In recent years, the federal government (under Republican and Democratic administrations alike) has encouraged the outsourcing of core parts of public education's work, including testing and test preparation, teaching and tutoring, data collection, and human resources management. However, researchers have found little evidence to support policy…

Of the numerous public policy debates currently taking place throughout the United States, perhaps no issue receives more attention than the persistence of "chronically" low-performing public schools. As of 2009, approximately 5,000 schools--5% of the nation's total--qualified as chronically low performing (Duncan, 2009d). Certainly,…

This chapter is organized as follows. The first section examines the evolving state and federal role in education and the implications of an expanded federal role on the structure of the educational system. It pays particular attention to how the debate on the causes and solutions to school reform has shifted and the impact this has had on school…

This report is designed to help policymakers, child care providers, and advocates establish child care rate support policies that support high quality in the context of government-subsidized, privately-provided child care. It also provides advice on the development and interpretation of market rate surveys of local child care fees. Part 1…