Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Encyclopedia
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) , is a United States federal statute enacted April 11, 1965. It was passed as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson
's "War on Poverty" and has been the most far-reaching federal legislation affecting education ever passed by Congress. The act is an extensive statute that funds primary and secondary education, while explicitly forbidding the establishment of a national curriculum. It also emphasizes equal access to education and establishes high standards and accountability. In addition, the bill aims to shorten the achievement gaps between students by providing each child with fair and equal opportunities to achieve an exceptional education. As mandated in the act, the funds are authorized for professional development, instructional materials, for resources to support educational programs, and for parental involvement promotion. The act was originally authorized through 1970; however, the government has reauthorized the act every five years since its enactment. The current reauthorization of ESEA is the No Child Left Behind Act
of 2001, named and proposed by President George W. Bush
. The ESEA also allows military recruiters access to 11th and 12th grade students' names, addresses, and telephone listings when requested.
New Titles Created by Early Amendments to 1965 Law
1966 amendments (Public Law 89-750)
1967 amendments (Public Law 90-247)
Title I ("Title One"), a provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed in 1965, is a program created by the United States Department of Education
to distribute funding to schools and school districts with a high percentage of students from low-income families. Funding is distributed first to state educational agencies
(SEAs) which then allocate funds to local educational agencies
(LEAs) which in turn dispense funds to public schools in need. Title I also helps children from families that have migrated to the United States and youth from intervention programs who are neglected or at risk of abuse. The act appropriates money for educational purposes for the next five fiscal years until it is reauthorized. In addition, Title I appropriates money to the education system for prevention of dropouts and the improvement of schools. These appropriations are carried out for five fiscal years until reauthorization.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics
, to be an eligible Title I school, a school must have a student body compromised of at least 40% or more individuals from low-income families who qualify under the United States Census
's definition of low-income, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Title I mandates services both to eligible public school students and eligible private school students. This is outlined in section 1120 of Title I, Part A of the ESEA as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB). Title I states that it gives priority to schools that are in obvious need of funds, low-achieving schools, and schools that demonstrate a commitment to improving their education standards and test scores.
There are two types of assistance that can be provided by Title I funds. The first is a “schoolwide program” in which schools can dispense resources in a flexible manner. The second is a “targeted assistance program” which allows schools to identify students who are failing or at risk of failing.
Assistance for school improvement includes government grants, allocations, and reallocations based on the school's willingness to commit to improving their standing in the educational system. Each educational institution requesting these grants must submit an application that describes how these funds will be used in restructuring their school for academic improvement.
Schools receiving Title I funding are regulated by federal legislation. Most recently, this legislation includes the No Child Left Behind Act
which was passed in 2001.
In the 2006-2007 school year, Title I provided assistance to over 17 million students who range from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The majority of the funds (60%) were given to students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The next highest group that received funding were students in sixth through eighth grade (21%). Finally, 16% of the funds went to students in high school with 3% provided to students in preschool.
In its original conception, Title I under the ESEA, was designed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to close the skill gap in reading, writing and mathematics between children from low-income households who attend urban or rural school systems and children from the middle-class who attend suburban school systems. This federal law came about during President Johnson’s “War on Poverty
” agenda. Numerous studies have been conducted since the original authorization of the ESEA in 1965 that have shown that there is an inverse relationship between student achievement and school poverty. Specifically, student achievement has been found to decrease as school poverty increases. According to the United States Department of Education
(USDOE), students from low-income households are “three times as likely to be low achievers if they attend high-poverty schools as compared to low-poverty schools.” Within this context, Title I was conceived in order to compensate for the considerable educational deprivations associated with child poverty.
In the past 46 years, Title I has considerably changed. For the first 15 years, the program was reauthorized every three years with additional emphasis placed on how funds were to be allocated. In the course of these reauthorizations, strict federal rules and regulations were created for the guarantee that funds would be allocated to solely students in need – specifically students eligible for services based on socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Regulations also included added attention to uniformity in regards to how resources were distributed to Title I and non-Title I schools and the role of parents in the revisions of the program. In addition to more stringent rules, during these years, policy makers outlined punitive actions that could be taken for those who were out of compliance. Attention was also placed upon the assurance that Title I funds would not serve as replacements for local funds; but rather they would serve as ancillary resources. These federal regulations, which were focused on financial resources, influenced local Title I programs in many ways.
Pull-out programs were adopted by Title I schools in order to comply with the financial stipulations that were made in the initial reauthorizations. These programs separated eligible students from ineligible ones to ensure that those who were in-need would benefit from the program. By 1978, in response to the extensive criticism of pull-outs on the grounds that they were asynchronous with the instruction occurring in classrooms, another option for providing assistance to students was introduced, the school wide approach. Schools with a student body in which the make-up had 75% or more low-income students could use Title I funds for the entire school’s improvement rather than for specific individuals. Despite this amendment, local fund requirements prevented all eligible students from using the school wide approach.
During the Reagan Administration, Congress passed the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) in 1981 to reduce federal regulations of Title I. This reflected the administration’s stance that resource control should be in the hands of states and local jurisdictions rather than at a federal level. Despite the change outlined by the ECIA and the new designation of Title I as Chapter I, little was done to implement it and traditional Title I practices, like the use of pull-outs, continued.
As the financial regulations became incorporated into practice, the conversation shifted around Title I to student achievement. In 1988, the Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Act, re-focused Title I on cultivating school improvement and excellent programs. The additions that were made through this legislation called for synchrony between Chapter I and classroom instruction, it raised the achievement standard for low-income students by emphasizing advanced skills instead of basic ones and increased parental involvement. It also had two new provisions: program improvement and school wide projects. Program improvements were modifications that would occur when students who received funding were not improving. The school wide projects altered the requirement that local funds had to match school wide program funding by Title I, allowing a larger number of high need schools to implement school wide programming.
A 1993 National Assessment noted shortcomings of the 1980s alterations to Title I. These catalyzed the introduction of the 1994 Improving America’s Schools Act (IASA)
, which significantly revised the original ESEA. This was the last major alteration prior to that made by No Child Left Behind. The IASA attempted to coordinate federal resources and policies with the preexisiting efforts at the state and local levels in order to improve instruction for all students. This reform made three major changes to Title I. It added math and reading/language arts standards to be used to assess student progress and provide accountability. It reduced the threshold for schools to implement schoolwide programs from 75% poverty to 50% and gave schools a longer reign to use federal funding from multiple programs to dispense funds at a school wide level. Lastly, the IASA gave more local control overall so that federal officials and states could waive federal requirements that interfered with school improvements.
The most recent and significant alteration to the original Title I was made by its reauthorization under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In this reauthorization, NCLB required increased accountability from its schools both from the teachers and from the students. Yearly standardized tests were mandated in order to measure how schools were performing against the achievement bars set by Title I. Schools were also responsible for publishing annual report cards that detailed their student achievement data and demographics. Schools were now held accountable not only by punitive measures that would be taken if schools fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
, but also corrective actions were taken if states did not have an assessment system approved by Title I. Under NCLB, Schools are also required to plan for “restructuring” if they fail to make AYP for three years after being identified for improvement. More schools took corrective action under NCLB than under IASA. NCLB also required teachers to be highly qualified if hired using Title I funding.
Under NCLB, Title I funding is given to schools where at least 35% of the children in the school attendance area come from low-income families or to schools where 35% of the student population is low-income. To determine the percentage of low-income families, schools use the percent of students eligible to receive free and reduced-price lunch (FARMS) as a marker. The funds are appropriated for the use of improving academic achievement for students in low-income households.
Title I funding is received by more than 50% of all public schools. NCLB also requires that for funding to be received, all districts and schools must meet adequate yearly progress goals for their student populations and specific demographic subgroups. Non-Title I schools are schools that do not receive federal Title I funds. Although school districts have some freedom in how Title I funding is distributed among schools within a district, Title I requires them to prioritize the highest-poverty schools.
There are 4 distribution formulas under NCLB for Title I funding: Basic Grant, Concentration Grant, Targeted Assistance Grant, and the Education Finance Incentive Grant. The Federal Education Budget Project details the requirements for each formula extensively.
The Basic Grant formula provides funding to school districts based on the number of poor children they serve. To receive money through this grant, the school district must meet the requirement of having at least 10 poor children and 2% of its students in poverty.
The Concentration Grant formula is similar to the basic grant formula because it gives funding to schools based on the number of poor children they serve. To receive money though this grant, school districts must meet the requirement of having at least 15% of children in poverty or a total of 6,500 poor children.
The Targeted Assistance Grant formula allocates more money for each child as the poverty rate in a district increases. This means that school districts with more poverty get more money for each poor child than districts with low poverty.
The Education Finance Incentive Grant Formula has a two-pronged approach. It is meant to reward schools that expend more state resources on public education and distribute funding in an equitable manner. It is also meant to concentrate funds in districts with high poverty that inequitably distributes state and local education funding. In states, funding is allocated to school districts in a way similar to the Targeted Assistance Grant formula but the weight of schools in districts with high poverty that inequitably distribute funding is doubled.
Since 2001, Federal Title I funding has increased by 88%. In dollars, this has been a $7.7 billion increase. These funds were distributed through the Targeted Assistance and Education Finance Incentive Grant formulas, which target funds to disadvantaged students most directly.
Title III was the innovations component of ESEA. It was, for its time, the greatest federal investment in education innovation ever.
Its best innovations, after validation, became part of the National Diffusion Network
.
The original Title V was amended to state the purposes of education reform efforts between local and state educational systems. Title V states that the government should endorse and support local education reforms that parallel reforms occurring at the state level. Parts of this section also state that the government should support innovative programs that help to improve an educational system. This includes support programs for libraries, scientific research leading to state and local educational agencies to put promising reforms into place, as well as for programs to improve teacher performance.
Title V also provides government grants given to educational institutions appropriating money to gifted programs for students, foreign language developers, as well as physical education, the arts, and overall mental health care of children and students.
. It was championed by Texas Democrat Ralph Yarborough
(Political Education, Cross 2004). It was originally created to aid Spanish-speaking students. However, in 1968 it transformed to the all-encompassing Bilingual Education Act
(BEA). In its original form, the BEA was not explicit in mandating that all school districts provide bilingual education services—it left much room for interpretation by districts. The ruling in Lau v. Nichols
provided some clarity—specific program goals were established, support centers for bilingual education were created, and what a “bilingual education program” should look like was defined. The courts upheld the language of the BEA as it declared a “bilingual education program” as one providing English instruction in unison with the native language. The idea was to push students to high academic achievement via a program encouraging them to learn English while maintaining the native language. "It proposed to cultivate in this child his ancestral pride, to reinforce (not destroy) the language he natively speaks, to cultivate his inherent strengths, to give him the sense of personal idenfitication so essential to social maturation," summarizes Professor Cordasco of Montclair State College.
In addition to programs for bilingual students, Title VII implemented plans to help Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaskan natives be provided opportunities for achieving academic equality. In late 1967, Congress gave $7.5 million to school districts, scholars, and private research groups who proposed the best programs for improving bilingual education. This section of the ESEA promotes the federal government working closely with local educational institutions to ensure that Indian, Hawaiian, and Alaskan students are being aided in getting the same educational experiences as all other students. This is achieved through programs that keep cultural values intact and push students to strive for academic excellence.
It is worth noting that Title VII was replaced in the most recent reauthorization of the ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act
of 2001, and is now Title III “Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students.”
of 1994. The act dramatically increased funding for bilingual and immigrant education. In 1998, the Linguistic Society of America showed its support for the BEA arguing that bilingual education was a basic human right; it believed that children should be educated in order to maintain their native language and cultural identity while acquiring the English language.
Efforts to improve bilingual education gained momentum in 2001 when both California and Texas embraced bilingual education-friendly policies. California authorized school districts to receive grant funds that offered incentives for teachers interested in attaining bilingual, cross-cultural, and academic development certification, which provided support for students in bilingual programs and from diverse backgrounds. Similarly, Texas authorized and encouraged school districts to adopt dual language immersion programs for elementary-aged students. It stipulated that instruction in each language should be split 50-50 in class. More recently, a new initiative, called “The Civil Rights Project,” is calling on policymakers to develop a new vision for bilingual education. Wyer gathers compelling evidence that shows English-only policies in schools aren’t working. The project proposes a new attitude that embraces bilingualism: “It is time that the U.S. join the rest of the developed world in viewing bilingualism as an asset, not a deficit,” argues Gary Orfield, co-director of the new project.
. Despite having no official language in the U.S., states have taken it upon themselves to declare English as theirs. Three states in particular, California, Arizona, and Massachusetts, have declared English as their official language. In 1998, California passed Proposition 227
with the help of sponsor, Ron Unz
, essentially ending bilingual education programs in exchange for an English Immersion model which values assimilation over multiculturalism. In 2000, Arizona passed the English for Children
initiative backed, again, by Ron Unz which mirrored California’s Proposition 227 in replacing bilingual education programs with English immersion ones.
Many Americans question whether bilingual education programs or English immersion models are the best route to helping students acquire English. The question of whether public education should encourage the development of the native tongue or completely leave that up to the parent is a difficult one. Some point out that California’s Proposition 227 is failing the students for simply failing to address both the linguistic and cultural struggles that students face; in 2004, the test results for California public school students showed the achievement gap for English learners widening and the test scores of English learners to be declining across grade levels. Scholar Stephen Krashen maintains that these three states who have taken the harshest anti-bilingual education policies have seen progress that is modest, at best. In a report to the United States Government, an Arizona study shows that English language learners can take up to 13 years to attain fluency—most school programs only offer 3 years of participation in English-immersion or bilingual programs, putting the effectiveness of these programs into question. In order to ease the worries and qualms that people had in the programs' effectiveness, the Obama Administration has recently proposed the implementation of an evaluation system that it would require states to use in order to judge the progress seen in English language learners in schools. This would potentially restore faith in our bilingual programs and hold schools more accountable to student achievement and progress. The question remains if states are properly equipped across the board to meet such high expectations.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
's "War on Poverty" and has been the most far-reaching federal legislation affecting education ever passed by Congress. The act is an extensive statute that funds primary and secondary education, while explicitly forbidding the establishment of a national curriculum. It also emphasizes equal access to education and establishes high standards and accountability. In addition, the bill aims to shorten the achievement gaps between students by providing each child with fair and equal opportunities to achieve an exceptional education. As mandated in the act, the funds are authorized for professional development, instructional materials, for resources to support educational programs, and for parental involvement promotion. The act was originally authorized through 1970; however, the government has reauthorized the act every five years since its enactment. The current reauthorization of ESEA is the No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
of 2001, named and proposed by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. The ESEA also allows military recruiters access to 11th and 12th grade students' names, addresses, and telephone listings when requested.
Sections of the Original 1965 Act
- Title I—Financial Assistance To Local Educational Agencies For The Education Of Children Of Low-Income Families
- Title II—School Library Resources, Textbooks, and other Instructional Materials
- Title III—Supplementary Educational Centers and Services
- Title IV—Educational Research And Training
- Title V—Grants To Strengthen State Departments Of Education
- Title VI—General Provisions
New Titles Created by Early Amendments to 1965 Law
1966 amendments (Public Law 89-750)
- Title VI - Aid to Handicapped Children (1965 title VI becomes Title VII)
1967 amendments (Public Law 90-247)
- Title VII - Bilingual Education Programs (1966 title VII becomes Title VIII)
Overview
Title I ("Title One"), a provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed in 1965, is a program created by the United States Department of Education
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...
to distribute funding to schools and school districts with a high percentage of students from low-income families. Funding is distributed first to state educational agencies
State education agency
A state education agency , or state department of education, is a formal governmental label for the state-level government agencies within each U.S...
(SEAs) which then allocate funds to local educational agencies
Local education agency
Local Education Agency is a commonly used synonym for a school district, an entity which operates local public primary and secondary schools in the United States, or provides government services to schools within a local area in the United Kingdom....
(LEAs) which in turn dispense funds to public schools in need. Title I also helps children from families that have migrated to the United States and youth from intervention programs who are neglected or at risk of abuse. The act appropriates money for educational purposes for the next five fiscal years until it is reauthorized. In addition, Title I appropriates money to the education system for prevention of dropouts and the improvement of schools. These appropriations are carried out for five fiscal years until reauthorization.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States...
, to be an eligible Title I school, a school must have a student body compromised of at least 40% or more individuals from low-income families who qualify under the United States Census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
's definition of low-income, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Title I mandates services both to eligible public school students and eligible private school students. This is outlined in section 1120 of Title I, Part A of the ESEA as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
(NCLB). Title I states that it gives priority to schools that are in obvious need of funds, low-achieving schools, and schools that demonstrate a commitment to improving their education standards and test scores.
There are two types of assistance that can be provided by Title I funds. The first is a “schoolwide program” in which schools can dispense resources in a flexible manner. The second is a “targeted assistance program” which allows schools to identify students who are failing or at risk of failing.
Assistance for school improvement includes government grants, allocations, and reallocations based on the school's willingness to commit to improving their standing in the educational system. Each educational institution requesting these grants must submit an application that describes how these funds will be used in restructuring their school for academic improvement.
Schools receiving Title I funding are regulated by federal legislation. Most recently, this legislation includes the No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
which was passed in 2001.
In the 2006-2007 school year, Title I provided assistance to over 17 million students who range from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The majority of the funds (60%) were given to students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The next highest group that received funding were students in sixth through eighth grade (21%). Finally, 16% of the funds went to students in high school with 3% provided to students in preschool.
Historical Context
In its original conception, Title I under the ESEA, was designed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to close the skill gap in reading, writing and mathematics between children from low-income households who attend urban or rural school systems and children from the middle-class who attend suburban school systems. This federal law came about during President Johnson’s “War on Poverty
War on Poverty
The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent...
” agenda. Numerous studies have been conducted since the original authorization of the ESEA in 1965 that have shown that there is an inverse relationship between student achievement and school poverty. Specifically, student achievement has been found to decrease as school poverty increases. According to the United States Department of Education
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...
(USDOE), students from low-income households are “three times as likely to be low achievers if they attend high-poverty schools as compared to low-poverty schools.” Within this context, Title I was conceived in order to compensate for the considerable educational deprivations associated with child poverty.
First 15 Years
In the past 46 years, Title I has considerably changed. For the first 15 years, the program was reauthorized every three years with additional emphasis placed on how funds were to be allocated. In the course of these reauthorizations, strict federal rules and regulations were created for the guarantee that funds would be allocated to solely students in need – specifically students eligible for services based on socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Regulations also included added attention to uniformity in regards to how resources were distributed to Title I and non-Title I schools and the role of parents in the revisions of the program. In addition to more stringent rules, during these years, policy makers outlined punitive actions that could be taken for those who were out of compliance. Attention was also placed upon the assurance that Title I funds would not serve as replacements for local funds; but rather they would serve as ancillary resources. These federal regulations, which were focused on financial resources, influenced local Title I programs in many ways.
Pull-out programs were adopted by Title I schools in order to comply with the financial stipulations that were made in the initial reauthorizations. These programs separated eligible students from ineligible ones to ensure that those who were in-need would benefit from the program. By 1978, in response to the extensive criticism of pull-outs on the grounds that they were asynchronous with the instruction occurring in classrooms, another option for providing assistance to students was introduced, the school wide approach. Schools with a student body in which the make-up had 75% or more low-income students could use Title I funds for the entire school’s improvement rather than for specific individuals. Despite this amendment, local fund requirements prevented all eligible students from using the school wide approach.
The 1980s
During the Reagan Administration, Congress passed the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) in 1981 to reduce federal regulations of Title I. This reflected the administration’s stance that resource control should be in the hands of states and local jurisdictions rather than at a federal level. Despite the change outlined by the ECIA and the new designation of Title I as Chapter I, little was done to implement it and traditional Title I practices, like the use of pull-outs, continued.
As the financial regulations became incorporated into practice, the conversation shifted around Title I to student achievement. In 1988, the Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Act, re-focused Title I on cultivating school improvement and excellent programs. The additions that were made through this legislation called for synchrony between Chapter I and classroom instruction, it raised the achievement standard for low-income students by emphasizing advanced skills instead of basic ones and increased parental involvement. It also had two new provisions: program improvement and school wide projects. Program improvements were modifications that would occur when students who received funding were not improving. The school wide projects altered the requirement that local funds had to match school wide program funding by Title I, allowing a larger number of high need schools to implement school wide programming.
From the 90s to the Present
A 1993 National Assessment noted shortcomings of the 1980s alterations to Title I. These catalyzed the introduction of the 1994 Improving America’s Schools Act (IASA)
Improving America's Schools Act of 1994
The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 was a major part of the Clinton administration's efforts to reform education. It was signed in the gymnasium of Framingham High School...
, which significantly revised the original ESEA. This was the last major alteration prior to that made by No Child Left Behind. The IASA attempted to coordinate federal resources and policies with the preexisiting efforts at the state and local levels in order to improve instruction for all students. This reform made three major changes to Title I. It added math and reading/language arts standards to be used to assess student progress and provide accountability. It reduced the threshold for schools to implement schoolwide programs from 75% poverty to 50% and gave schools a longer reign to use federal funding from multiple programs to dispense funds at a school wide level. Lastly, the IASA gave more local control overall so that federal officials and states could waive federal requirements that interfered with school improvements.
The most recent and significant alteration to the original Title I was made by its reauthorization under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In this reauthorization, NCLB required increased accountability from its schools both from the teachers and from the students. Yearly standardized tests were mandated in order to measure how schools were performing against the achievement bars set by Title I. Schools were also responsible for publishing annual report cards that detailed their student achievement data and demographics. Schools were now held accountable not only by punitive measures that would be taken if schools fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
Adequate Yearly Progress
Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically according to results on standardized...
, but also corrective actions were taken if states did not have an assessment system approved by Title I. Under NCLB, Schools are also required to plan for “restructuring” if they fail to make AYP for three years after being identified for improvement. More schools took corrective action under NCLB than under IASA. NCLB also required teachers to be highly qualified if hired using Title I funding.
Funding
Under NCLB, Title I funding is given to schools where at least 35% of the children in the school attendance area come from low-income families or to schools where 35% of the student population is low-income. To determine the percentage of low-income families, schools use the percent of students eligible to receive free and reduced-price lunch (FARMS) as a marker. The funds are appropriated for the use of improving academic achievement for students in low-income households.
Title I funding is received by more than 50% of all public schools. NCLB also requires that for funding to be received, all districts and schools must meet adequate yearly progress goals for their student populations and specific demographic subgroups. Non-Title I schools are schools that do not receive federal Title I funds. Although school districts have some freedom in how Title I funding is distributed among schools within a district, Title I requires them to prioritize the highest-poverty schools.
There are 4 distribution formulas under NCLB for Title I funding: Basic Grant, Concentration Grant, Targeted Assistance Grant, and the Education Finance Incentive Grant. The Federal Education Budget Project details the requirements for each formula extensively.
Basic Grant
The Basic Grant formula provides funding to school districts based on the number of poor children they serve. To receive money through this grant, the school district must meet the requirement of having at least 10 poor children and 2% of its students in poverty.
Concentration Grant
The Concentration Grant formula is similar to the basic grant formula because it gives funding to schools based on the number of poor children they serve. To receive money though this grant, school districts must meet the requirement of having at least 15% of children in poverty or a total of 6,500 poor children.
Targeted Assistance Grant
The Targeted Assistance Grant formula allocates more money for each child as the poverty rate in a district increases. This means that school districts with more poverty get more money for each poor child than districts with low poverty.
Education Finance Incentive Grant
The Education Finance Incentive Grant Formula has a two-pronged approach. It is meant to reward schools that expend more state resources on public education and distribute funding in an equitable manner. It is also meant to concentrate funds in districts with high poverty that inequitably distributes state and local education funding. In states, funding is allocated to school districts in a way similar to the Targeted Assistance Grant formula but the weight of schools in districts with high poverty that inequitably distribute funding is doubled.
Since 2001, Federal Title I funding has increased by 88%. In dollars, this has been a $7.7 billion increase. These funds were distributed through the Targeted Assistance and Education Finance Incentive Grant formulas, which target funds to disadvantaged students most directly.
Title III
Title III of ESEA originally provided matching grants for supplementary education centers (Political Education, Cross 2004).Title III was the innovations component of ESEA. It was, for its time, the greatest federal investment in education innovation ever.
Its best innovations, after validation, became part of the National Diffusion Network
National Diffusion Network
The National Diffusion Network was the first federally sponsored effort to identify and spread to the nation's schools innovative education programs...
.
Title V
This section of the original ESEA provided for strengthening state departments of education (Political Education, Cross 2004).The original Title V was amended to state the purposes of education reform efforts between local and state educational systems. Title V states that the government should endorse and support local education reforms that parallel reforms occurring at the state level. Parts of this section also state that the government should support innovative programs that help to improve an educational system. This includes support programs for libraries, scientific research leading to state and local educational agencies to put promising reforms into place, as well as for programs to improve teacher performance.
Title V also provides government grants given to educational institutions appropriating money to gifted programs for students, foreign language developers, as well as physical education, the arts, and overall mental health care of children and students.
Title VII
Added during the 1967 reauthorization of ESEA, Title VII introduced a program for bilingual educationBilingual education
Bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
. It was championed by Texas Democrat Ralph Yarborough
Ralph Yarborough
Ralph Webster Yarborough was a Texas Democratic politician who served in the United States Senate and was a leader of the progressive or liberal wing of his party in his many races for statewide office...
(Political Education, Cross 2004). It was originally created to aid Spanish-speaking students. However, in 1968 it transformed to the all-encompassing Bilingual Education Act
Bilingual Education Act
The Bilingual Education Act, Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1968 was the first piece of United States federal legislation that recognized the needs of Limited English Speaking Ability students. The BEA was introduced in 1967 by Texas senator Ralph Yarborough and was...
(BEA). In its original form, the BEA was not explicit in mandating that all school districts provide bilingual education services—it left much room for interpretation by districts. The ruling in Lau v. Nichols
Lau v. Nichols
Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563 , was a civil rights case that was brought by Chinese American students living in San Francisco, California who had limited English proficiency...
provided some clarity—specific program goals were established, support centers for bilingual education were created, and what a “bilingual education program” should look like was defined. The courts upheld the language of the BEA as it declared a “bilingual education program” as one providing English instruction in unison with the native language. The idea was to push students to high academic achievement via a program encouraging them to learn English while maintaining the native language. "It proposed to cultivate in this child his ancestral pride, to reinforce (not destroy) the language he natively speaks, to cultivate his inherent strengths, to give him the sense of personal idenfitication so essential to social maturation," summarizes Professor Cordasco of Montclair State College.
In addition to programs for bilingual students, Title VII implemented plans to help Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaskan natives be provided opportunities for achieving academic equality. In late 1967, Congress gave $7.5 million to school districts, scholars, and private research groups who proposed the best programs for improving bilingual education. This section of the ESEA promotes the federal government working closely with local educational institutions to ensure that Indian, Hawaiian, and Alaskan students are being aided in getting the same educational experiences as all other students. This is achieved through programs that keep cultural values intact and push students to strive for academic excellence.
It is worth noting that Title VII was replaced in the most recent reauthorization of the ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
of 2001, and is now Title III “Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students.”
Steps Forward
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education which allowed for the Bilingual Education campaign to expand bilingual education programs. In addition to Carter’s efforts, President Clinton also showed his support through the Improving America’s Schools ActIASA
IASA may mean* The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives* The IETF Administrative Support Activity, an activity housed within the Internet Society .* The Israel Arts and Science Academy, a high-school in Jerusalem, Israel....
of 1994. The act dramatically increased funding for bilingual and immigrant education. In 1998, the Linguistic Society of America showed its support for the BEA arguing that bilingual education was a basic human right; it believed that children should be educated in order to maintain their native language and cultural identity while acquiring the English language.
Efforts to improve bilingual education gained momentum in 2001 when both California and Texas embraced bilingual education-friendly policies. California authorized school districts to receive grant funds that offered incentives for teachers interested in attaining bilingual, cross-cultural, and academic development certification, which provided support for students in bilingual programs and from diverse backgrounds. Similarly, Texas authorized and encouraged school districts to adopt dual language immersion programs for elementary-aged students. It stipulated that instruction in each language should be split 50-50 in class. More recently, a new initiative, called “The Civil Rights Project,” is calling on policymakers to develop a new vision for bilingual education. Wyer gathers compelling evidence that shows English-only policies in schools aren’t working. The project proposes a new attitude that embraces bilingualism: “It is time that the U.S. join the rest of the developed world in viewing bilingualism as an asset, not a deficit,” argues Gary Orfield, co-director of the new project.
Steps Back
The biggest obstacle to the BEA and expansion of bilingual education programs is the English-only MovementEnglish-only movement
English-only movement, also known as Official English movement, refers to a political movement for the use only of the English language in official government operations through the establishing of English as the only official language in the United States...
. Despite having no official language in the U.S., states have taken it upon themselves to declare English as theirs. Three states in particular, California, Arizona, and Massachusetts, have declared English as their official language. In 1998, California passed Proposition 227
California Proposition 227 (1998)
Proposition 227 was a California ballot proposition passed in the June 2, 1998 ballot. It effectively ended bilingual education programs in the state and replaced them with the Structured English Immersion model. The bill's intention was to educate Limited English Proficiency students in a rapid,...
with the help of sponsor, Ron Unz
Ron Unz
Ronald Keeva Unz, is a former businessman and political activist, best known for an unsuccessful race in 1994 for the governorship of California, and for sponsoring propositions promoting structured English immersion education. In March 2007, The American Conservative named him its new publisher...
, essentially ending bilingual education programs in exchange for an English Immersion model which values assimilation over multiculturalism. In 2000, Arizona passed the English for Children
Arizona Proposition 203
Arizona Proposition 203, English for Children, is an initiative that was passed by 63% of Arizona voters on November 7, 2000. This piece of legislation limits the types of instruction available to English Language Learner students. In Arizona there are 1,742 public schools where 48% of students...
initiative backed, again, by Ron Unz which mirrored California’s Proposition 227 in replacing bilingual education programs with English immersion ones.
Many Americans question whether bilingual education programs or English immersion models are the best route to helping students acquire English. The question of whether public education should encourage the development of the native tongue or completely leave that up to the parent is a difficult one. Some point out that California’s Proposition 227 is failing the students for simply failing to address both the linguistic and cultural struggles that students face; in 2004, the test results for California public school students showed the achievement gap for English learners widening and the test scores of English learners to be declining across grade levels. Scholar Stephen Krashen maintains that these three states who have taken the harshest anti-bilingual education policies have seen progress that is modest, at best. In a report to the United States Government, an Arizona study shows that English language learners can take up to 13 years to attain fluency—most school programs only offer 3 years of participation in English-immersion or bilingual programs, putting the effectiveness of these programs into question. In order to ease the worries and qualms that people had in the programs' effectiveness, the Obama Administration has recently proposed the implementation of an evaluation system that it would require states to use in order to judge the progress seen in English language learners in schools. This would potentially restore faith in our bilingual programs and hold schools more accountable to student achievement and progress. The question remains if states are properly equipped across the board to meet such high expectations.
Landmark Court Cases
- 1972: Aspira of New York, Inc v. New York Board of Education
- Court ruled in favor of Puerto Rican and other Hispanic students whose language and cultural needs weren’t being addressed. This triggered an increased development of bilingual programs in New York public schools.
- 1973: Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1
- Court ruled in favor of Keyes recognizing the right that Hispanic children had to go to desegregated schools and not be racially isolated. The ruling recognizes Latinos’ suffering from systemic educational inequities.
- 1974: Lau v. Nichols
- Court ruled in favor of Lau which guarantees students the right to a “meaningful education” regardless of language. This ruling ensures that districts will provide students with the same curriculum via initiatives such as bilingual programs and ESL classes. It also increased district accountability—schools with high numbers of English language learners must submit reports to the federal government to show they’re providing adequate support for these students.
- 1974: Serna v. Portales
- Court ruled in favor of Serna that Portales Municipal Schools must provide a bilingual curriculum to accommodate the non-English speaking students. Texas also commits to employ bilingual personnel in schools.
- 1978: Rios v. Reed
- Court ruled in favor of Rios that the Pastchogue-Medford School District’s bilingual program offered to students was essentially an English-only course. The ruling states that these students were denied an equal education since they weren’t instructed in Spanish extensively in elementary school.
- 1981: Castañeda v. PickardCastañeda v. PickardThe case of Castañeda v. Pickard was tried in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 1978. This case was filed against the Raymondville Independent School District in Texas by Roy Castañeda, the father of two Mexican-American children. Mr. Castañeda claimed that the...
- Court ruled in favor of Castañeda that the school was racially segregating the Hispanic children in classes and not providing adequate bilingual programs to help them overcome English-language barriers. The decision established a clear evaluation system to hold bilingual programs accountable for providing equal educational opportunities (programs based on educational theory, implemented effectively, and proven to be successful in overcoming language barriers).
- 2009: Horne v. FloresHorne v. FloresHorne v. Flores, 129 S.Ct. 2579 , is a case in which the United States Supreme Court remanded the case to determine whether Arizona’s general education funding budget supports Equal Educational Opportunities Act -compliant English Language Learner programming.-Background:The case was brought by...
- Court ruled in favor of Horne that the state should have the right to determine the requirements of its English Language Learner programs. This holds schools less accountable for producing fluent English-speakers.
Notable Reauthorizations
- Clinton's Improving America's Schools Act of 1994Improving America's Schools Act of 1994The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 was a major part of the Clinton administration's efforts to reform education. It was signed in the gymnasium of Framingham High School...
- Bush's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001