Title I Purpose and Overview

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has 10 parts, or Titles. The first part is “Title I.” Title I is important because Title I money is the largest source of federal funding for K-12 schools. More than half of all public schools (55%) are Title I schools.

Title I targets resources to the districts and schools where many of the students are from low-income families. Title I provides funding that may be used to provide additional instructional staff, professional development, extended-time programs, and other approaches aimed at raising student achievement.

The purpose of Title I is to help ensure that all students have the opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state academic standards and assessments.

Help for Children at Underperforming Title I Schools

No Child Left Behind offers options to students in Title I schools that are “in need of improvement.” A school is identified as “in need of improvement” when it has not made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals for two years in a row or longer. These are goals set by the state to make sure that each school is making enough progress for all students to be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. “Proficient” means that the student is working at grade level.

The options for students depend on how long a school has not made AYP. They include public school choice and extra help with learning.

• Public School Choice may let you transfer your child to another public school, which could be a public charter school, if your child attends a Title I school that has not made AYOP for two years or longer. You school district must pay for the transportation for your child to attend the new school. Contact your child’s school district or Massachusetts PIRC to find out if your child is eligible or this opportunity.

• Extra Help with Learning — or Supplemental Educational Services — means free tutoring, homework help, or other extra help given to a student outside the regular school day. The help could be given before or after school, on weekends or in the summer. Your child may qualify if he or she is:
  • eligible for free or reduced-price lunch,
  • enrolled in a Title I school, and
  • the school has not made AYP for three years or longer.

To find out if your child qualifies, contact your child’s principal or Massachusetts PIRC.

Title I provisions provide a mechanism for holding states, school districts, and schools accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students and turning around low-performing schools, while providing alternatives to students in such schools to enable those students to receive a high-quality education.