1336 W Spruce Ave. Fresno, CA 93650 | (559) 327-7600

Nelson Elementary

Part of the Clovis Unified School District

Title I

Parent Meeting

In January 2002, Congress passed a new federal education law, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Using STAR test results, the California Department of Education (CDE) identifies schools for Program Improvement (PI) if their yearly improvement target is not met for more two consecutive years. Under NCLB, if a school is identified for Program Improvement for more than one year, students may be eligible for Supplemental Educational Services (SES) paid by Title I funds. Students MUST also be on free or reduced lunch to be eligible.

Teacher Qualifications Your child is attending a school receiving Title I federal funds through the No Child Left Behind Act (in English, referred to as NCLB). This Federal law requires that parents be notified of their right to know the professional qualifications of their child's teacher(s) in core academic subject areas, including the following:

The type of state credential or credentials that the teacher holds. Some teachers will have a credential in a particular subject area, such as English or mathematics, and others will have a multiple subject credential, which allows them to teach a variety of subjects, such as in elementary schools.
The education level and subject area of the teacher's college degree(s). All teachers have a bachelor's degree, and many teachers have graduate degrees beyond the bachelor's, such as a masters or doctoral degree.

At Nelson, Elementary all teachers have met the requirements of NCLB and its professional qualifications by holding the appropriate credentials. In addition to the qualifications of the teacher, if a paraprofessional (teacher's aide) provides your child services, you may also request information about his or her qualifications. At Nelson, all of our paraprofessionals have two years of college, and/or have passed a test that verifies their qualifications.

If you would like this information, please contact Tom Brocklebank @ 327-7600.

Program Improvement

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, any school that does not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for two or more consecutive years in a tested subject, is considered to be in Program Improvement mode and must take specific steps to continue with AYP growth.

Nelson Elementary scored an API between 890-915 during the last five years of STAR testing and No Child Left Behind, and was ranked in the 90th percentile in comparison to similar schools. These are excellent performance measures. While working to improve reading scores, Nelson's math scores remained constant around 81-83% proficient as measured on California Standards Test. That constant performance range did not meet AYP under the No Child Left Behind Act, and therefore Nelson is in Program Improvement. The federal NCLB measures and testing were suspended the year following Nelson's PI status, and has not yet been modified. Therefore, The PI designation is still in place. Nelson staff continues to hold the expectations that all students can be proficient and work tirelessly to raise the proficiency of all students.

With the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA 2015), new guidelines and measures of success will impact the PI status of Nelson Elementary School. Until those guidelines and measures are in place at the State level, the PI status remains. If you have questions about your options under PI status, please feel free to contact any administrator at Nelson Elementary School.