A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Background

Chapter 1 Program Services was prepared in support of the mandated National Assessment of Chapter 1 (P.L. 101-305). The report synthesizes the findings from recent studies that describe the services currently offered under the Chapter 1 program. It describes the current operation of Chapter 1 in terms of the schools and students served by the program, the staff who deliver program services, the services that participants receive, program efforts to involve parents in their children's education, Chapter 1 student performance, and efforts to improve Chapter 1 services locally.

Major Findings

The Distribution of Chapter 1

• Almost all school districts in the United States (90 percent) receive Chapter 1 funds. Sixty-four percent of all public schools provided Chapter 1 services in 1990-91.
• Chapter 1 schools are relatively evenly distributed across urban, suburban, small town, and rural communities, but the poorest are concentrated in urban central cities.

• Chapter 1 student participation reached an all-time high of 5.5 million students in 1990-91, of which 95 percent were enrolled in public school programs.

• The proportion of Chapter 1 students who attend high-poverty schools has increased since 1985-86.

• In 1990-91, Chapter 1 participants were disproportionately of racial/ethnic minority backgrounds, included an estimated 15 percent who were classified as limited English proficient and included 5 percent who had handicapping conditions.

Chapter 1 Staffing

• Chapter 1 teachers' average level of educational achievement has increased overall and in relation to that of classroom teachers in Chapter 1 schools.

• More of the Chapter 1 instruction in poorer schools, as compared with low-poverty schools, is provided by teacher aides with no more than a high school education.

Types of Services

• Chapter 1 continues to focus primarily on basic skills.

• Eighty-two percent of Chapter 1 schools provided services to students in more than one way in 1991-92. For example, in 1991-92, the two most popular models were pullout, in which students are instructed in small groups outside of their regular classroom and in-class models, in which students receive special assistance during their regular classes.

• In 1991-92, only one-quarter to one-third of schools with poverty levels of at least 75 percent became schoolwide projects. These schools are allowed to use their Chapter 1 funds to serve all children in the school and are held accountable for improving the performance of the most disadvantaged students.

Parent Involvement

• Chapter 1 programs have increased the services they offer to parents, the most popular of which is providing home-based educational exercises to supplement classroom work.

• Parent involvement activities (other than parent advisory councils) that stress parent participation in their children's education have grown significantly since 1988.

Student Assessment and Performance

• Chapter 1 students in the 3rd and 7th grades scored relatively low on a nationally normed test compared to non-Chapter 1 students in 1991, and the gap did not change over the Chapter 1 students' one year of participation in federally-funded compensatory education.

• Compared to their non-Chapter 1 peers, Chapter 1 students in the first grade face several obstacles to school success, including health and hygiene problems, inadequate rest, comparatively high absenteeism, and low attention span and motivation.

• Chapter 1 students are almost twice as likely as non-Chapter 1 students to have been retained at least once by the time they reach the fourth grade.

Improving Chapter 1

• The number of schools identified as needing improvement and engaged in improvement activities has increased each year since 1988. However, the schools engaged in program improvement efforts represent a relatively small proportion of all Chapter 1 schools.

• The national average rate at which schools test out of program improvement before implementing improvement plans is estimated to be about 50 percent.

Copies of Chapter 1 Program Services are available by writing the Planning and Evaluation Service, Office of the Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, Room 3127, Washington, DC 20202.

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Last update October 1996 (smj).