)(1)]. (For further guidance, see the Department’s guidelines on the Title II, Part A program).

Parental Options

Ø The planning, design, and initial implementation of charter schools as described in Part B of Title V of the ESEA [Section 5131(a)(8)].

Ø Activities to promote, implement, or expand public school choice [Section 5131(a)(12)].

Ø Programs to provide same-gender schools and classrooms (consistent with applicable law and the Department’s guidelines on Single Sex Classes and Schools, attached as an appendix to this Guidance) [Section 5131(a)(23)].

Ø School safety programs, including programs to implement the unsafe school choice policy described in section 9532 of the ESEA, and that may include payment of reasonable transportation costs and tuition costs for students who transfer to a different school under the policy [Section 5131(a)(25)].

Technology and Educational Materials

Ø Technology activities related to the implementation of school-based reform programs, including professional development to assist teachers and other school personnel (including school library media personnel) regarding how to use technology effectively in the classrooms and the school library media centers involved [Section 5131(a)(2)].

Ø Programs for the development or acquisition and use of instructional and educational materials, including library services and materials (including media materials), academic assessments, reference materials, computer software and hardware for instructional use, and other curricular materials that are tied to high academic standards, that will be used to improve student achievement, and that are part of an overall education reform program [Section 5131(a)(3)].

Students with Special Needs

Ø Programs to improve the academic achievement of educationally disadvantaged elementary and secondary school students, including activities to prevent students from dropping out of school [Section 5131(a)(5)]

Ø Programs to provide for the educational needs of gifted and talented children [Section 5131(a)(7)].

Ø Alternative educational programs for students who have been expelled or suspended from their regular educational setting, including programs to assist students to reenter the regular educational setting upon return from treatment or alternative educational programs [Section 5131(a)(15)].

Ø Academic intervention programs that are operated jointly with community-based organizations and that support academic enrichment, and counseling programs conducted during the school day (including during extended school day or extended school year programs), for students most at risk of not meeting challenging State academic achievement standards or not completing secondary school [Section 5131(a)(17)].

Literacy, Early Childhood Education, and Adult Education

Ø Programs to improve the literacy skills of adults, especially the parents of children served by the LEA, including adult education and family literacy programs [Section 5131(a)(6)].

Ø Activities to promote consumer, economic, and personal finance education, such as disseminating information on and encouraging use of the best practices for teaching the basic principles of economics and promoting the concept of achieving financial literacy through the teaching of financial management skills (including the basic principles involved with earning, spending, saving, and investing) [Section 5131(a)(11)].

Ø Activities to establish or enhance prekindergarten programs for children [Section 5131(a)(16)].

Community Service and Community Involvement

Ø Community service programs that use qualified school personnel to train and mobilize young people to measurably strengthen their communities through nonviolence, responsibility, compassion, respect, and moral courage [Section 5131(a)(10)]

Ø Initiatives to generate, maintain, and strengthen parental and community involvement [Section 5131(a)(21)].

Ø Service learning activities [Section 5131(a)(24)].

Health Services

Ø Programs to hire and support school nurses [Section 5131(a)(13)]

Ø Expansion and improvement of school-based mental health services, including early identification of drug use and violence, assessment, and direct individual or group counseling services provided to students, parents, and school personnel by qualified school-based mental health services personnel [Section 5131(a)(14)]

Ø Programs for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in schools [Section 5131(a)(18)]

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