A new NYU study says ‘nope’.

Title I provides additional funding for schools serving high concentrations of poor children, but there are few curricular or programmatic constraints.

[Snip]

Finally, additional Title I spending does not improve the achievement of students and may even reduce school-wide average test scores in elementary and middle schools. These effects for both spending and scores seem to increase with the length of time schools are Title I eligible and to be stronger for ones that are always Title I eligible compared to those that go in and out of eligibility.

According to NC DPI, “About half the schools and all school districts in North Carolina receive Title I funding.” The state received nearly $360 million in Title I funding in FY 2008.

H/T: Marc Oestreich