By state law, the improvement plan must include the comprehensive needs assessment, measurable performance objectives, identified strategies for student improvement, identified resources and staff, specified timelines for monitoring each strategy and formative evaluation criteria. Each district is responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of the locally designed program. Funding allocated under state compensatory education is based on the number of economically disadvantaged students in the district. That number is determined by averaging the best six months' enrollment in the national school lunch program of free or reduced price lunches for the preceding school year. The percent of students classified either as economically disadvantaged or eligible for receiving free or reduced meals in SISD is about 47 percent districtwide.
Districts use compensatory funds to supplement other funding based upon the needs of the school.
The highest per student allocation was at Smithville High School where 131 of the 468 students, or 28 percent, were eligible for free and reduced-price meals. I application requires districts to rank their schools based on the percentage of students in the free and reduced-price lunch program. This same process is used to monitor districts' use of state compensatory funds. TEA and the federal government provide specific guidelines for using schedule 5B in determining which services will be provided and the amount of funds to be used at each school. TEA conducts a comprehensive audit of each district receiving compensatory funding every three years.