EDUCATED

Ed-FLEX Waiver 1: FCS Request
December 2024

Request: FCS would like to increase the Title I carryover percentage from 15% to 25% by applying for the Ed-FLEX Waiver 1. We have approximately 19% available to carryover from last year’s Title I grant. With board approval, we can ask the state for the additional 4% to carryover 19% rather than the automatic 15% of the prior grant.

Ed-FLEX Waiver 1 required components: 

1. Please describe the overall expected results of waiving the requirement above. 
2. Please describe the specific and measurable educationally related goals that will be achieved through the application of this waiver? 
3. Please describe how progress toward the goals will be evaluated.

After discussing possibilities with the building leaders at our Title I schools, FCS’s goals related to the Ed-FLEX Waiver 1 request are the following:

1. Target programming and staff on improving student achievement in literacy as measured by IREAD, ILEARN, and benchmark assessments. 

a. Dollars would be used at our Title I schools to support Reading Camp during the spring semester prior to the administration of IREAD. Reading Camp would target at-risk second-grade students and third-grade students with lagging literacy skills as demonstrated by middle-of-year benchmark assessment data. Reading Camp would occur after school two to three days each week from January until the administration of IREAD. 

i. Evaluation Timeline & Criteria: January & February: Benchmark assessments and weekly monitoring for progress; March: IREAD passing rates and individual student performance
ii. Evaluation Responsibility: Reading Camp Administrator (Literacy Coach) and Reading Camp Teachers

b. Offering summer school for kindergarten, first, and fourth grade students with lagging skills as identified by state assessments and end-of-year benchmarks assessments is another example of our efforts to improve student achievement, especially in the area of literacy. (State summer school funds will be used to support summer school programming for at-risk second and third grade students.)

i. Evaluation Timeline & Criteria: June: Benchmark assessments and weekly monitoring for progress; and Late June: IREAD retake performance (2-3) & Benchmark assessment results (K-1, 4))
ii.Evaluation Responsibility: Summer Camp Administrator and Summer School Teachers

2. Target professional development on improving literacy instruction and overall student achievement. 

a. We would like to bring Dr. Jamey Peavler to our district this spring and summer to work with our teachers in our Title I schools on improving foundational literacy instructional strategies. Improving literacy instruction in alignment with the Science of Reading is a key focus for our district and the state. 

i. Evaluation Timeline & Criteria: April 2025-March 2026: Compare our 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 benchmark and progress monitoring data, ILEARN Checkpoint data, IREAD data, and ILEARN data to measure student growth 
ii. Evaluation Responsibility: Building Principals, Literacy/Instructional Coaches, Title I Reading Teachers, and Classroom Teachers

3. Target teacher professional development around behavior management to help ensure student achievement.

a. If dollars allows, we would like to hire a Behavior Specialist Coach to coach our teachers in our Title I buildings on de-escalating students and themselves to ensure Tier I instruction progresses. The goal is to reduce the amount of instructional time lost because of student behaviors. 

i. Evaluation Timeline & Criteria: January - August 2025: Decrease the number of minutes of lost instructional time resulting from student behaviors (both for individual students and for entire classrooms)
ii. Evaluation Responsibility: Building Principals, Building-Based Behavior Teams, Behavior Specialist Coach for Teachers

4. Target teacher professional development around our professional learning communities.

a. We want to continue professional development focused on our PLC commitment to ensure teacher teams are using data to drive instruction and improve student learning. For example, with the state’s focus on literacy instruction, we have tightened our professional learning communities by working to improve all levels of tiered instruction. We will use student growth to measure the success of this goal. 

i. Evaluation Timeline & Criteria: January - December 2025: Use PLC data cycles and ILEARN Checkpoints to measure student learning with the goal of improving mastery by at least 20% through high-quality tiered instructional practices
ii. Evaluation Responsibility: Building Principals, Literacy/Instructional Coaches, PLC Leaders, and Classroom Teachers

Please share your comments on the Education Flex Waiver Request 

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