	Introduction

Title I, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) authorizes federal aid to local educational agencies (LEAs) for the education of disadvantaged children. Title I-A grants provide supplementary educational and related services to low-achieving and other pupils attending pre-kindergarten through grade 12 schools with relatively high concentrations of pupils from low-income families. In recent years, they have also become a "vehicle" to which a number of requirements affecting broad aspects of public K-12 education for all pupils have been attached as a condition for receiving Title I-A grants. These include requirements for assessments of pupil achievement; adequate yearly progress (AYP) standards and determinations for schools, LEAs, and states; consequences for schools and LEAs that fail to make AYP for two consecutive years or more; plus teacher and paraprofessional qualifications. The ESEA was initially adopted in 1965, and was most recently reauthorized and amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), P.L. 107-110 . Currently, although the authorization for ESEA Title I-A has expired, appropriations have continued to be provided, and the program continues to be implemented under the policies established by the most recent authorization statute. The 111 th Congress is expected to consider proposals to extend and amend the ESEA. This report will not be updated. In summary, major Title I-A reauthorization issues regarding allocation formulas are likely to include the following:
Should annual variations in the poverty estimates used to calculate Title I-A grants be reduced through multi-year averaging or other methods? Has the targeting of Title I-A funds on high poverty LEAs increased since 2001? Should the population weighting factors of the Targeted and Education Finance Incentive Grant (EFIG) formulas be modified to more equally favor LEAs with large numbers of school-age children in poor families and LEAs with high poverty rates? Should the expenditure factor continue to play a major role in the Title I-A formulas? Should the authorization level for Title I-A continue to be specified for future years, and if so, at what levels? Should the effort factor in the EFIG formula be modified? Should the equity factor in the EFIG formula be modified? Issues Affecting a Limited Number of States or LEAs:
Should the remaining special constraints on grants to Puerto Rico, the cap on aggregate population weights in the Targeted Grant formula, be removed? Should the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) formula factor be eliminated? Description of the ESEA Title I-A Allocation Formulas

For the allocation of funds to states and LEAs, ESEA Title I-A has four separate formulas: the Basic, Concentration, Targeted, and Education Finance Incentive Grant (EFIG) formulas. Once these funds reach LEAs, they are no longer treated separately; they are combined and used without distinction for the same program purposes. For each formula, a maximum grant is calculated by multiplying a "population factor," consisting primarily of estimated numbers of school-age children in poor families, by an "expenditure factor" based on state average per pupil expenditures for public K-12 education. In some formulas, additional factors are multiplied by the population and expenditure factors. Distinctive allocation patterns illustrated in Table 7 , all of which will be discussed further in the issue analyses at the end of this report, include the following:
Grants per formula child are much higher than average under the Targeted and EFIG grant formulas for the selected LEAs with very large numbers of formula children; The selected LEAs with very high percentages of formula children receive higher than average grants per formula child under the Targeted and EFIG formulas, but much lower than the LEAs with very large numbers of formula children, partially due to their treatment under these formulas but primarily because they are located in states with low expenditure factors; The selected LEAs in minimum grant states receive higher grants per formula child than LEAs in any other category under all formulas except possibly Concentration Grants; The selected LEAs with relatively large numbers, but relatively low percentages , of formula children receive Concentration, Targeted, and EFIG grants per formula child that are above the national average, in spite of their low formula child percentages; and The selected LEAs with low numbers and percentages of formula children receive grants per formula child that are well below average under all formulas except Basic Grants. Should There Be Some Consolidation of the Four Different Allocation Formulas? Should the Current Provisions for Intra-LEA Allocation Be Reconsidered? Should Each County Portion of New York City and Other Multi-County LEAs Continue to Be Treated as Separate LEAs Under the Title I-A Allocation Formulas?
Title I, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) authorizes federal aid to local educational agencies (LEAs) for the education of disadvantaged children. Title I-A grants provide supplementary educational and related services to low-achieving and other pupils attending pre-kindergarten through grade 12 schools with relatively high concentrations of pupils from low-income families. In recent years, they have also become a "vehicle" to which a number of requirements affecting broad aspects of public K-12 education for all pupils have been attached as a condition for receiving Title I-A grants. These include requirements for assessments of pupil achievement; adequate yearly progress (AYP) standards and determinations for schools, LEAs, and states; consequences for schools and LEAs that fail to make AYP for two consecutive years or more; plus teacher and paraprofessional qualifications.
The ESEA was initially adopted in 1965, and was most recently reauthorized and amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), P.L. 107-110. Currently, although the authorization for ESEA Title I-A has expired, appropriations have continued to be provided, and the program continues to be implemented under the policies established by the most recent authorization statute. The 111th Congress is expected to consider proposals to extend and amend the ESEA.
For the allocation of funds to states and LEAs, Title I-A has four separate formulas: the Basic, Concentration, Targeted, and Education Finance Incentive Grant (EFIG) formulas. Once these funds reach LEAs, they are no longer treated separately; they are combined and used without distinction for the same program purposes. While there are numerous complications and special features associated with the Title I-A allocation formulas, each has the same underlying structure. For each formula, a maximum grant is calculated by multiplying a "population factor," consisting primarily of estimated numbers of school-age children in poor families, by an "expenditure factor" based on state average per pupil expenditures for public K-12 education. In some formulas, additional factors are multiplied by the population and expenditure factors, and/or the population factor is modified to direct increased funds to LEAs with concentrations of poverty.
Major Title I-A reauthorization issues regarding allocation formulas are likely to include the following: Should annual variations in the poverty estimates used to calculate Title I-A grants be reduced through multi-year averaging or other methods? Has the targeting of Title I-A funds on high poverty LEAs increased since 2001? Should the population weighting factors of the Targeted and Education Finance Incentive Grant (EFIG) formulas be modified to more equally favor LEAs with large numbers of school-age children in poor families and LEAs with high poverty rates? Should the expenditure factors continue to play a major role in the Title I-A formulas? Should there be some consolidation of the four different allocation formulas? Should the authorization level for Title I-A continue to be specified for future years, and if so, at what levels? Should the effort factor in the EFIG formula be modified? Should the equity factor in the EFIG formula be modified? Should the current provisions for intra-LEA allocation be reconsidered? Should the remaining special constraints on grants to Puerto Rico, the cap on aggregate population weights in the Targeted Grant formula, be removed? Should the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) formula factor be eliminated? And finally, should each county portion of New York City and other multi-county LEAs continue to be treated as separate LEAs under the Title I-A allocation formulas? This report will not be updated.