What Is the Title I Issue at MCSM?

Parents of MCSM students may be hearing quite a bit about something called Title I in the coming months and into next year as well. This blog posting will try to explain what the Title I program is, how it affects MCSM, and what the PTA's and parents' roles are concerning how Title I is implemented at our children's school.

1. What Is Title I? Under the federal law that created the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, Congress included the creation of a special program called Title I. The purpose of this program is to provide extra money from the federal government, beyond the money budgeted for education by the States, to communities where the income level is below a certain "poverty level." These funds are intended to give extra help to students who are deemed to be "at risk" as defined by the New York State Education Department. In New York City, a school qualifies as a Title I recipient if the annual incomes of more than 60% of the students' families fall below this government-defined level.

2. How Does Title I Affect MCSM? In 2004, families of MCSM students were asked to complete forms that stated their annual income. All but about 90 families submitted those completed forms, and it turned out that 62% of the students at that time came from families whose yearly income was below the qualifying level. As a result, our school has received every year since then about $850,000 in extra, Title I funds; this is equal to about 10% of the budget money we receive from the NYC Department of Education. Next year (2007/2008), MCSM families will be asked to complete these income forms once again to determine whether our school still qualifies to receive Title I funds.

3. How Are the Title I Funds Used? In our first year as a Title I school in 2004/2005, MCSM was required to operate under a Title I subprogram called Targeted Assistance. The basic idea of Targeted Assistance is that the money provided under Title I must be dedicated only to students who are clearly identified as being "at risk." According to the NY State Education Department, "at risk" is defined as having scored either a 1 or a 2 in the student's 8th Grade Math or English Language Arts exams or having failed a NY State Regents exam. At MCSM, only a little more than 14% of all students meet one of these criteria. Since it was very difficult in the first year to determine how to spend $850,000 on tutoring and other special assistance activities for just 14% of the students, MCSM turned back unused about $250,000 for 2004/2005. The following year, this number was reduced to about $90,000, and this year it is expected to be somewhere between $50,000 and $75,000 unspent.

4. What Alternatives Does MCSM Have for Using Its Title I Funds? The NCLB legislation provides two ways for a school to manage its Title I funds. One of them, Targeted Assistance, limits the use of these funds only to students who meet one of the "failure criteria" described above. The other option requires the parents, through the PTA, and the teachers to vote for a change from Targeted Assistance to what is called the Schoolwide Program option. Under the Schoolwide Program approach, the school administration and staff would determine which students were at risk, and all those students would be eligible to receive extra tutoring and other academic support services funded from the Title I money. Notice that under the Schoolwide Program option, we would not be required to wait for a student to actually fail before he or she became eligible for extra, Title I funded support. Teachers could identify students at risk of failing -- before they failed -- and make sure they received this extra assistance. In addition, parents of all students would be eligible for parental support programs funded out of the Title I money, not just the parents of students who had already failed.

5. How Can MCSM Change to the Schoolwide Program Option? Every year, the Principal, the President of the PTA, and the MCSM Chapter Leader of the Teachers' Union (the UFT) are required to meet in the Spring to decide if there will be a vote on the Title I question. In the first year (Spring, 2005), the Teachers' Union representative decided against having a vote. Last year (Spring 2006), a vote was held in which parents voted unanimously in favor of the Schoolwide Program option. A majority of teachers voted for that program as well, but their margin was not sufficient to carry the vote and MCSM remained under the Targeted Assistance option. We are hoping that another vote will be scheduled again for this Spring. If a vote will be held, we will announce it here on the Parents' Information Center and include it in PTA meeting discussions and the first possible Parent Newsletter. For parents, the vote -- if it takes place -- would most likely occur at the May 8 PTA meeting. If the vote takes place, we urge all parents to come to the PTA meeting and vote in favor of the Schoolwide Program option; your PTA Executive Board supports this choice unanimously.

6. What Are Parents' Roles in the Title I Program? First, parents have an important voice in determining whether their school will operate under the Targeted Assistance or Schoolwide Program option. This is done through voting for one of the two approaches at the PTA meeting in which this vote is held.

Second, we are required to have two parents act as our Title I Representative and Alternate. At a PTA meeting earlier this year, we announced that Don Redish and Rajinder Singh had agreed to assume these responsibilities for the balance of this school year.

Third, the NCLB law states that at least one percent of a school's Title I funds are to be made available for parent training and education programs. These can range from computer training workshops to presentations on health and hygiene, parenting skills, time management, recognizing adolescent substance abuse, weight management (obesity as well as anorexia or bulimia), and many other topics that can help us all be better guardians of our children and better assistants for their academics. We are hoping that the MCSM parent community will see the first of these initiatives next year. In future PTA meetings, we will be soliciting your ideas for programs and topics that you would like to see addressed.


Title I is somewhat complicated, but it also creates wonderful opportunities for the school and the PTA to help our kids and our parents, too. We will work hard to keep you informed of these opportunities and how you can help. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at mathman180@aol.com.