Title I schools in Fairfax County Public School system are ones where 40% or more of the students receive free or reduced lunch. Students that sign up and qualify for free and reduced lunches are supposed to be from low income families. This means that only a significant proportion of the students in a Title I public school come from low income families. It does not even mean that a majority of the students at these schools necessarily are low income.
Some Title I schools may have a majority of poor students. But there are instances, especially in Northern Virginia, where you have middle and upper middle class neighborhoods of single-family homes surrounding several high-density apartment complexes where low income families reside. The public school in such an area may have half or slightly more than half of its students who are not poor. So we need to be careful when indicating what Title I means in a particular schools that we cite what percentage of students are from low income families in that school.
In thinking about my children's school which are designated as Title I, I do not think of them as low income schools. I think of them as schools that have many low income children, but I also know that the schools' overall economic diversity is greater than the single blanket statement of "a low income school." Part of recognizing diversity is being sensitive to when generalizations do not cover the range of what exists. It is moving beyond "majority rules" in defining communities and working to hear the range of voices in that community. In my community schools, I hear the voices of low, middle and upper middle class families in discussions of the economic environment in which my children are educated.
Stepping down from my soapbox for now ...
I think it's so interesting the kind of stigma that "title one" schools are often stuck with; interesting in the sense that, from my experiences, they don't make sense to me. I was once in line at a store and I heard 2 women behind me talking- they happened to be teachers. I admit I was totally eavesdropping, but they really peaked my interest when I heard them talking about teaching! Apparently, one of them had just recently moved to Fairfax from somewhere and was looking for a teaching position. However, my excitement soon turned to disappointment when I heard the one teacher tell the other that she should stay away from any of the title I schools in the area, exclaiming that they were just not worth the time and effort. I was incredibly disheartened to hear her say such a thing, and I still hope to this day that I just misheard her, though I'm not so sure... But I have worked at a few different title I schools, as a substitute and through my field observations, and I have never once consciously or subconsciously judged the school, or the children at the schools, based on the fact that they are labeled "title I". Honestly, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell you that they were title I schools, if I hadn't been told so. I mean, really, like you said Ellen- what does that mean anyway?? In any event, I feel like, as teachers, we can all agree that no one student is any more or less deserving than the next. I guess what I just don't understand is how some people can blatantly discriminate against the establishments that are striving to develop and support our future generations, and consequently, the future generations themselves...
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