Title 1

• Ensuring high standards for all students and aligning the efforts of states, local educational agencies, and schools to help students served with Title I funds to reach such standards; • providing students an enriched and accelerated educational program, including, when appropriate, the use of the arts, schoolwide programs, or the increase of the amount and quality3 of Instructional time so-that students served with Title I funds receive-at least the classroom instruction that other students receive;
• Promoting school-wide reform and ensuring- access of- children (from the earliest grades) to effective instructional strategies and challenging academic content that includes complex thinking and problem-solving experiences; • providing substantial staff development opportunities to significantly upgrade the quality of instruction;
• Coordinating all Title I services with each other, with other educational services, and to the extent possible, with health and social service programs funded from other sources; • affording parents meaningful opportunities to participate- in the education of their children at home and at school;
• Distributing resources, in amounts sufficient to make a difference, to areas and campuses where needs are the greatest;
• Improving accountability by using the State assessment system to measure how well Title I students are achieving the challenging State student performance standards expected of all students; and
• Providing greater decision making authority and flexibility to schools and teachers in exchange for greater responsibility for student performance. History The Title One program was enacted in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty to improve educational opportunities for low-achieving children living in low-income school attendance areas. Its purpose was intended to provide additional services in the areas of reading and mathematics. Local school districts were provided supplements to improve the skills of students considered at risk of failure. Controversy soon arose concerning states' use of funds. Schools were found to be using money to supplant rather than supplement federal funds. Revision of the original legislation occurred in 1978. Further changes took place in 1988 with the Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvements Act and the program was renamed Chapter 1. Title I programs helped improve achievement of at risk students by increasing test scores, graduation rates, and college-going rates. Basic skills of disadvantaged students increased, the learning gap between whites and minorities was lessened, and the number of minorities and disadvantaged students graduating from high school grew. However, eventually the gains began to decrease. Congress felt changes were due in the program. In 1994, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was rewritten and titled: Improving America's Schools Act of 1994: Reauthorizing the Elementary Education Act of 1965 PL. 103-382]. This act extended funding from July 1, 1995 through June 20, 2000. The section of the act dealing with programs for economically disadvantaged children was renamed--Title 1-Helping Disadvantaged Children Meet High Standards, or Title 1 for short. The most recent version of Title 1 contains four parts:
  

• Part A--improving basic programs operated by local education agencies (LEAs)
  
• Part B--even start family literacy programs
• Part C--education of migratory children

• Part D--prevention and intervention programs for children and youth who are neglected, delinquent, or at-risk of dropping out Four sections under Part A are especially important. They deal with the obligations of state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs). Known as sections 1111 through 1114, they mandate changes to past Title 1 programs and establish improvements. Changes include:

• Integrating Title 1 into Goals 2000: Educate America Act, originally developed under President Bush and expanded by President Clinton;
• Establishing that Title 1 students will be have the same high standards as other students according to states' assessments;
• Expanding schoolwide programs to more high-poverty schools, which allow flexibility in use of Title 1 funds to address the needs of all students;
• Supporting training for teachers to aid them in providing new educational techniques for students;
• Addressing children's needs by developing partnerships between parents and schools as well as providing parent training;
• Demanding schools show progress in performance of Title 1 students;
• Focusing funding on the lowest socio-economic schools, including middle-and high schools. Statement of Policy: (Public Law 103-382, Section 1001) The Congress declares it to be the policy of the United States that a high-quality education for all individuals and a fair and equal opportunity to obtain that education:
  • Is a societal good,
  • Are a moral imperative
  • Improve the life of every individual because the quality of our individual lives ultimately depends on the quality of the lives of others. What is Title 1? Title 1 is the largest federal aid program for our nation's schools. Enacted in 1965 to improve educational opportunities for low-income children, the program provides supplemental funds to local schools to improve skills of at risk students. Focusing mainly on reading and math, the program reaches over 6 million children annually, mainly in the early elementary grades. One in every five 1st graders in the nation participates in the program. Every year, each state receives a "basic grant" for the program. The state then sends the money to school districts based on the numbers of low-income families. What is its purpose? The purpose of Title I is to enable schools to provide opportunities for children served to acquire the knowledge and skills contained in the challenging State content standard and to meet the challenging State performance standards developed for all children.