Title I federal funds are provided to schools with high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all students meet academic standards. Despite this and other efforts by the federal government to assist low-income families with the problems associated with poverty, the minimum proficiency levels required by the No Child Left Behind Act have not been met by all students. Little research has been conducted to assess performance of South Dakota schools receiving federal funding under Title 1 to alleviate these deficits in academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine whether Title 1 had an effect on low socioeconomic schools by determining if Schoolwide Title 1 elementary schools in South Dakota demonstrated significant student gains in math and reading as measured by state standardized assessments. This nonexperimental quantitative study, guided by Bourdieu's theory of social and cultural reproduction, used archived school report card data to examine standardized testing results in math and reading during the school years of 2008-2009 through 2012-2013 for the 48 elementary Schoolwide Title 1 schools in South Dakota having complete data for these years. The results of the one-way repeated measures ANOVA followed by a Bonferroni post hoc test indicated no significant difference over time on standardized test scores in Schoolwide Title 1 elementary schools for reading, but there was a significant increase for math. The positive social change implications include providing data to inform school and state administrators of the effect of Title 1 of the ESEA on student achievement, and the need to reevaluate Title 1 programs to improve student achievement.

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