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Pumping Resources Into Teaching Staff

By investing Title I money in teacher training and recruitment, the Bayonne (New Jersey) School District has all highly qualified teachers. Professional development also helped in schools in need of improvement. Included: How one district applied Title I funds.

The Bayonne (New Jersey) School District has invested a lot of time and Title I money into professional development. All of Bayonne's 642 teachers meet the state requirements for being highly qualified under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Title I funds are used to hire additional teachers who assist in regular classrooms by providing additional instruction to selected students. These teachers also meet the qualifications. The district does not use any Title I funds for paraprofessionals, so it has no reason to be concerned about NCLB requirements for paraprofessionals.

The Bayonne district has taken steps to improve the skills of its teachers through after- school professional development academies. These are five-week programs of two-hour weekly classes, which are taught by district teachers and address such areas as technology, mathematics, differentiated instruction, multiple intelligences, and Spanish language. About 200 teachers participate in this training each year. Titles II and V of NCLB are used to support the program. District officials attribute Bayonne's recent improvements in math performance to the effectiveness of its professional development.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Bayonne had four of its 11 schools in school improvement in 2002-03, because the schools did not meet the New Jersey expectations for adequate yearly progress (AYP). One of the schools improved enough to exit school improvement status in 2003, leaving three schools in this category for 2003-04. In the three remaining schools, the eighth grade math scores rose between 20 percent and 25 percent, a gain that district officials attribute to the district's curricular and instructional changes. Technical assistance focused on enhancing professional development for teachers in the four schools, especially through the after-school academies. The instructional support provided to teachers by the Title I team was also part of the technical assistance, as was a large-scale summer school program with a major focus on literacy for parents that took place in 2003.

MEETING SPECIAL NEEDS

About 19 percent of Bayonne students have been identified as having disabilities, which district officials recognize is a much a larger percentage than most districts. In light of the NCLB requirements for subgroup performance, the district is examining the consistency of its procedures for identifying students for special education. Staff members believe the district has good programs for children with disabilities, and this may be attracting families with special-needs children to live in the district.

SOURCE: Center on Education Policy

To read the full report, see A Look Inside 33 School Districts: Year 2 of the No Child Left Behind Act.

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Education World's Working With NCLB feature highlights schools or districts with stories to share about how they are implementing requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. If you have a Working With NCLB story to share, send an e-mail toEllen Delisio.