College Enrollment Differences: The Impact of Title I-Funded Elementary Schools

Rationale

Americans have long recognized that education is one of the great drivers of social mobility. A bachelor’s degree provides one of the best chances for an economically secure life (Torche, 2011). The more selective the college a student attends, the higher the potential economic returns, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds (Dale & Krueger, 2011; Hoekstra, 2009).

Ultimately, individuals who obtain a college degree live with a secure sense of emotional, physical, and financial stability when compared to those without a college degree (Shafer et al., 2013). Ross and Mirowsky (2013) suggest that individuals with a bachelor's degree have a higher quality of life than individuals without a bachelor’s degree. Cutler and Lleras-Muney (2010) associate a college degree with a supreme quality of life by establishing that higher education optimizes an individual’s opportunity for social connections, which can ultimately act as a vehicle to improve one’s socioeconomic status (SES), underscoring the value of a college education.

College readiness has become a growing concern for educational policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. There is a growing consensus that America's public-school systems need to enhance college readiness among its students. As a result, the Obama administration reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 2015, calling for states to adopt college-and-career-ready standards with the intention of enhancing college readiness among students. Yet deep and persistent racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in college enrollment and outcomes threaten the country’s ability to meet its workforce needs.

Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) of 1965 was created to provide technical assistance resources, and guidance to local education agencies (LEA) to ensure economically disadvantaged children receive fair, equitable, and high-quality education, by helping close academic achievement gaps (New Jersey Department of Education, 2019). To this day, Title I represents the largest federal program for K-12 education. It reaches more than twelve and a half million students each year, covering about 75% of all elementary schools and nearly 50% of all middle and secondary schools in the United States (Van Der Klaauw, 2008). The core goal of Title I is to enhance the learning experience of low-income students by providing additional federal funding to impoverished schools. Title I seeks to achieve its goal by supporting the academic growth and educational opportunities of students through supplementary services in reading and mathematics. Currently, more than half of all public schools in the United States receive Title I funding.

Despite its potential to enhance student success with its fiscal power, evidence of the effectiveness of Title I is questionable (Matsurdaira et al., 2012; Gordon, 2004; Van der Klaauw 2008). In fact, studies of Title I effectiveness indicate that Title I has not fulfilled its promise of closing the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers (Van Der Klaauw, 2008).