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Understanding and Improving Title I of ESEA

Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the largest source of federal funding for K–12 schools, receiving $18.4 billion in the fiscal year 2023 federal budget. It aims to supplement state and local education funding in school districts with high concentrations of children from low-income families—recognizing that children living in poverty have greater educational needs, but that the districts serving them often lack the resources to fully meet those needs. However, while Title I is intended to support schools and districts with concentrations of poverty, Congress has struggled since its enactment in 1965 to balance this intention with the political need to spread funding more broadly and, thereby, maximize public support.

Evidence shows that school funding matters for student outcomes, yet there is also evidence of significant disparities in the distribution of funding and other resources across school districts. High-poverty schools often receive less total funding (combined from federal, state, and local sources) than more affluent schools. Without more equitable distribution of resources, including Title I dollars, students from low-income families will continue to face the same systemic disadvantages they did nearly 60 years ago when Title I was enacted.

What is Title I?

Need a refresher on all things Title I? Check out All4Ed’s explainer on the Title I program and why it matters for students and families.

¿Qué es el Título I?

¿Necesita un repaso de todo relacionado con el Título I? Consulte el explicador de All4Ed sobre el programa de Título I y por qué es importante para los estudiantes y las familias.

Given the importance of resources toward achieving better outcomes for historically underserved students, this series of reports explores how well Title I targets funds to school districts and schools with the highest concentrations of poverty.

Find out more by exploring each of the publications below.

Reports In This Series

January 24, 2023

Publication | Every Student Succeeds Act, Federal Education Budget, Funding Equity

Title I of ESEA: How the Formulas Work

This report describes how Title I funding is distributed to school districts, provides an overview of each of the four Title I formulas, and shows how funding per formula child varies across districts with different poverty rates.
Read More

January 24, 2023

Publication | Every Student Succeeds Act, Federal Education Budget, Funding Equity

Title I’s Education Finance Incentive Grant Program Is Unlikely to Increase Effort and Equity in State Policy

Four reasons why EFIG is unlikely to incentivize states to change their school funding levels and finance systems and why it would be difficult to reform EFIG to be more effective
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January 24, 2023

Publication | Every Student Succeeds Act, Federal Education Budget, Funding Equity

Title I of ESEA: Targeting Funds to High-Poverty Schools and Districts

Although several attempts have been made to strengthen the degree to which Title I supports children from low-income families, this report shows that Title I funds remain inadequately targeted to high-poverty districts and schools.
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January 24, 2023

Publication | Every Student Succeeds Act, Federal Education Budget, Funding Equity

Title I of ESEA: How the Formulas Benefit Different Types of School Districts

By simulating how much school districts would receive from $10 billion in new Title I funding, this report shows which of the formulas is most effective at targeting funds to districts that share certain characteristics
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January 24, 2023

Publication | Every Student Succeeds Act, Federal Education Budget, Funding Equity

Title I of ESEA: Considerations and Recommendations

All4Ed offers several measures that, when combined, could further the impact of Title I and help the program better meet its purpose to support children from low-income families.
Read More

Nora Gordon is Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research evaluates how federal and state policies and programs affect K-12 educational opportunities and outcomes. Nora has served on the Institute of Education Sciences Expert Panel on the Study of the Title I Formula and DC’s state Title I Committee of Practitioners. She currently serves on the Professional Advisory Board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, on the FutureEd Advisory Board, and as an academic advisor to the DC Policy Center’s Education Policy Group. Nora and Carrie Conaway are the authors of Common-Sense Evidence: The Education Leader’s Guide to Using Data and Research.

Sarah Reber is the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on college access, elementary and secondary education finance policy, and school desegregation. She is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a California Policy Lab (CPL) affiliated expert. Previously, she was Associate Professor of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at UC Berkeley, and a Research Assistant and Staff Economist on the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). 


Acknowledgments:
This report series would not have been possible without the hard work, collaboration, and important contributions of many on the All4Ed team, especially Anne Hyslop who served as editor to this series. We would like to thank Wayne Riddle, whose data research was integral to Title I of ESEA: Targeting Funds to High-Poverty Schools and Districts. We would also like to recognize and thank the following reviewers: Michael Dannenberg, Michael DiNapoli, Lindsay Fryer, Roxanne Garza, Michael Griffith, Bethany Little, Morgan Polk, and Chris Topoleski. We also thank Keisha Rivera and Chad Spader for their design work and Ziyu Zhou for her data visualizations. In addition, All4Ed thanks the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for its generous support of this work.

Rebeca Shackleford

Director of Federal Government Relations

Meet Rebeca

Anne Hyslop

Director of Policy Development

Meet Anne