Waivers: Flexibility to Achieve High Standards -- Report to Congress on Waivers Granted Under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1998)

A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

(1) Waivers of the Minimum Poverty Threshold for Implementing Schoolwide Title I Programs

  • Nearly one-quarter of waivers (80) since 1995 have focused on schoolwide programs. In 1998, 31 waivers were granted to decrease the minimum threshold for schools to implement schoolwide programs.

Title I, Part A, of the ESEA focuses resources on schools serving economically disadvantaged children who are least likely to succeed academically without supplemental assistance. In schools with large concentrations of students from low-income families, the ESEA recognizes that disadvantaged students may be served best by improving the education program of the entire school, rather than by targeting additional services to individual students. Thus, a key set of Title I provisions addresses which schools should have the flexibility to operate the program on a schoolwide basis.

Clay County District Schools in Green Cove Springs, Florida, was granted a three- year waiver beginning in the 1998-99 school year to implement a schoolwide program at Wilkinson Elementary School even though, with 43 percent of the children from low-income families, the poverty rate at the school falls below the statutory threshold for implementing schoolwide programs. In planning for a schoolwide program, the school staff identified reading as an area of critical need for the students at Wilkinson. As a schoolwide program, Wilkinson Elementary School is using its combined federal, state, and local resources to implement Success for All, a researched-based reading program, and reduce class size for reading to an average of 16:1.
Title I permits schools in which at least 50 percent of the children are from low-income families to use Title I funds, in combination with most of their other federal education funds, to operate schoolwide programs. Schools with less than 50 percent of their students from low-income families must target Title I services to particular at-risk students. Since ESEA reauthorization, 80 waivers granted to school districts have allowed schools with between 35 and 50 percent of their students from low-income families to implement schoolwide programs. Schools granted schoolwide program status must engage a wide range of stakeholders in a comprehensive planning effort which includes the following: identifying the primary needs of students at the school; selecting strategies such as upgrading the instructional program for all children that will effectively address these needs; incorporating steps to ensure that the needs of the lowest-achieving students will be met; designing programs to provide professional development for teachers and to increase parental involvement in the school; and setting ambitious goals and expectations for schoolwide improvement.

Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin requested a waiver on behalf of Franklin Elementary School to implement a schoolwide program even though the percentage of students from low-income families in the school is less than 50 percent. The schoolwide committee's needs assessment highlighted reading/language arts as a critical area of need for student performance improvement. In response to the need, the schoolwide committee decided to develop a schoolwide program that would reduce class size dramatically and include instructional strategies that would help all students become accomplished readers. The schoolwide committee also felt that the largely minority students that qualified for Title I services at Franklin were not well served in segregated learning environments. Rather than removing children with special needs from the regular classroom, all children would benefit from a reorganization of school Title I, ESL, and other state and local resources. As a schoolwide program with smaller class sizes, Franklin Elementary School expects all students will benefit from: Reading Recovery strategies in smaller settings, additional reading time and class participation, better student assessment and more individualized instructional plans, and elimination of pull-out programs. As a schoolwide, the school will increase time in the schedule for collaborative teacher planning and focus mathematics instruction to helping all children, in smaller classroom settings, to meet state standards. The school has developed a set of clear and measurable goals for student achievement under the waiver as well as a detailed evaluation plan for its schoolwide program.

In 1998, the Department disapproved four requests from schools to implement schoolwide programs. In those cases, the applicant either had not carried out sufficient planning or had developed a plan that appeared to focus solely on individual students rather than on improving curriculum or instructional programs for the entire school.


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Last Updated -- December 16, 1998, (pjk)