Advantages of Tier I vs. Tier II vs. Tier III for high ability students?

In our district, schools are categorized as Tier I or Tier II or Tier III, which in turn determines the priority of certain resources as well as intensity of oversight, etc. Our elementary school is categorized as Tier I. I don't know the minimum requirements to qualify, but the Tier I category in our district includes many national blue ribbon schools as well as more than a dozen high schools that appear on mulitple "best U.S. high school" list. At the other end of the spectrum, Tier III schools are considered problematic (many categories of low scorers, high free/reduced lunch population, high ESL, etc.)

On its face, I would imagine that most parents would choose a Tier I school for obvious reasons such as higher population of GT students and better demographics. However, the resources thrown at Tier III schools are tremendous, including extra staff, first choice of teachers, constant oversight from assistant superintendent, special programs, etc. So as parents of high ability children, might it be advantageous to be at a Tier IIII school where there are potential more resources?

By the way, sorry for the confusion as I was reading several different sources at once and got my terminology tangled. I think that Tier III schools are or were designated Title I schools - one of the nearby Tier III schools was designated "Distinguished Title I" school by the DOE.

I think you have this backwards. At least where I live, Title I schools are the poor schools.

My kids attend a Title I school (many schools in my city are Title I). DD10 is in a magnet program there (so her classroom population is not really Title 1) and DS6 is in K in the gen ed portion of thre school. I'm not sure what they get from it being Title I, because they don't need the most obvious resource, which is extra tutors and reading resource specialists.

What I can say about this school is that they have been very open to working with us regarding DS6. I think because they rarely see kids like him in the gen education program and encounter few, if any, privileged "tiger" parents there, there is no baggage around that in the early grades. There has been less...how shall I say?...BS, and more willingness to see DS for who he is. Also, I think the school is very used to working with special needs kids and is flexible as a result. They sort of just see DS as another kid who needs something different.

Be aware that Title I can refer to a US gov't grant program for schools/districts with large low income populations:

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html

Yea, when I use Title I, I'm referring to a school that has a population of > 40% with free or reduced lunch.

Yeah, I inadvertently used the wrong word, probably from reading it in another article almost simultaneously.

In our district, more money/resources are thrown at Tier III/Title I schools and they are the first in line as the priority has been "No Child Left Behind".

I can see how the relative rarity could be a plus as far as securing accomodations. Also if they are more used to dealing with the other end of the spectrum, it makes sense for them to treat it in a way with which they are familiar.

Thanks. Sorry for the mental typo - that's what happens when I am reading multiple articles almost simultaneously and thinking about them at the same time.

Thanks for catching my error - I meant Tier rather than Title although I believe that is one of the criteria used by my district to categorized schools.

Semantics done, it is an interesting (and sometimes tough question in the details.) We started at DS's school when the year before teacher/student ratios were 13:1 or so. Partially from extra funding and partially from people on one side of the zone pulling out of the school over a number of years. With some good rebounds across the board (in and out of the magnet program) class size has bounced back over 20.

We definitely see the direct support and good communication that ultramarina experiences. I used to wonder if it was fair that we are benefiting from monies earmarked for a specific purpose, and if 95% eog passing in the magnet is falsely buffering underlying issues. But with the amount of volunteering and community involvement with a school "on a comeback" it seems to be a win-win across the board.

DD is at a Title 1 school. I think it is good for kids who need academic interventions, but don't qualify for IEPs. So kids who are scoring the 10th or 20th percentile for math or reading have pull-outs with a specialist. The non-title schools do not necessarily have this and teachers are expected to work with low-performing kids in the classroom. But there are fewer of these kids because they come from more affluent families who can provide tutoring, help or resources at home.
I'm not sure what the advantage would be for most gifted kids being at a Title 1 school. DD is in a class where probably half the kids are receiving interventions and those kids are genernally low performing. Even though they are pulled out for services, it still lowers the level of instruction in the classroom and the pace is slower with less depth. Strangely, the principal puts the 4 kids in the "gifted cluster" in the classroom with the lowest level Title-1 service kids. Guess who gets the attention? Not the gifted cluster.

Sometimes you'll find that a highly gifted kid at a Tier III school is very much a treasured commodity.

When my DD was transitioning out of a private K-5 school and open enrolling to a district next door to her home district, one of our only options was a middle school on the "wrong" side of town. The administration went out of its way to make sure my daughter was placed in appropriately challenging classrooms and many of her teachers seemed to be delighted to have her in their classes. My wife and I felt the school was happy to have a student of our daughter's caliber choose to go there (rather than join in with those running away to the other side of town).

--S.F.

I think it all depends on the circumstances of your specific school district, and perhaps even the individual school, as well as what "Tier III" really means. In our district we don't have "Tiers" (as far as I know), but we do have large divisions between Title I (as defined by the US Govt) and other schools. The Title I schools do get services and $ targeted specifically to them that our other schools don't get, but the $ and services are going there for a reason - the Title I schools face huge challenges. Large percentages of families who are poor is just one challenge (kids coming to school needing clothes, food etc), attendance, crime, as well as in some cases unmotivated school staff who would rather be teaching in other schools where the kids are there every day and in a better overall mindset for learning. My friends who teach in the Title I schools say that in their opinion the biggest challenge (and brick wall preventing student success) is lack of family (parent) support - the percentage of kids with parents who have time (or motivation in some cases) to be sure there kids are staying on track, keeping up with school, reading outside of school, staying out of trouble etc is just really really low compared to what the reality of students' lives outside of school is in our non-Title I schools. And many of the students who's parents *do* care still don't have parents home after school etc because they are from single-family homes or parents are working 2 jobs etc just to stay afloat. I suspect my friends would think you were crazy if you asked for a zone exemption where we live specifically to go *to* a Title I school because you were thinking your child would have better resources or be some kind of "treasured commodity".

polarbear

I know what you mean regarding fairness. There are times when I feel a bit bad about the money spent over the last two years to allow DS to accelerate in math.

There is also a big difference betweeen a school that is on the rise and one that is on the decline even if they both have the same "score" technically.

I suppose the devil is in the implementation. Typically, there are more aides in classes with special needs kids, who are theoretically available to help with all the kids. If nothing else, the ratio of kids to adults tend to be lower, which may also help with maintaining control in the classroom if that were an issue.

I am glad to hear that your DD got what she needed, particularly at a public school on the "wrong" side of town. It just goes to show that sometimes people and attitude can make a huge difference.

I can see your point that in most cases, it wouldn't make sense to seek out a Title I school. Interestingly, we had the option of three magnet schools, all with excellent magnet programs, but each designated a different tier. We turned down seats in the Tier I and Tier III Magnets and accepted the seats at the Tier II Magnet. Interestingly, I concluded that the Tier II school not only had the best Magnet Program (particularly for my children) but was actually a better school overall. In our case, it is likely that our Magnet is at the high end of Tier II and the scores are on the rise as well. The Tier I Magnet appears to be a bit on the decline (so perhaps the low end of Tier I) and also had the advantage of being all Magnet students (rather than Magnet within a neighborhood school) so essentially excludes almost all problem students. To me, this suggest their "scores" should be higher than the other schools instead of about the same as the Tier II Magnet. For what it is worth, my DS was very tempted by the Tier III Magnet (also Magnet within a neighborhood school) due to its unusual program (including integration of technology) and originally had that Magnet as his first choice.

Maybe this happens in other districts, but in ours the ratio is the same in all the schools whether they are title 1 or not. Or at least they say they are trying to keep it the same. The only difference that I really see is the intervention programs for reading/math. DD has 26 kids in her third grade class and no aide. Last year in second it was the same number. Some of the best performing schools actually have a lower ratio just because they are small schools and some grades hardly have any kids. So there might be one third grade class in the school with only 16 kids in the class. DS started the year at DD's school and had 23 kids in his first grade class (no aide). He switched to a non-title school and has 22. And for whatever reason the new teacher seems to have a lot more time to spend with him, so he's doing better in the non-title school.

I don't think that I would request an exemption just to go to a school because it was Title I, no. However, I would not rule a school out for being Title I, which many people do. My son is being better served at his very poor, Title I school than my daughter was at her "high performing," in-demand charter.

The other positive, we've found, is the parents who also have chosen this school are more like us than the tiger parents queued up for the "traditional" school with "good numbers" in a "nice" neighborhood.