TITLE I SCHOOLWIDE PROGRAMS - A SYNTHESIS OF FINDINGS FROM RECENT EVALUATION

Recent federal legislation including the 1994 Improving America's Scho ols Act, has enabled broad expansion of Title I schoolwide programs to over 8,000 schools across the nation. These regulatory changes are in tended to reduce the historically fragmented or categorical character of Title I programs and improve the effectiveness of entire schools ra ther than targeting services to meet the needs of the most disadvantag ed subpopulations. Despite the dramatic increase in the number of scho olwide programs, there is little comprehensive information about them and their effectiveness relative to traditional Title I programming. T his article presents a synthesis of what is known about Title I school wide programs, focusing on three aspects: characteristics of schools a nd districts implementing schoolwide programs, programmatic and organi zational characteristics of schoolwide program schools and districts, and evidence of the effectiveness of schoolwide program schools, parti cularly in terms of student performance. In addition to reviewing thes e evaluation findings, we present several cautions related to their in terpretation. Finally, we suggest implications for future evaluations and discuss policy implications for school improvement.