School Improvement Coordinators and the director of the
state and federal team in the Taylor School District are currently preparing
for the State of Michigan On-Site Review Team, which will be visiting the
system May 29-30.
Photographed meeting to prepare for the visit are Director
of State and Federal Programs and School Improvement Germaine Jarvis and school
improvement directors Bea Benjamin, Liz Biddle and Kari Nagy.
The review team is scheduled focus on how the district
spends federal Title I and IIA funds as well as state Section 31a funding and
will visit Taylor Parks Elementary, The Sixth Grade Academy and Kennedy High
School. It will also spend time at the district’s administrative level.
According to district officials, Title I, Title IIA and
Section 31a funds are used in Taylor to create and run programs that help
struggling students increase achievement.
The Taylor School District has four school improvement
coordinators who help oversee the programs and services provided with Title I
and Title IIA funds. School improvement coordinators are assigned to curriculum
areas and provide professional development and assistance. They are assigned to
specific schools, where they work with the school improvement teams on funding
and programming.
The coordinators keep up on federal and state laws, rules
and documents by attending conferences, bringing information back to the
district and the specific school teams.
The on-site review is an important visit because the
visitors confirm that the funds are being spent in ways that have been
previously documented by the TSD. The district must have all documentation in
order, including personal development session sign-in sheets, agendas, evacuation, program
evaluation, written procedures, parent information, budgets and more.
The result of the visit should be an affirmation that the
district is following federal and state guidelines. If there are areas that
need addressing, they will be defined and the district will have an opportunity
to correct them.
The state chooses the schools to be visited.
District Title I funds Taylor’s parent facilitator, an
elementary technology facilitator, ninth-grade advisors at each high school,
and partly funds school improvement coordinators, just to name a few of the
programs involved. Title I funds are also used at the building levels, where
each school makes the decision on how they will spend the money. Many schools
have academic teaching assistants, literacy consultants, behavioral
specialists, etc.
Title II provides professional development for staff.
To learn more about the entire program, visit the Michigan
Department of Education Web site’s Field Service page by clicking here.
No comments:
Post a Comment