Background: In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly "turn around" 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require…

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a Census Bureau program that provides annually updated information on demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics of U.S. households at every level of geography, from the nation to the neighborhood. ACS data are used by public and business decision-makers to more clearly identify issues and…

Information about small farms is valuable at federal, state, and local levels to program managers and community developers, researchers and educators, policy makers and farm families themselves. Adequate information can help in the assessment of small farm program needs, development of appropriate policies, and management of effective programs,…

The concept and implementation of direction services, a one step center offering assistance to parents of handicapped children, are traced. Three basic functions of the federally funded direction service centers are noted: to help locate and provide access to the most appropriate resources for handicapped children and youth; to collect and…

This literature review examines four conceptual areas: (1) interorganizational collaboration; (2) the use of intermediary agencies; (3) the improvement of educational practice; and (4) the increase of educational equity. A focused review of the conceptual issue, a bibliography including research and literature citations, and abstracts of the most…

This report identifies factors that influence a rural area's economic success or failure, and evaluates whether federal programs efficiently address rural economic problems. Data collection included a review of federal programs that provide funding to rural areas, and interviews with federal and state agency officials involved with rural…

This paper reviews 11 studies dealing with collaborative organizational arrangements and investigates 26 projects involving such arrangements. The 11 studies identified as relevant to the work of conceptualizing a regional grants program include patterns of information useful for planning in the areas of organizational communication, definition of…

Examines how and why the allocation formulae used to distribute Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I funds reflect a rural bias in American national politics. (Author/BE)

This document details the changes that have occurred in the 95th Congress with respect to compensatory education and explores the implications of those changes with respect to Federal policy for compensatory education programs. The 93rd Congressional hearings on Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act are reviewed. Also described are…

This study argues for the use of public service employment (PSE) as a portion of an anti-recessionary fiscal policy package to include public works and tax cuts. Keynesian economics, deficit spending in this case, serves as the study's underpinnings. Chapter 1 reviews public service employment's current low status as an anti-recessionary measure.…

Of major concern to American Indians are: government to government communications; development of Indian owned energy resources; federal budget changes as they affect the American Indian; preservation, protection, and quantification of inherent and reserved Indian water rights; preservation of treaty obligations; respect for tribal sovereignty;…

Recommendations of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation to encourage collaboration among government, voluntary, individual, community, and private sector efforts are reported in this publication which presents a historical review of the Committee from 1966 through 1986. The background and establishment of the Committee are discussed in…

In this policy brief, an introductory review of early childhood education from a national perspective is followed by brief sketches of the north-central region's action and agendas. The states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin are covered. Concluding commentary identifies three program areas that should be better…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interactions among federal education programs on the local level. Federal education programs work almost exclusively through the local education agency (LEA). Federal programs can work only if the LEAs can meet the aggregate requirements they impose. The burdens imposed by federal programs are of two…

Results of a review of 34 contracts relating to bilingual education awarded by the Department of Education's Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs and the Office of Planning, Budget, and Evaluation are presented. The review analyzed awards made from 1982 to 1985 and focused on: the extent of and justification for contracts…