The changing face of Title I: Federal program for impoverished schools moves into middle class neighborhoods
Eight of this year's 37 Title I schools in the Muscogee County School District weren't on the list five years ago.
That represents a major demographic shift in Columbus, as the traditional dividing line between prosperous and impoverished residents has crept northward and the poverty rate has increased 10 percentage points during that time period -- with 71 percent of the school system's students now living in poverty.
In fiscal year 2011, MCSD's 56 schools included 32 Title I schools, totaling $13,050,729 in federal allocations, part of which paid for 139 staff positions.
Today, in fiscal year 2016, MCSD's 53 schools now include 37 Title I schools, totaling $9,833,388 in federal allocations, part of which is paying for 86 staff positions.
Although MCSD has five more Title I schools than five years ago, it received $3,217,341 less in Title I money because funding for the national program was reduced, said Tim Smith, the district's federal programs executive director.
The current Title I schools in Muscogee County are:
24 elementary schools: Allen, Brewer, Davis, Dawson, Dimon, Dorothy Height, Downtown, Forrest Road, Fox, Gentian, Georgetown, Hannan, Johnson, Key, Lonnie Jackson, MLK Jr., Reese Road, Rigdon Road, River Road, South Columbus, St. Marys Road, Waddell, Wesley Heights and Wynnton.
Eight middle schools: Arnold, Baker, Double Churches Middle, East Columbus, Eddy, Fort, Richards and Rothschild
Five high schools: Carver, Early College, Jordan, Kendrick and Spencer.
Gone from the 2011 Title I list are four elementary schools -- Cusseta Road, Edgewood, Marshall and Muscogee --not because they became less impoverished but because they were closed.
Five elementary schools have been designated as Title I in the past five years, including Allen, Gentian, Reese Road, River Road and the newly constructed Dorothy Height, which replaced Muscogee and Cusseta Road elementary schools.
Three middle schools -- Arnold, Double Churches and Richards -- are now Title I, as well as one high school, Early College.
In the past five years, the district's overall poverty rate has increased by 10 percentage points, from 61 percent to 71 percent.
To gain perspective on the changing face of Title I in Columbus, the Ledger-Enquirer took a closer look at Reese Road Leadership Academy, an elementary school with the district's largest increase in poverty rate over the past five years -- 21 percentage points, from 49 percent to 70 percent.
Reputation
When Jeanella Pendleton and her husband, Howard, moved to the Roxbury subdivision off Reese Road 31 years ago, the neighborhood school had a stellar reputation.
"We lived off of Forrest Road before we moved here," Pendleton said, sitting in her living room, one block from where the school is located, "and we thought this was the best house we could find because of Reese Road and its reputation, and both of our daughters went to Reese Road."
In 1996, Pendleton became principal of the school and spearheaded an effort that turned it into a charter school called Reese Road Leadership Academy. She said the neighborhood still was predominantly white and middle class, and the thought of the school becoming a Title I school was unimaginable.
So when she learned that the school had fallen into that category, she was taken aback.
"I was a little hurt, and then I had to put back on my professional hat," she said. "It's not all bad to be a Title I School because you're going to get more funding, and you're going to get more support for your learners and more support for your teachers."
But there's still the stigma to contend with and all the extra paperwork that comes with being a Title I school that some educators would rather avoid, she said.
"One of the staff members called me when they found out, and they said, 'Mrs. Pendleton, I thought you said we would never be a Title I school,'" she said.
"And I said, 'At that time, when I told you that, it was correct because of the demographics and the number of students who were in private schools who lived in our attendance area."
She went on to explain that Reese Road absorbed students from Edgewood when that school closed, which led to a rise in the number of free and reduced lunches. Also, the school received children from schools that didn't make Adequate Yearly Progress.
Like many areas in Columbus, Pendleton says, the neighborhood surrounding her former school is just experiencing demographic shifts.
"I like to use the analogy that the neighborhood has browned and it has grayed," she said. "A lot of the younger families that raised their children in this area, the kids are grown and gone. ... They either rented (their houses) out so they could downsize to a smaller home, or they have just passed on. And we have had a more diverse population moving in and some of the houses were rented."
Section 8 houses began popping up in nearby subdivisions about 10 to 15 years ago, said Pendleton, who now serves on the Board of Commissioners for the Public Housing Authority of Columbus, and that the neighborhood became an attractive choice for eligible parents with elementary-aged children.
"Our subdivision had a very good school then, and so you can't blame them," she said.
With all the changes, it's important that school administrators and teachers be trained on how to deal with children of poverty, Pendleton said.
"You look at things a different way when you know what the kids go through and what their perceptions are," she said. "Daddy might be incarcerated, and Mama's got to work two and three jobs to try to make ends meet. So what happens to the kid when Mama's working three jobs? They might be placed with an auntie or cousin or a neighbor who might not see the value in reading to that child before they go to bed or helping with the homework."
'The whole neighborhood is changing'
Reese Road resident Gordon Jones, 69, has been living within sight of the school for 49 years. He calls the changes he has seen in the school and the neighborhood, especially the children, "not so good."
"It seems like they're a rougher bunch," he said. "They're not well behaved. The whole neighborhood is changing."
His two children attended the school in the 1970s. Now, instead of a parade of walkers, he watches a line of buses and cars each school morning and afternoon.
"It just doesn't seem to be the same school," he said.
Jones said the neighborhood is "a lot more diverse, let me put it that way. It used to be upper-middle class." It's now more working class, he said, so he isn't surprised by the school's surge in poverty rate.
Delfair Drive residents Janet and Lee Anderson have lived within sight of the school for 21 years. Their six children attended Reese Road in the 1990s.
"It was like a family-type school atmosphere, where you felt like you knew everybody," said Mrs. Anderson, 56.
Mr. Anderson, 67, added, "It had a very good track record from what people told us. They told us, 'You live in a good area because Reese Road is a good school.'"
But it's a different story now, according to the Andersons. Although their grandchildren live across the street, they attended private school and now are homeschooled. "We would not want them in the school at this point," Mrs. Anderson said.
Pendleton, the former principal, said that despite losing its charter designation because of low math scores after she retired in November 2012, Reese Road is still a good school.
She continues to volunteer as part of the Reese Road Retiree's Group, meeting once a month to socialize and plan special monthly treats for the current staff.
Though disappointed in the school's recent Georgia Milestone test scores, Pendleton said she believes the situation will improve under the new principal, Amy Parker.
"I think she has the same heart for the school that I had and will be able to lead that school and get it back to where it needs to be," she said.
The Ledger-Enquirer requested an interview with Parker, but she declined to comment because this is her first year in the position, according to Muscogee County School District communications director Valerie Fuller.
Census stats
The Columbus Consolidated Government's Planning Department, at the Ledger-Enquirer's request, conducted an analysis of the Reese Road school zone based on data from the most recent U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey and a mapping software called Esri.
To determine how the median income changed from 2000 to 2010, city planners used census blocks within the school zone. According to the analysis, the average median household income in the school zone increased from $43,267 in 2000 to $46,160 in 2010, and to $54,121 in 2014.
Despite that income growth, the school zone's poverty rate for all ages also has increased. It went from 7 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2014, which is the last year for which the data was available.
The percentage of female-headed households increased from 16 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2014, and the average family household has 2.96 people.
Also, the Reese Road neighborhood has seen the number of renter-occupied units increase, from 15.4 percent in 2000 to 23 percent in 2015.
The school zone's racial breakdown is 47 percent white, 46 percent black and 6 percent Hispanic.
Amanda Rees, an associate professor in the Columbus State University History and Geography Department, said areas such as the Reese Road neighborhood seem to be experiencing the migration of poverty to suburbia, which is a national phenomenon.
She said there's also the problem of the shrinking middle class because incomes are not keeping pace with inflation.
"In a city that has seen an expansion of middle class jobs since the days of the domination of the mills in Columbus, it seems that this expansion may have reversed, and we could be seeing poverty developing in place," she wrote in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer. "So it may not only be people moving in from other neighborhoods but also the rise of poverty for those already there."
Poverty definitions
Title I schools may receive extra federal funding, called targeted assistance, if at least 35 percent of their students are identified as eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch. That means only those qualified students can receive services funded by the Title I money, such as remedial instruction or intervention programs.
The poverty threshold is 40 percent for school-wide Title I funding, meaning all students at that school may receive services funded by Title I.
Four elementary schools -- Allen, Gentian, Reese Road and River Road -- as well as Arnold, Double Churches and Richards middle schools received Title I targeted assistance money last year before being added to the school-wide Title I program this year.
For this school year in Georgia, the annual household income limit for a family of four is $31,525 for free lunch and $44,863 for reduced-price lunch to qualify for the program. Title I combines those two categories to define the poverty rate at each school.
The poverty rate for students attending MCSD schools is currently at 71 percent, and in the past five years has declined at only three MCSD schools: Blackmon Road Middle School (from 33 percent to 32 percent), Columbus High School (from 26 percent to 19 percent) and Northside High School (from 37 percent to 31 percent).
The trend is clear: Educators and parents who thought their north Columbus schools were mostly immune from problems linked to teaching disadvantaged children are now dealing with more of them.
Impact on academics
When it comes to academic performance, Title I designation is a clear indicator in Muscogee County. On the 2015 Georgia Milestones tests, Midland Academy is the only MCSD elementary school out of the 24 below the state average in the overall results that isn't a Title I school, and none of the eight MCSD elementary schools above the state average is a Title I school.
The Title I designation is reviewed each year, so schools can move on or off the list. The allocation of federal money for Title I schools also varies each year.
Funding is divided into district set-asides and school allocations.
District set-asides provide money for state-mandated programs, such as parental involvement, alternative school, neglected and delinquent children, homeless children, professional development, highly qualified teachers, flexible learning and district support to schools.
School allocations typically use 50-60 percent of the district's Title I money, said Smith, the federal programs executive director for MCSD.
Schools are ranked in order of their poverty rate and receive a per pupil allocation for each qualifying child. This year, the per pupil allocation for Muscogee County schools ranges from $200 to $325.
Among MCSD schools in the program this year, Carver High School is receiving the most Title I money ($295,880). Wynnton Arts Academy, an elementary school, is receiving the least Title I money ($93,080).
Eligible but not receiving
Eleven more MCSD schools also qualify for Title I funding this year based on their poverty rate.
They include:
Six elementary schools: Blanchard (49 percent), Midland (46 percent), North Columbus (45 percent), Double Churches (40 percent), Eagle Ridge (38 percent) and Clubview (37 percent).
Three middle schools: Midland (59 percent), Veterans (42 percent) and Aaron Cohn (40 percent).
Two high schools: Hardaway (66 percent) and Shaw (51 percent).
The school system's administration chose not to include the above schools because it considers their academic performance not showing as much of a need for extra money compared to the urgent situation at lower-performing schools, Smith said.
School districts receive a lump sum of Title I funds based on their overall poverty rate and are allowed to decide how to divide and allocate among their qualified schools after required set-asides, he said.
"The Title I schools that were receiving funds, if we added more schools, they would lose some funding to make that happen," he said. " The flip side of this is that a lot of times the government's response to fix something is to throw money at it. But there's example after example that money doesn't necessarily fix it."
Stigma
Another factor in not accepting Title I funding, Smith said, is avoiding the stigma attached to being in the program and having such a label put on your school.
"I've heard of schools, not necessarily here but around the country, that have turned down Title I services because of the perception," he said.
If the Title I funding were offered to him while he was principal at Blanchard, he said, "I would have spun it PR-wise with the parents: 'How is receiving additional resources for your kids' learning negative?' But apparently not everyone looks at it like that."
So how do you combat the stigma?
"That's something that we've started talking about a little bit," Smith said. "But I think it probably will have to be more than a school trying to convince a population. It will have to be more of a district approach of 'This is how we're getting additional resources to you.'"
Smith, in his first year as the district's federal programs executive director, saw Blanchard Elementary School's poverty rate increase 17 percentage points -- from 32 percent to 49 percent -- during his seven-year stint there as principal.
"That neighborhood shifted," he said. "Years back, looking at Windsor Park, Spring Lake, they were two-parent homes, and a lot of them had one parent work and the mom stayed home and was very involved in the school. That shifted to more (single parents) or both parents working."
The biggest difference, he noticed, was fewer parent volunteers.
"Even something like the fall festival," he said. "That used to be a huge moneymaker for the PTA, but it's not as big a deal now. It just got to where, for some families, it just wasn't feasible for them."
Though some parents and educators remain concerned about the stigma associated with Title I schools, others are concerned only about the quality of education their children receive.
After the closing of Edgewood Elementary School two years ago, Travis Jackson, 38, needed to find another school for his daughter, now in third grade. They chose Reese Road over Brewer and Gentian, and he gladly drives her 1.2 miles each school day from their Agnes Drive home.
"You know your kid is going to get taught the right things," he said. "The teachers are pretty hands-on with the kids."
Epilogue
A filing mistake cost Early College Academy its Title I funding in 2011.
Before moving to its own building, Early College was housed in Kendrick High School from 2006-10. The Early College students ate in the Kendrick cafeteria, where their free and reduced-price lunch data accidentally was mixed with the Kendrick students for the FY2011 report, said Early College dean Susan Willard.
That's why Early College was listed that year as having none of its 176 students living in poverty -- and that's why it didn't receive any Title I funding then.
All of which cost Early College dearly. Its poverty rate around that time was about what it is now, 75 percent, Willard said. Dimon Elementary's poverty rate was almost identical at 76 percent that year, when it received $444 per student in its Title I allocation. So the error amounted to Early College missing out on approximately $78,000.
MCSD's high-poverty schools, 26 of them, are allowed to provide free breakfast and lunch to all of their students without their families applying for the assistance, based on the Community Eligibility Provision in the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
These high-poverty schools include:
18 elementary schools: Brewer, Davis, Dawson, Dimon, Dorothy Height, Downtown, Forrest Road, Fox, Georgetown, Hannan, Johnson, Key, Lonnie Jackson, MLK Jr., Rigdon Road, South Columbus, St. Marys Road and Wesley Heights.
Four middle schools: Baker, East Columbus, Eddy and Rothschild.
Four high schools: Carver, Jordan, Kendrick and Spencer.
Eligible parents and guardians at these schools still should submit the free or reduced-price lunch form so they don't detract from their school's Title I funding, Smith emphasized.
At Early College, Willard now ensures that each student application packet includes the form for free or reduced-price lunch.
"That's the lifeblood of Title I," she said. "If you don't fill out that form, you don't know how many kids qualify."
This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 10:31 PM with the headline "The changing face of Title I: Federal program for impoverished schools moves into middle class neighborhoods ."