The Issaquah School District's Title I, Part A program mission is to provide intensive intervention for students not meeting standard in literacy or, in some middle schools, math. The goal of the program is to accelerate learning for these students and bring them quickly to standard. Traditionally, students not meeting standard have been tracked into remedial classes that slow down the pace of learning and simplify the content of curriculum. Though this practice of remediation is intended to allow students to catch up to their peers, research finds that remediation actually causes students to fall further behind. Instead of a remediation model, Issaquah uses an acceleration model that provides each student with powerful learning experiences that stress complex and engaging activities and direct teaching of relevant content. Learning and skill development is accelerated, so students catch up to their peers.
Those elementary and middle school buildings whose free and reduced lunch rate is higher than the district average receive Title I, Part A dollars to support identified students. Students within these buildings are targeted for assistance based on multiple measures. Test scores from WASL assessments, Stanford 10 scores, classroom performance, and teacher observation are combined to create a rank-ordered list of students. Students are invited into Title I, Part A programs, beginning with those most in need of service. As students exit the program, their place is taken by the next in line on the rank ordered list.
An additional belief of Issaquah's Title I Part A program is that students most in need of support should work with those teachers most likely to be able to provide support. Accordingly, students identified for Title I services are taught by highly qualified, certificated, teachers in a small group setting.