Title I Overview
At-A-Glance Title I Overview (Word)
Overview of Title I, Part A (PPT)
Title I–Improving the Academic Achievement
of the Disadvantaged
The purpose of this title is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal,
and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a
minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and
state academic assessments. This purpose can be accomplished by–
- ensuring that high-quality academic assessments, accountability
systems, teacher preparation and training, curriculum, and instructional
materials are aligned with challenging state academic standards so that
students, teachers, parents, and administrators can measure progress
against common expectations for student academic achievement;
- meeting the educational needs of low-achieving children in our
nation’s highest poverty schools, limited English proficient children,
migratory children, children with disabilities, Indian children,
neglected or delinquent children, and young children in need of reading
assistance
- closing the achievement gap between high- and low-performing
children, especially the achievement gaps between minority and
non-minority students, and between disadvantaged children and their more
advantaged peers;
- holding schools, districts and states accountable for improving the
academic achievement of all students, and identifying and turning around
low-performing schools that have failed to provide a high-quality
education to their students, while providing alternatives to students in
such schools to enable the students to receive a high-quality education;
- distributing and targeting resources sufficiently to make a
difference to districts and schools where needs are greatest;
- improving and strengthening accountability, teaching, and learning
by using state assessment systems designed to ensure that students are
meeting challenging state academic achievement and content standards and
increasing achievement overall, but especially for the disadvantaged;
- providing greater decision-making authority and flexibility to
schools and teachers in exchange for greater responsibility for student
performance;
- providing children an enriched and accelerated educational program,
including the use of schoolwide programs for additional services that
increase the amount and quality of instructional time;
- promoting schoolwide reform and ensuring the access of children to
effective, scientifically-based instructional strategies and challenging
academic content;
- significantly elevating the quality of instruction by providing
staff in participating schools with substantial opportunities for
professional development
- coordinating services under all parts of this title with each other,
with other educational services and, to the extent feasible, with other
agencies providing services to youth, children, and families; and
- affording parents substantial and meaningful opportunities to
participate in the education of their children.
Title I supports roles for schools, districts, and states. Schools are
provided much more flexibility and responsibility for determining how to
spend their Title I resources, and many more schools are now able to combine
more of their resources to support comprehensive reform through schoolwide
programs.
Districts play a critical role through providing technical assistance,
coordination of services, and high-quality professional development. States
anchor the program by developing challenging academic standards and aligned
assessments, linking Title I, with their overall education reform efforts,
and still ensuring proper and efficient administration and use of Title I
funds.
In 2006-07, Washington State received $176 million dollars to be used to
provide services to 286 local school districts through locally designed
intervention programs. These programs provide additional educational support
and instruction for struggling students in reading, math and language arts.
Schools, which have 40% or more of their students who qualify for free and
reduced lunches, may become "schoolwide" programs. After a year of rigorous
planning and research on best practices to promote learning, a school may
combine state and federal dollars to design a comprehensive plan to raise
the achievement of all students.
The Department of Education also allocates additional Title I funds to
assist schools which were not meeting their state’s standards. This "School
Improvement" grant was issued to 30 Title I districts.
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