Title I, Part A

Improving Basic Programs Operated by Local Educational Agencies

Title I, Part A, is intended to help ensure that all children have the
opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on
challenging state academic standards and assessments.
As the largest federal program supporting elementary and secondary
education (funded at $10.4 billion in 2002), Title I targets these resources to
the districts and schools where the needs are greatest. Schools with poverty
rates of 50 percent or higher received 73 percent of Title I funds in the 1997-
98 school year, and nearly all (96 percent) of the highest-poverty schools
(those with 75 percent or more low-income students) received Title I funds.
Title I provides flexible funding that may be used to provide
additional instructional staff, professional development, extended-time
programs, and other strategies for raising student achievement in highpoverty
schools and ensuring students’ access to scientifically-based
instructional strategies and challenging academic content.