THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT (ESEA) 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. 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.
According to the United States Department of Education (ED), 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 50 years, Title I has changed markedly.