Overview
Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA/ESEA) is a federal funding program designed to close achievement gaps and ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education. Part A, the largest part of the program, allocates funding to districts and other local educational agencies (LEAs) according to a formula based on numbers/percentages of children from low-income families. LEAs distribute much of the funding directly to individual public schools and use the rest to support other efforts within the LEA that benefit students needing additional academic support.
Many schools receiving Part A funding operate Schoolwide Programs, implementing overall school improvements to ensure that systems, practices, and programs are effectively aligned to reduce gaps and support every student’s achievement. Other schools use their Part A funds to operate Targeted Assistance Programs, which provide services to a subgroup of identified students.
Program elements include:
- Needs assessment and program plan design, to ensure services are designed to meet identified needs and help ensure that resource allocation is aligned with equity goals
- Family engagement, to allow family perspectives to inform programming efforts and to promote coordination of school and family efforts to support students
- Appropriately licensed teachers, to help ensure children from low-income families have equitable access to high-quality instruction
- Equitable participation by private school students, to ensure that eligible students in private schools benefit from Title I services, even though private schools cannot receive Title I funds directly
- Coordination with early childhood care providers, to support transitions to Kindergarten
Source: Every Student Succeeds Act, Title I. 20 U.S.C. § 6301-6578.
Resource: New to Title I?
Organizations and Resources
- Wisconsin Title I Association
- National Association of Federal Education Program Administrators
- National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
- National Center for Homeless Education at SERVE
- National Law Center on Homeless and Poverty
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
- Wisconsin Mathematics Council
- Wisconsin State Reading Association
- Read Wisconsin offers a reading resource portal for use by parents, families, educators, and early childhood professionals