Dougherty County School System explains Title I at annual meeting

ALBANY — Parent facilitators and federal programs specialists met with Dougherty County parents on Tuesday in the Albany High Complex cafeteria for the first Title I/Federal Program meeting of the year, giving insight into the resources used to better serve students.

Federal Programs Director Sheila Chatmon said Title I provides funding to schools that goes toward professional training for faculty members.

“Title I makes sure that we have teachers who are highly qualified, who are receiving the professional learning that they need (and) the support that they need so that they can provide that quality education to our students to ensure that they are successful,” Chatmon said. “And once we’ve done that on the school’s side, we also look for our parent to provide that level of support and partner with us to ensure that our schools and our children are successful.”

Another requirement for Title I is Family and Community Engagement, or FACE, which includes steps such as parental feedback and involvement — and the Dougherty County School System holding informative meetings about what is going on in the schools.

“Research says that a child is more likely to be successful if there’s a partnership that exists between the home and the school,” Chatmon said. “We all know that.”

Officials said parent facilitators act as mediators between students, parents and the schools for which they work. They are often a parent’s first point of contact for information about a school.

“When fliers come home to come to our workshops, please do because there’s always great information,” Parent Facilitator Loretta Shelton said. “There’s information that you can use now (so) you won’t have to ask questions later. We greet parents at the door, we have our annual Title I meeting and we have our policy meeting that we need you in on.

“We don’t push you away; we want your help. And pass that word along: we want your help. No, we need your help. So don’t be a stranger to any of your children’s school.”

The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law in 2015, replaces 2002’s No Child Left Behind Act. The more recent law is meant to allow states more flexibility and authority over their educational systems and requires states to develop plans to support education.

“Georgia’s ESSA plan sets a new course for K-12 education in the state,” Parent Facilitator Chinary Jordan said. “(It moves) away from the Georgia assessment focusing on high-stakes testing to an education system that places the whole child at the center. The Georgia state ESSA plan simplifies and streamlines the Georgia accountability system: the redesigned College and Career Ready Performance Index.”

Jordan said the CCRPI focuses on the whole child by rewarding schools that help students move to the next grade and expand opportunities for students through fine arts education, physical education, language instruction, advanced placement/international baccalaureate classes and enrollment in career pathways. The assessment measures students’ educational growth and determines if they are outdoing their performance from previous years.

Each school has its own Parent and Family Engagement Plan, along with DCSS’s engagement plan. A good district engagement plan must be developed jointly between DCSS, the parents and stakeholders, said Parent Facilitator Morris Jones.

Jones said the plan consists of using parental input from surveys, guiding the professional development of schools on effective parent and family engagement activities, reserving funds and distributing funds and information about school events and activities for parents that support learning, annual evaluations, among other things.

FACE Account Specialist Cheryl Johnson explained the importance of parents volunteering at their child’s school by using the following acronym:

V: It takes a village to raise a child;

O: Opportunities to network and meet school staff;

L: Learn more about the school system and what takes place on a daily basis;

U: Understand better what goes on with a child and how their education can be supplemented at home;

N: Volunteering is needed and necessary;

T: Time is valuable;

E: Encouraging other parents and people to be part of the school system;

E: Be excited about being a part of the child’s education;

R: The reward of knowing that the parent was part of something great that went on at school.

“It is important that we all come together and try to be one in that the common goal is the child, and we all come together and try to make sure that all our children are successful — not just our own individual child, our grandchild, our niece, our nephew,” Johnson said. “We want the whole Dougherty County School System to be successful. Again, I’m going back to the V; it takes a village.”