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. The largest part of the Title I program, Part A 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
Source: Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, 20 U.S.C. § 6301
Practice-to-Policy Feedback: The Title I Committee of Practitioners
The Title I Committee of Practitioners is an advisory group composed of individuals working in Title I programs throughout Wisconsin. The group typically meets twice each school year to get the latest updates, discuss issues, and provide input on Title I-related matters, such as services/supports, statewide projects, plans, and proposed policies. Members include school administrators, teachers, parents, local school board members, private school representatives, and pupil service personnel.
For more information about COP, contact Jonas Zuckerman, Director, at (608) 267-9136.
Organizations and Resources
- Wisconsin Response to Intervention (RtI) Center offers supports and resources for planning, implementing, or sustaining an RtI system of support including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
- 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