On August 26, USED released regulations for the Title I School Improvement Grants. The proposed requirements would define the criteria that the Michigan Department of Education use to award school improvement funds to local educational agencies (LEAs) with the lowest-achieving Title I schools that demonstrate:

• the greatest need for the funds and
• the strongest commitment to use those funds to provide adequate resources to their lowest-achieving Title I schools
• in order to raise substantially the achievement of the students attending those schools.

Put more succinctly, the proposed changes establish how states interested in this pot of funding would determine which schools to spend the money on.

School Improvement Grants are awarded to states. Individual districts apply to the state to receive funds. Ninety-five percent of a state’s grant must be passed on to districts, and the money must be targeted at the poorest-performing schools.

The proposed requirements group schools into three tiers:

• Tier 1 are the poorest-performing Title-I eligible schools;
• Tier 2 includes high schools and middle schools that are eligible for but not receiving Title I monies
• Tier 3 would be the remaining Title I schools.

The proposed requirements provide four options for turning schools around:

• The turnaround model requires the school to replace the principal and at least 50 percent of staff, adopt a new governance structure, and implement a revised instructional program.
• The restart model would close a school and reopen it under the management of a charter school operator, a charter management organization, or an educational management organization.
• The school closure model would close the school and enroll students in other, high-achieving schools within the district.
• The transformation model would require the school to develop teacher/school leader effectiveness, implement comprehensive instructional reform strategies, extend learning time and create community-oriented schools, and provide operating flexibility and sustained support.

Any district with more than 9 qualifying (Tier 1) schools cannot use the same model in more than half of its schools. That is, a district with 9 Tier 1 school cannot use the transformation model in all 9. They can use the transformation model in four of the schools, but must use other models in the remaining 5 schools.

Comments are due by September 25, 2009. Check the AASA website and blog at www.aasa.org for updates and to reference their submitted comments.