Home Academics Federal and State Programs

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
In 2001, the federal government passed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB Act). This law reflects a framework on how to improve the performance of America's elementary and secondary schools while at the same time trying to ensure that no child is trapped in a failing school. The NCLB Act incorporates increased accountability for States, school districts, and schools; greater choice for parents and students, particularly those attending low-performing schools; more flexibility for states and local educational agencies (LEAs) in the use of Federal money; and a stronger emphasis on reading, especially for the youngest children.

For further information on, or a synopsis of, the No Child Left Behind law, please go to the Federal NCLB site.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
Adequate Yearly Progress is the minimum annual performance level of improvement that states, school districts, and individual schools must achieve each year. For the 2010-2011 school year, 63% of students must score proficient or above in reading; 56% of these students need to be at the proficient level or higher in math. The state requires each school district to disaggregate PSSA test data for several groups of students, provided the district has at least 10 students in each group. The groups include race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, migrant status, English proficiency, and economically disadvantaged. In addition, school districts must show improvement in attendance rate (for kindergarten through grade eight buildings) and graduation rate (for high school buildings). Graduation rate is calculated by the number of students who begin high school in ninth grade and graduate with their class. If a category is not listed, the district has less than 10 students in that category and cannot report disaggregated data on that group. These groups include: Hispanic, black, Asian Pacific, migrant status, English proficient, and in grade eight, students with disabilities.

District Standing

Students in all buildings met the requirements to achieve AYP, both PSSA scores and attendance/graduation rates (90%).  All of the subgroups identfied in the District: race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, migrant status, English proficient, and economcially disadvantaged students met the required scores.  Modifications to the curriculum and specifically the use of data to assess each student's individual progress has helped to identify weak areas for students and areas that need classroom and/or curriculum attention.  The use of additional assessment tools further provides incremental assessments from which to monitor individual student progress throughout the year, providing data for staff to use to improve academic areas.  District staff and administration continue to improve ways to monitor student progress and make necessary adjustments in classrooms to provide continual academic growth.

For further information on the status of the Allegheny Valley School District with respect to No Child Left Behind, please contact:

Dr. Cheryl A. Griffith, Superintendent
Allegheny Valley School District
300 Pearl Avenue
Cheswick, PA 15024
724-274-5300

2010 Report Card

PDE Academic Achievement Report

Title I

What is ESEA Title I?
ESEA stands for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it is the largest federal aid program for our nation's schools. State Educational Agencies (SEAs) send money to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) based on the number of low-income families. The program serves millions of children in elementary and secondary schools each year. Nearly every school district participates. Title I also serves children in parochial and private schools.

Title I is a supplemental program specifically designed for those students who are experiencing difficulty in reading and/or math. The program at Allegheny Valley School District is available for students in kindergarten through grade 6. Title I provides instruction using a variety of models; an inclusion model (instruction provided in the classroom) and a pull-out model (students pulled out of the classroom in small groups for a short period of time for instruction). Instruction may be provided to the whole class, to a small group, or to an individual, based on the goal(s) of the lesson presented.

In addition to Title I support instruction, the Title reading department also:

• - Sponsors an annual Scholastic Book Fair
• - Provides a series of parent meetings to encourage parents and children to engage in literacy and mathematics
• activities that coordinate with classroom instruction
• - Provides ongoing staff development to area preschool and daycare providers
• - Provides formal and informal staff development for teachers and administrators
• - Assists with the implementation of the summer reading program for all students
  preKindergarten - Grade 6
• - Provides an independent summer reading program to encourage all students to read over the
  summer

What is the Goal of the Title I Reading/Math Program?
The goal of the Title I program is to provide each child with the necessary skills, reinforcement, encouragement and confidence to insure continuous development and interest in not just reading and math, but all content areas. The Title I program provides additional instructional time to help children succeed in attaining necessary literacy and mathematics skills. It offers extra instruction in language arts (reading and writing) and math using a variety of teaching methods and materials as well as individualized instruction, if appropriate. Title I staff, regular classroom teachers, and parents work closely to provide a clear consistent message to students.

What Assessments Are Administered?
Students in each grade level are assessed using multiple tasks appropriate to the age/grade of the children to determine eligibility for the program. There are benchmark assessments administered to all students and progress monitoring assessments administered to select students whose progress is monitored on a weekly or monthly cycle.

The reading assessments used are the following:

• - Kindergarten: sound identification (identifying the sounds represented by the letters), dictation (writing the sentence dictated to determine if children could match the sound and the letter in writing) and oral segmentation (orally identifying the sounds in a word)
• - Grade 1 : pseudoword activity (nonsense words children pronounce to assess knowledge of phonics) and a sight words assessment  as well as the DRA
• - Grades 2 through 6 students are assessed using the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA).  This assessment tool is used to determine the students’ reading level (below, on or above grade level) as well as their reading accuracy (reading the correct words), fluency (the speed of reading) and comprehension (through oral retells in grades 1 – 3 and written summaries in grades 4 – 6)

The math assessments administered and analyzed include:

• - Kindergarten through grade 6: Aimsweb and the Everyday Math benchmark assessments
• - Grades 4 through 6: PSSA Math performance

After administering the assessments and analyzing the results, conferencing with the classroom teacher and considering parental recommendations, students are selected for Title I reading and/or math service.

How Is Instruction Delivered?
Title I uses two models for the delivery of service.  A push-in model is used during the language arts block and math block. During this time, instruction is geared to support of the Harcourt and/or Everyday Math instruction in the classroom. This is done by going into the classrooms to assist the teacher/team teach and/or meet with a small group of children to preview or review the skills being addressed in the classroom. Title I service is also delivered using a pullout model. During this time instruction is geared to student strengths and needs in the area of language arts and/or math.  Students are pulled out of class and meet in small groups to work on specific, targeted skills and strategies that are identified as area(s) of need for specific students. One of many programs can be used during individual or small group pull out time such as; the Harcourt Intervention program, Sidewalks, Fundations, Wilson Reading, Quickreads, Great Leaps or Number World to name some of the available programs.

How are Parents Involved?
Parent involvement is a critical component to any school program. Parental contact and parent programs offered through Title I during the school year include: (1) Take P.A.R.T. meetings; meetings for parents and children to attend together to learn reading and math skills and strategies and have the opportunity to practice them while a teacher is available to answer any questions; (2) general meeting; parent meeting in the fall to explain the Title I program, (3) parent information meetings; meetings to inform parents (example a PSSA parent meeting, math informational meetings), (4) parent reports; sent home at mid year and end of year to all Title I reading students and (5) ongoing communication with parents via notes, phone calls and nightly reading logs.

Who Comprises The Title I staff?
For the 2009-2010 school year, the Title I Staff consists of three reading specialists, one math specialist, four literacy aides and two math aides.  The aides work in a variety of capacities.  They may be in the classrooms working with the classroom teachers during the language arts or math block to support students during classroom instruction. In addition, aides also support student development in the areas of math and reading during pull-out instruction under the direction of the reading specialists or the math specialist.

How Does Title I Work?
Title I staff work in both the classroom setting as well as in a pull-out setting, based on the needs of individual students. In the classroom, instruction is provided that supports regular instruction using the Harcourt Reading Series or the Everyday Math program. During pull-out sessions, students are instructed either individually or in small groups (of no more than six) and focus on specific skills and strategies that these children need to be taught, need to have reviewed, or need additional practice.

What Are Some Additional Title I Responsibilities?
In addition to Title I support instruction, the Title staff also:

• - Sponsor an annual Scholastic Book Fair at both Acme and Colfax
• - Provide a series of parent meetings to encourage parents and children to engage in literacy and math activities that    coordinate with classroom instruction
• - Provide ongoing staff development to area preschool and daycare providers
• - Provide formal and informal staff development for teachers and administrators in the areas of reading and math
• - Assist with the implementation of the summer reading and math  program for all students re-Kindergarten -   grade 6
• - Provide an independent summer reading program (STAR) to encourage all students to read over the summer
• - Assist teachers in daily instructional planning for all students in the areas of math and reading.
• - Engage in various coaching activities to support the implementation of the Harcourt Reading and Everyday   math programs

Annual Performance

Student Performance
Student performance on these tasks is categorized into three categories; partially proficient (below grade level), proficient (on grade level) and advanced (above grade level).  The end of the year data for the 2009-10 school year in the Allegheny Valley School District indicated that the following percent of Title I students performed at the designated proficiency level.

Reading Data for Title I Students

Math Data for Title I Students

Student Participation

Language Arts
A total of 107 students were serviced out of 554 students in the Acmetonia and Colfax buildings. Title I support instruction was delivered to 19% of the elementary student population. Some children, who qualify for Title I, and are not serviced for a variety of reasons such as: parent refusal, support service for the student is provided through Learning Support, or teacher recommendation that a student is not in need of additional instruction. There were 33 students who were eligible but did not receive Title I service in the 2009-2010 school year.

Mathematics
A total of 99 students were serviced out of 554 students in the Acmetonia and Colfax buildings. Title I support instruction was delivered to 18% of the elementary student population. Some children who qualify for Title I are not serviced for a variety of reasons such as: parent refusal; support service for the student is provided through Learning Support; or teacher recommendation that a student is not in need of additional instruction. There were students 40 students who were eligible but did not receive Title I math service in the 2009-2010- school year.

2009-2010 Title I Report

Title I Budget
Federal Funding 2008-2009 - Title Reading & Math Program

Students are invited to participate in the Title program based on a variety of criteria consisting of:

1. Reading assessments:
   - Kindergarten
   Sound identification
   Dictation
   Segmentation (orally breaking a word into its parts)
   - Grade 1
   Sight words
   Pseudowords (pretend words that can be identified using knowledge of phonics)
   *DRA Reading level
   - Grades 2 - 6
   *DRA assessments
   Word accuracy
   Fluency
   Comprehension
   Reading level Teacher recommendation
2. Teacher recommendation
3. Standardized test scores/ PSSA scores are reviewed
4. Classroom grades in reading/language arts are reviewed
5. Attendance records are reviewed
6. Parent recommendation

*DRA - A Developmental Reading Assessment is administered to all students starting at the end of kindergarten. Classroom teachers administer the DRA at least two times during the school year. This assessment includes leveled paragraphs (pre-primer through grade 8 level reading passages) that students are asked to read. A section of the passage is read orally in order to assess word accuracy (reading the words that are on the page) and fluency (number of correct words read in a minute). Students are then asked to respond to what they have read. In grades 1-3 the comprehension component is an oral retell of the story; in grades 4-6 the comprehension component is a written summary. Students must meet established criteria - accuracy, fluency and comprehension - to be considered successful at any particular reading level.