region at a glance

Spotlight on Online Supplementary Services by Richard Greenough

If a school fails to make adequate yearly progress for a third year, students from low-income families in the school must be given the option to use Title I funds to obtain supplemental educational services from a public- or private-sector provider, including faith-based organizations, selected from a list of providers approved by the state.

—U.S. Department of Education, No Child Left Behind: A Desktop Reference 2002

Chart 1: Percent of Northwest Students in Title I Schools

	Students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and attending Title I-funded schools
	Students NOT eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and attending Title I-funded schools

The No Child Left Behind Act has created a substantial opportunity for e-learning providers to increase their role in public schools across the country. NCLB provides that schools must allow parents to select "supplemental educational services" (SES) for their children from a list of state-approved providers if their school does not meet performance goals for three years in a row. The amount of federal funds provided per student to pay for these services varies from less than $500 to more than $2,000 but is generally close to $1,000. Many of the state-approved providers in the Northwest and nationally are e-learning organizations.

This year, less than 1 percent of Northwest public school students are eligible for supplemental educational services under No Child Left Behind. They are low-income students attending schools that are funded under the federal government's Title I program and have not met goals for "adequate yearly progress" for three years. The proportion of students who are eligible for SES is likely to expand over the next few years, though. Almost one in four Northwest public school students are low-income students in Title I schools (see Chart 1).

Chart 2: Number of Washington Title I Schools by School Improvement Status (2004-2005 School Year)

17 in 3rd year of improvement 18 in 2nd year of improvement 45 in 1st year of improvement 89 schools not in "school improvement" but NOT meeting AYP this year

In Washington state, for example, only 17 schools are required to provide SES to low-income students this year, but another 18 schools could be added to this list if they do not meet AYP goals next spring. Forty-five more schools are two years away from SES sanctions and 89 are three years away if they continue to miss AYP targets (see Chart 2).

States are required to identify and maintain a list of approved supplemental educational service providers. Many of the approved providers are commercial e-learning companies and nonprofit organizations using e-learning packages. This table shows e-learning providers on the Northwest states' SES lists:

Sources: Chart 1—Based on data from National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data; Chart 2—Based on data from the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction; Table—State education agencies

Northwest Education is available online in both PDF and HTML versions. Look for Web exclusives, marked with .