Title I Capacity Building Initiative
Resources on this page are provided via the Title I Capacity Building Initiative which is funded by the Texas Education Agency and produced by Region 10 Education Service Center. This website serves as a central location for Title I, Part A resources on compliance and best practice.
If you have question or need additional assistance with your Title I, Part A program feel free to contact our ESC-2 State and Federal Programs Team at statefed@esc2.net.
TEA Strategic Priorities
By the year 2030, projections indicate that most jobs will require some training beyond high school. This could be a traditional 4-year degree, a 2-year associate's, or an industry credential. But today, too few Texas students are obtaining postsecondary credentials. Without bold action, Texas faces a future of diminished incomes, opportunities and resources. Initiated by the Higher Education Coordinating Board, the 60x30TX Plan is designed to ensure that a competitive and prosperous future remains for students seeking to better their lives and the lives of their families. The state has adopted 60x30TX as our collective goal.
In an effort to support far more rapid improvements in student outcomes to meet the goals of 60x30TX, the Texas Education Agency has adopted a strategic plan. The plan includes four strategic priorities and built on three supporting actions to guide our work on behalf of the more than five million school children in our state.
Each Strategic Priority page offers ESSA resources for continuous improvement planning, instructional best practices aligned to the State Consolidated Plan and TEA Strategic Priorities, and monitoring student outcomes.
- Recruit, Support, Retain Teachers and Principals
- Build a Foundation of Reading and Math
- Connect High School to Career and College
- Improve Low-Performing Schools
CTE Work-Based Learning Opportunities
ESSA allows the use of Title I, Part A funds to provide career and technical education programs to prepare students for postsecondary education and the workforce. This need must be identified through the comprehensive needs assessment and articulated in the campus plan.
Developing Effective Library Programs
An effective school library plays an important role in providing students the opportunity to develop digital literacy skills and improve academic achievement. The library contains a wealth of information and literacy resources, and the librarian can be a partner in instruction and professional growth. ESSA allows LEAs to use Title I, Part A funds to develop effective library programs as part of closing the achievement gap. This need must be identified through a comprehensive needs assessment and articulated in the campus plan.
Evidence-Based
ESSA Statute in Section 8101 defines the term "evidence-based" as an activity, strategy, or intervention that demonstrates a statistically significant effect on improving student outcomes or other relevant outcomes based on:
- strong evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented experimental study
- or moderate evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented quasi-experimental study
- or promising evidence from at least one well-designed and well-implemented correlational study with statistical controls for selection bias
- or demonstrates a rationale based on high-quality research findings or positive evaluation that such activity, strategy, or intervention is likely to improve student outcomes or other relevant outcomes
- and includes ongoing efforts to examine the effects of such activity, strategy, or interventions
Foster Care Transportation
New requirements under Title I of the ESEA, as amended by ESSA, highlight the need to provide educational stability for children in foster care, with particular emphasis on collaboration between SEAs, LEAs, and child welfare agencies to ensure that students in foster care have the opportunity to achieve at the same high levels as their peers. These provisions emphasize the importance of limiting educational disruption by keeping children who move in foster care (due to entering the foster care system or changing placements) in their schools of origin, unless it is determined to be in their best interest to change schools. These provisions also ensure that, if it is not in their best interest to remain in their schools of origin, children in foster care are enrolled in their new schools without delay. These provisions promote greater stability for children in foster care so that they can continue their education without disruption, maintain important relationships with peers and adults, and have the opportunity to achieve college and career readiness. This need must be identified through the comprehensive needs assessment and articulated in the campus plan.
Funds for Dual and Concurrent Enrollment
According to ESSA Statute in Section 8101, the term "dual or concurrent enrollment program" means a program offered by a partnership between at least one institution of higher education and at least one local educational agency through which a secondary student who has not graduated from high school with a regular high school diploma is able to enroll in one or more postsecondary courses and earn postsecondary credit that:
- is tranferable to the institutions of high education in the partnership, and
- applies toward completion of a degree or recognized educational credential as described in the Higher Education Act of 1965
Preschool Programs
According to ESSA Statute, a local education agency may reserve Title I, Part A funds to provide early childhood education programs for eligible children. A school operating a schoolwide program may use Title I funds for any activity that supports the needs of students in the school as identified through the comprehensive needs assessment and articulated in the schoolwide plan. These funds can be used to operate, in whole or in part, a preschool program to improve cognitive, health, and social-emotional outcomes for children from birth to the age at which the LEA provides a free public elementary education. Such programs are designed to prepare children for success in kindergarten. All preschool-aged children who reside in the school's attendance area are eligible to participate. This need must be identified through the comprehensive needs assessment and articulated in the campus plan.
Strategies to Reduce Student Classroom Removals
According to ESSA Statute, to ensure that all children receive a high quality education, and to close the achievement gap between children meeting the challenging State academic standards and those children who are not meeting such standards, each local education agency plan shall describe how the LEA will support efforts to reduce the overuse of discipline practices that remove students from the classroom, which may include identifying and supporting schools with high rates of discipline, disaggregated by each of the subgroups of students - Section 1112
An eligible school operating a schoolwide program shall develop a comprehensive plan that addresses the needs of all children in the school, but particularly the needs of those at risk of not meeting the challenging State academic standards, through activities which may include:
- counseling, school-based mental health programs, specialized instructional support services, mentoring services, and strategies to improve students' skills outside the academic subject areas
- implementation of a school tiered model to prevent and address problem behavior, and early intervening services, coordinated with similar activities and services carried out under IDEA - Section 1114
Transitions
Transitions occur when students move from one school environment to another. Major transitions are: preschool to elementary school, elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, and high school to postsecondary. Effective transition programs help students move to a new school, become a part of the new school, and maintain their social and academic status. With the implementation of transition programs and the support of parents, teachers, and administrators, transitions can become more effective and less intimidating.
Well-Rounded Education
With the adoption of ESSA, the term core academic subjects was replaced with a new term, well-rounded education, and expanded to seventeen subjects. Appearing more than twenty times throughout the law, a well-rounded education opens many doors to expand learning opportunities for students. Needs must be identified through the comprehensive needs assessment and articulated in the campus plan.
