The Echo

Published Online: March 14, 2011

Key Parts of Title I Broken, Researchers Say

By Michele McNeil
Washington

Several pieces of the Title I program are broken and doing little for the disadvantaged students the law is intended to help, according to seven researchers offering new analyses of the multi-billion-dollar cornerstone of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

That message, delivered March 11 as part of a conference sponsored by the Center for American Progress and the American Enterprise Institute, comes as the Obama administration is ratcheting up efforts to redo the ESEA, the current version of which is the No Child Left Behind Act. Title I, which currently carries $14.5 billion in federal aid, is intended to provide additional money for educating disadvantaged students that is distributed to schools based on the number of students in poverty they enroll.

Chief among the problems with Title I, researchers say, is the “supplement, not supplant” requirement, designed to ensure that federal dollars are truly extra dollars and not just used to replace state or local funding. Also problematic is a loophole in the law’s comparability requirement, which seeks to ensure districts are offering similar services in Title I and non-Title I schools. Researchers also found problems with the law’s “supplemental educational services,” or tutoring, provision.
MORE HERE:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/14/26titlei.h30.html?tkn=UUOFQz1ReOSp8b1KVd6Zqcn5%2FBfLoGOmEDhk&cmp=clp-edweek