
What is Title I, Part A?
Title I, Part A
(termed Chapter I between 1981 and 1994) of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) is the largest federal
education program for elementary and secondary schools.
Funds are targeted to high-poverty school districts and used to
provide supplementary educational services—usually in reading
and mathematics—to students who are educationally disadvantaged
or at risk of failing to meet the state standards. Although the
program is designed mainly to benefit impoverished areas, over
90 percent of United States school districts and roughly half of
all public schools receive at last some part A funding.
Title I focuses on disadvantaged children in high-poverty
schools as is consistent with the federal government's
historical role in education. That role involves targeting funds
and services at special populations of children who need
additional assistance above and beyond that provided through
regular state and local resources.
Be informed
about your child's education!
West
Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives
Types of Programs
There are two main models for serving students in a Title
I school:
-
Targeted Assistance (TA):
This model provides supplemental services to
identified children who are low-achieving or at risk of
low-achievement. The school selects "eligible children"
from the larger pool of students by identifying those
who are "failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet
the state's challenging student academic achievement
standards." The school makes this determination based on
multiple, educationally related, objective criteria
established by the LEA and supplemented by the school.
-
Schoolwide
(SW): This model funds a comprehensive school plan to
upgrade all instruction in a very high-poverty school,
without distinguishing between "eligible" and
"ineligible" children. Schoolwide programs are justified
on the grounds that once poverty reaches a certain
threshold in a school, it makes more sense to try to
improve the whole instructional program than to provide
services separately to some of the students. A school
must first be selected by the LEA as a participating
school. In addition, the school must meet the required
poverty threshold of 40 percent (at least 40 percent of
the children are from low-income families). Any eligible
school that desires to operate a schoolwide program must
first develop a comprehensive plan for reforming the
total instructional program in the school.
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