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Public Information - Press ReleaseRelease
Date: Immediate Nine GGUSD 'Achieving Schools' to Share More Than $1.16 Million Nine Garden Grove Unified School District Schools will share more than $1.16 million as a reward for being designated ‘Title I Achieving Schools’ for 2003, the state Department of Education announced Monday, Nov. 17. The district’s recipients are Carrillo, Excelsior, Marshall, Murdy, Paine, Rosita, Stanford, Warren, and Violette elementary schools. The GGUSD schools will receive $129,000 each as monetary awards for student achievement through Title I of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. In California, the amount of the federal grants for schools ranged between $83,935 and $144,000. The Title I Achieving Schools were identified last April, but the size of the awards to be distributed by the state Department of Education was not disclosed until this week. ‘Achieving School’ recognition is given to Title I schools that are demonstrating success in ensuring that all children make significant progress toward meeting or exceeding state academic standards. Of the more than 4,900 Title I schools in California, 157 schools qualified to apply for the high-achievement award. After a rigorous review by state and county office of education staffs, the 115 schools were chosen to win the awards, including 15 schools from Orange County. Title I is a federal education program for schools serving large populations of disadvantaged pupils. “This recognition validates the efforts by our teachers, administrators, and support staff to improve student achievement in our schools,” stated GGUSD Supt. Laura Schwalm. “We still have many challenges before us, but we are moving in the right direction.” The schools were evaluated and selected based on their continual progress on the state Academic Performance Index (API), a numeric ranking of schools that ranges from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000. Title I schools must have API scores of 675 or higher to be considered for the Achieving Schools program. Other requirements to receive the award include high participation rates for state assessments, poverty levels of 50 percent or higher, and API achievement over the last three years that is double the school-wide growth target and double the growth target for socio-economically disadvantaged students. Applications for the Achieving Schools program were reviewed to determine the extent to which a school’s curriculum and practices have contributed to student growth. After the applications were scored, staff from the state Department of Education visited the GGUSD schools last March to verify educational practices. Schools are then selected to showcase their strategies and models that have been proven to increase the academic achievement of students served in the Title I program.
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