How to Use Your Title I Resources Most Effectively

Applying Title I Funding to Support Your Students Through the Whole-Child Approach

Each year, the federal government provides billions of dollars in funding to school districts across the country. Most of this money falls under Title I, a program that provides resources for disadvantaged students. As part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (a revision of the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act), in recent years educators have been given greater agency in how to spend this money. While the allocation of these resources is dependent in part on a school’s performance on standardized tests, schools now have a different set of criteria by which to measure the effectiveness of their Title I spending. 

For educators who believe that the best way to educate a child is through engagement and personalized learning, these recent changes represent an exciting opportunity. This paper traces the evolution of Title I funding and explores how spending these valuable resources on programs that promote the “whole-child” approach to education can have incredible results. 

Highlights of this paper include:

• A brief history of how President Lyndon Johnson first established the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and why Title I became the cornerstone of this legislation.
• An explanation of why using Title I funding exclusively for standardized testing preparation is not the most effective use of these valuable resources.
• A description of the whole-child approach to education, and an overview of why this pedagogy is essential to preparing students for the future.