Tracking Title I

By David J. Hoff

In 1984, after completing the first longitudinal study of Title I, the research project's director released sobering news. The $40 billion in federal aid spent to help millions of poor children over two decades had, in the long run, done little to improve their achievement.

The low-achieving elementary school students who received extra help from Title I--the largest federal K-12 program--gained at a slightly faster rate than their peers who went without the services, according to a synopsis of the Sustaining Effects study. But those increases didn't last.

"By the time students reached junior high school, there was no evidence of sustained or delayed effects of Title I," Launor R. Carter, the retired vice president for the System Development Corp. and the director of the study, wrote that year in Educational Researcher .