Title I Schoolwide Programs: Improving Schools for All Children

Three decades have passed since the historic enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The most recent reauthorization of the ESEA, the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (IASA), reaffirms the federal commitment to focusing on equity of and access to quality education for disadvantaged students. As in 1965, Title I remains the cornerstone of the reauthorized ESEA, providing assistance to those children who need it the most. However, it adopts different strategies for meeting those needs. The new Title I signals a fundamental change in the direction of the program. The focus has shifted from an emphasis on isolated remedial add-on services to a concentration on leveraging overall improvement in the highest-poverty schools through comprehensive schoolwide improvement in teaching and learning. The goal of this improvement is to enable educationally disadvantaged children to meet the same high academic standards expected of all children. For this reason, the new Title I is designed to work with other IASA programs and reinforce overall reform efforts in schools, districts, and states.