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Public Information - Press ReleaseRelease
Date: Immediate GGUSD Leads OC With 14 Title I 'Achieving Schools' Fourteen Garden Grove Unified School District Schools, the largest number in Orange County, have been designated ‘Title I Achieving Schools’ for 2003-04, the state Department of Education announced this week. The honorees in the GGUSD are Carrillo, Cook, Evans, Excelsior, Gilbert, Hill, Marshall, Murdy, Northcutt, Rosita, Stanford, and Paine, elementary schools, McGarvin Intermediate School, and La Quinta High School. The prestigious recognition is given to Title I schools that are exceeding expectations in meeting state standards based on academic assessment criteria despite having poverty levels of 40 percent or higher. Of the more than 5,000 Title I schools in California, 213 schools were chosen for the honor, including 22 schools from Orange County. Title I is a federal education program for schools serving large populations of disadvantaged pupils. Representatives of the 14 district schools and select GGUSD leadership have been invited to attend the annual Title I Achieving Schools Conference awards banquet on April 29 at the San Francisco Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlingame where the schools will receive a plaque and a 2003-04 Title I Achieving School banner. Last year, nine GGUSD schools each received $129,000 through the recognition program. Seven schools, Carrillo, Excelsior, Marshall, Murdy, Paine, Rosita, and Stanford, are repeat nominees from 2003. The amount of the monetary awards for this year has yet to be announced. “Again, it is an honor to have so many of our schools nominated and selected as Title I Achieving Schools,” said Supt. Laura Schwalm. “We are extremely proud of the teachers, administrators, and support staff at the schools for their contributions leading to such rewards. The recognition they earned typifies the efforts being made by schools across the district to improve learning and boost student achievement.” Schools are evaluated and selected based on their demographic makeup and performance on academic assessments, including 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. To earn ‘Achieving School’ status, Title I elementary schools, for example, must have API scores of 729 or higher and API achievement over the last two years that is double the school-wide growth target and double the growth target for socio-economically disadvantaged students. They must also have a poverty level of 40 percent or higher and satisfy federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) performance goals for 2001-02 and 2002-03.
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