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Big Otter Elementary School
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Learn About RTI in Your Child’s Classroom

Please Come Join Us

Dear Mom, Dad, or other Caregivers,

You are invited to a RTI Workshop. The purpose of this learning opportunity is to provide (K through 4) parents with a better understanding of what Response to Intervention (RTI) is and how it relates to our reading program. We hope you can come to this event. We believe you will gain a lot of information from this experience and be better prepared to assist your child at home. For your convenience, we have scheduled two sessions on Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Session 1 Session 2

Date: 3-18-2009 Date: 3-18-2009

Time: 12:40 –1:20 Time: 3:30 – 5:00

Presenters: Presenters:

Mrs. Claytor Mrs. Claytor

Mrs. Knopp Mrs. Knopp

Mrs. Kleman Mrs.Kleman

Remember: It’s A Great Day To Be

A Big Otter Brave!

PARENTS RIGHT-TO-KNOW

(A) QUALIFICATIONS- At the beginning of each school year, a local educational agency that receives funds under this part shall notify the parents of each student attending any school receiving funds under this part that the parents may request, and the agency will provide the parents on request (and in a timely manner), information regarding the professional qualifications of the student's classroom teachers, including, at a minimum, the following:

(i) Whether the teacher has met State qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction.

(ii) Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which State qualification or licensing criteria have been waived.

(iii) The baccalaureate degree major of the teacher and any other graduate certification or degree held by the teacher, and the field of discipline of the certification or degree.

(iv) Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.

(B) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION- In addition to the information that parents may request under subparagraph (A), a school that receives funds under this part shall provide to each individual parent—

(i) Information on the level of achievement of the parent's child in each of the State academic assessments as required under this part; and

(ii) Timely notice that the parent's child has been assigned, or has been taught for four or more consecutive weeks by, a teacher who is not highly qualified.

(C) FORMAT- The notice and information provided to parents under this paragraph shall be in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, provided in a language that the parents can understand.

School Parental Involvement Policy

PART I. GENERAL EXPECTATIONS

The Big Otter Elementary School agrees to implement the following statutory requirements:

· Consistent with section 1118, the school will ensure that the required school level parental involvement policy meets the requirements of section 1118 of the ESEA, and includes, as a component, a school-parent compact consistent with section 1118(d) of the ESEA.

· Schools will notify parents of the policy in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand. The policy will be made available to the local community and updated periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the school.

· In carrying out the Title I, Part A, parental involvement requirements, to the extent practicable, the school will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities, and parents of migratory children, including providing information and school reports required under section 1111 of the ESEA in an understandable and uniform format and including alternative formats upon request and, to the extent practicable, in language parents understand.

· If the school-wide program plan for Title I, Part A, developed under section 1114(b) of the ESEA, is not satisfactory to the parents of participating children, the school will submit any parent comments with the plan when the school submits the plan to the local educational agency (school district).

· The school will involve the parents of children served in Title I, Part A schools in decisions about how funds reserved under this part are spent for parent involvement activities. The school will build its own and the parent’s capacity for strong parental involvement, in order to ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the school, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement.

· The school will provide parental involvement activities under section 1118 of the ESEA in the areas of improving student achievement, child development, child rearing and additional topics parents may request.

· The school will be governed by the following statutory definition of parental involvement, and will carry out programs, activities, and procedures in accordance with this definition:

Parental involvement means the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring—

(A) that parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning;

(B) that parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school;

(C) that parents are full partners in their child’s education and are included, as appropriate, in decision-making and on advisory committees to assist in the education of their child;

(D) the carrying out of other activities, such as those described in section 1118 of the ESEA.

PART II. DESCRIPTION OF HOW SCHOOLS WILL IMPLEMENT REQUIRED SCHOOL PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT POLICY COMPONENTS

1. The Big Otter Elementary School shall take the following actions to involve parents in the joint development and review of its school parental involvement policy under section 1118 of the ESEA:

Elect parents to LSIC and hold regular meetings

Discussion of policy at PTO meeting

Copies of developed policy were sent home

2. The Big Otter Elementary School shall take the following actions to involve parents in the process of planning, joint development of the program, review and improvement of programs under Title I Part A of the ESEA :

Discussion of policy at PTO meeting

Discussion of policy at LSIC meeting

Discussion of policy at parent meetings

Compact, policy, and Title I plan is on file and can be viewed and commented on

3. The Big Otter Elementary School shall hold an annual meeting to inform parents of the school’s participation in Title I, Part A programs, and to explain the Title I, Part A requirements and the right of parents to be involved in Title I, Part A programs. The school will invite all parents of children participating in Title I, Part A programs to this meeting.

Annual Open House in which parents were informed

First PTO meeting parents were informed

Informational fliers were distributed

4 The Big Otter Elementary School shall provide parents of participating children information in a timely manner about Title I, Part A programs that includes a description and explanation of the school’s curriculum, the forms of academic assessment used to measure children’s progress, and the proficiency levels students are expected to meet.

Parent Handbook

5. The Big Otter Elementary School shall, at the request of parents, provide opportunities for regular meetings, held at flexible times, for parents to formulate suggestions and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions about the education of their children. The school will respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicably possible by:

LSIC meetings are held four times a year

PTO meetings are held monthly

Parents may call the school and schedule an appointment to meet with their child's teacher(s).

Teachers are available to meet with parents during their planning period.

Big Otter Elementary School has provided parents with teachers' e-mail addresses. Parents have the option of e-mailing their suggestions, concerns, questions to their child's teacher(s) or the building principal.

6. The Big Otter Elementary School shall provide each parent an individual student report about the performance of their child on the State assessment in at least math, language arts and reading by:

WESTEST results are sent home to the parents

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Additional conferences may be scheduled as needed at parents request

7. The Big Otter Elementary School shall take the following actions to provide each parent timely notice when their child has been assigned or has been taught for four (4) or more consecutive weeks by a teacher who is not highly qualified within the meaning of the term in section 200.56 of the Title I Final Regulations (67 Fed. Reg. 71710, December 2, 2002):

Right-To-Know Letters were sent to all parents

When children are assigned a teacher who is not highly qualified, Big Otter Elementary School will send a letter home to the parents.

8. The Big Otter Elementary School shall provide assistance to parents of children served by the school, as appropriate, in understanding topics by undertaking the actions described below --

· the state’s academic content standards,

· the state’s student academic achievement standards,

· the state and local academic assessments including alternate assessments,

· the requirements of Title I Part A,

· how to monitor their child’s progress, and

· how to work with educators:

State's academic content standards were discussed at Open House

State's academic content standards will be discussed again at PTO meeting (explanation of the standards, how to access the standards online, and a hardcopy will be provided at their request)

9. The Big Otter Elementary School shall provide materials and training to help parents work with their children in the areas of improving student achievement, (including literacy training and using technology) child development, child rearing and additional topics parents may request.

Launch and Learns:

RTI

WESTEST language

Learning Math Together

Writing Online

Parent resources available to parents via CCS Parent Resource Center

Parenting Issues will be discussed at PTO

10. The Big Otter Elementary School shall, with the assistance of its parents, educate its teachers, pupil services personnel, principals and other staff in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to implement and coordinate parent programs and build ties between parents and schools, by:

Utilize Harry Wong DVD's for training sessions

Edvantia IPodcasts available to staff.

Utilize DVD on parent involvement.

Parents will be asked to complete exit surverys after parent involvement events. These surveys will be reviewed and discussed during staff meetings. After discussion, the faculty and staff of Big Otter Elementary school will implement parent(s) suggestions and address concerns where appropriate.

11. The Big Otter Elementary School shall, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parental involvement programs and activities with Head Start, Reading First, Early Reading First, Even Start, Home Instruction Programs for Preschool Youngsters, the Parents as Teachers Program, public preschool, and other programs. The school will also conduct other activities, such as parent resource centers, that encourage and support parents in more fully participating in the education of their children, by:

Utilize Parents as Teachers

Parent Resource Center provides parents, at their request, information on various topics

Parent Resource person is hired at the school one day each week to coordinate parent involvment activities

Head start and Pre-School will collaborate with each other to enhance our parent involvment program.

12. The Big Otter Elementary School shall take the following actions to ensure that information related to the school and parent-programs, meetings, and other activities is sent to parents of participating children in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon request, and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand:

Title I brochure

Parent Handbook

Volunteer Handbook

Individual Classroom Newsletters

Student Planners (4th and 5th grade students)

Memo to parents

Web Calendar

Fliers

PART III. DISCRETIONARY SCHOOL PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT POLICY COMPONENTS

· involving parents in the development of training for teachers, principals, and other educators to improve the effectiveness of that training;

· providing necessary literacy training for parents from Title I, Part A funds, if the school district has exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for that training;

· paying reasonable and necessary expenses associated with parental involvement activities, including transportation and child care costs, to enable parents to participate in school-related meetings and training sessions;

· training parents to enhance the involvement of other parents;

· arranging school meetings at a variety of times, or conducting in-home conferences between teachers or other educators who work directly with participating children, arrange meetings with parents who are unable to attend conferences at school in order to maximize parental involvement and participation in their children’s education;

· adopting and implementing model approaches to improving parental involvement;

· establishing a school parent advisory council to provide advice on all matters related to parental involvement in Title I, Part A programs;

· developing appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses, including faith-based organizations, in parental involvement activities.

PART IV. ADOPTION

This School Parental Involvement Policy has been developed jointly with, and agreed on with, parents of children participating in Title I, Part A programs, as evidenced by sign-in sheets and agendas

Clay County Schools Parent Involvement Policy

The Clay County Board of Education adopted a new parent involvement policy on August 21, 2006 that is designed to increase parent involvement in the schools. The goal of the policy is to increase the participation of parents in regular, two way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities which include ensuring:

that parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning.
that parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school.
that parents are full partners in their child’s education and are included, as appropriate, in decision-making and on advisory committees to assist in the education of their child.

Clay County Schools Superintendent, Larry Gillespie, offered this comment, “Our school system is committed to building positive and productive school, family and community partnerships. We want to develop a program that links family involvement to school improvement and student achievement. Our policy is based on guidelines from the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It is used as a model by each school in the county to help them develop their individual school parent involvement policy.”

The policy is reviewed annually by the Clay County Schools Parent Advisory Council. All parents are invited to give comments and make suggestions regarding the policy so that parent involvement opportunities and activities are effective and successful in helping students do the very best they can in school. Questions and comments about the policy may be directed to Joan Haynie, Administrative Assistant and Title I Director. Thank you for your time and attention.

Adequate Yearly Progress

Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is required by the United States Depart Education for all districts and schools that get Title I federal funding under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. To make AYP, each school must achieve West Virginia Department of Education targets on the WV state assessment, the WESTEST, in Reading/Language Arts and Mathematics. To meet these targets, a designated percentage of students must score at the proficiency level designated. To meet targets, 95% of students must take each assessment. In addition, schools must meet targets for graduation rate and attendance. All of these standards must be met by all students, measured as a whole, and by each subgroup. If just one subgroup misses just one target, the entire school doesn’t make AYP. Only subgroups larger that 50 students count for AYP. To protect student privacy, the scores of subgroups smaller than 50 will not be reported.

Below you will find the information from the report the West Virginia Department of Education released on the AYP our schools are making toward achieving proficiency for 100 percent of our students under NCLB.

School Name	School Type	AYP 2008	AYP 2007	AYP 2006	AYP 2005	AYP 2004
Big Otter Elementary School	New School	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

I am very pleased to with the overall progress of Big Otter Elementary School. The school is making "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) in every area, based on results from the WESTEST in Reading and Mathematics, and based on their attendance rate. I congratulate the students, staff, and parents for their diligent work in improving academic performance.

Mrs. Pam Mullins

Principal

Big Otter Elementary School