Public officials and student aid experts agree that the federal program delivery system is outdated, inefficient, and vulnerable to fraud, but they disagree on how bad the situation is and whether the Education Department has the structure necessary to fix it. A 1995 project to integrate all federal grant and loan programs into one system has not…

Three articles on evaluation in the Federal government describe a decline in budget and staff support, narrowing of the agenda to internal management issues, and the subordination of evaluation to other functions. Issues for the future of Federal government evaluation are discussed. (SLD)

An analysis of five funding competitions sponsored by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the area of secondary special education and transitional services research found that the projects have not emphasized community-level change to facilitate lasting improvements in youths with disabilities and have not taken a…

Insufficient funding for college work-study programs, increased student loan defaults, unanticipated deficits in the federal Pell Grant program, and the climate of recession are creating serious problems for student financial aid. Some fear enrollments will be affected and federal programs will be further reduced. (MSE)

A project is described that applied electronic media to inservice training, support, and consultation of preschool special education personnel in geographically distant locations. The system permitted two-way, full-motion video as well as interactive audio communication and was extended into teachers' own classrooms for observation and training.…

The domestic health profile, family and community role, and federal efforts to help at-risk children are discussed. Federal efforts center on maternal and child health programs that strengthen the family, but other initiatives are necessary to give each child the security and stability needed for healthy development. (SLD)

This article examines the terms "culturally deprived" and "disadvantaged" in light of their popular use in the sixties and following decades, particularly in the ethnic and mainstream press. These expressions represented an effort to explain differences in educational attainment and academic achievement along lines of social…

This monograph focuses on the main populations and topics in the college readiness literature. The population of U.S. youth who are traditionally aged high school and college students dominates research; for the most part, the authors concentrate on literature about this population. Within this broad parameter, the review is centrally concerned…

According to Birchak, Connor, Crawford, Kahn, Kaser, Turner, & Short (1998), Fang, Fu, & Lamme (2004), Kennedy & Sheil (2010), and Wiliam (2008), teacher study groups can provide a supportive and collaborative professional development environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the professional development experiences of…

Despite of much focus on professional development aimed specifically at developing teachers' technology integration skills, rigorous studies of effective PD (professional development) are lacking. Evidence is also lacking on how these skills can best be integrated with pedagogical and content knowledge to improve student learning. The purpose of…

This report uses the most recently available data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999-2004) to provide a comprehensive picture of the diets of Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participant children--the largest segment of the WIC population. The report examines nutrient intakes, diet quality, and food…

This 14th annual report to Congress provides program-by-program summaries of evaluative information on federally funded education programs for fiscal year (FY) 1984. Each entry is divided into three major sections: (1) program profile, covering legislation, recent funding history, purpose, eligibility, and other information on requirements; (2)…

This study documents the ways in which Chapter 1 services are delivered across the nation at the local school district level. Data were collected by mail and telephone surveys of district and Chapter 1 administrators in 2,200 nationally representative school districts. The following topics are discussed: (1) profile of Chapter 1 districts; (2)…

Despite limited research due to lack of funding and inadequate program evaluations, enough evidence has accumulated to indicate that quality bilingual programs can meet the goal of providing equal educational opportunity for students from non-English speaking backgrounds. A review of existing research supports this statement. In almost all cases,…

The mission of the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) was to build a long-term capacity that would improve the educational structures of the rural communities it served. The major strategy ARSI used to create improvement communities across Appalachia was to identify, embrace and educate individual teachers, who became ARSI Teacher…