Oak Park Receives Title I Academic Award

At California's Title I Conference, "Building Capacity for Excellence" on May 25-27, Oak Park Elementary School was one of the 248 California schools to receive the Title I Academic Achievement Award  for success in ensuring that all students make significant progress toward meeting state content standards.

Title I is one of the programs under the federal No Child Left Behind Act designed to improve the academic achievement of disadvantaged students.  The Title I Academic Awards Program recognizes schools that are demonstrating success in ensuring that all students are making significant progress toward proficiency on California's academic content standards.  These standards define the knowledge, concepts, and skills students are expected to acquire at each grade level.  In addition, the awardees provide support and serve as models for other schools, especially those identified for Title I Program improvement.  There are 5,840 Title I schools in California.

Federal law states that in order for a school to qualify for the award, it must exceed its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) or significantly close the achievement gap among numerically significant subgroups for two or more consecutive years.  California's program was designed to identify and honor Title I schools that have made significant progress toward meeting or exceeding AYP and have doubled their Academic Performance Index (API) growth target for two consecutive years.  California also requires Title I Achieving Schools to meet a designated median API score in both English-language arts and mathematics.

Oak Park Elementary School is a multi-track, Title I school which serves 703 students in grades K-5, plus an additional 50 students in preschool.  According to the principal, Dr. Jinane Annous, "The caring and committed staff at Oak Park provide a safe, comfortable, and nurturing environment dedicated to the personal, social, and academic growth of students.  Children develop personal responsibility, excel academically, and take pride in group achievement through mutual respect and cooperation among parents, students and staff."

"I am so proud of the students, their parents, and the teachers and administrators at all of the school receiving this award," O'Connell said.  "We are asking our educators and students to work hard to meet the challenge of higher expectation, but these schools stand out for overcoming challenges and demonstrating success."

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