Educationally Disadvantaged Children's Act

Educationally Disadvantaged Children's Act - Directs the Commissioner of Education to make payments to State educational agencies for authorized State programs and for grants to local educational agencies for improving the educational proficiency of children who are educationally disadvantaged for the period beginning July 1, 1975.

Authorizes the appropriation of such sums as may be necessary for carrying out this Act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1974, and for each of the four succeeding fiscal years.

Establishes a National Commission on Educational Disadvantage. Provides that the Commission shall, either directly or through grants to or contracts with individuals, public agencies, or private organizations, arrange for the development and administration of a test or tests designed to produce data showing the estimated number of educationally disadvantaged children in each State and in all the States. Such test or tests shall: (1) be administered to children between the ages of five and seventeen (inclusive) in each State who are selected in such manner and in such number and at such age and grade levels as to produce a scientifically valid cross-section of the school-age population of each State and of all the States; (2) be designed to measure the performance of children in terms of specific criteria determined or approved by the Commission as being appropriate standards of what children should know or be able to do at selected age or grade levels; and (3) be confined to the subjects of reading and mathematics (including, where appropriate and if the Commission so determines, reading readiness and mathematics readiness for the youngest children or those in the earliest grades of school).

Directs the Commission to arrange for the administration of the first tests at the earliest feasible time during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1975, in order to certify to the Commissioner the estimated number of educationally disadvantaged children in each State and in all the States for the purposes of allocating funds to the States.

Directs the Commission to review and evaluate the administration and operation of this Act, including: (1) the design and administration of testing programs and their effectiveness in identifying educational disadvantage; (2) the equity of State allocations of funds made available under this title among local educational agencies, taking into account such factors as concentrations of educationally disadvantaged children, the needs of the most severely educationally disadvantaged children, the financial capacity of local educational agencies to meet the needs of such children; (3) the validity and effectiveness of State methods of defining and identifying educational disadvantage; and (4) the effectiveness of programs financed under this title in improving the educational attainment of educationally disadvantaged children and the extent to which they are meeting the needs of all such children.