Promoting innovations accounts for approximately 10 percent of the federal aid to public schools which currently exceeds $3.5 billion annually. However, serious questions about the usefulness of federal efforts to promote innovation and the prospects for educational reform have been raised. Those questions were examined here by the Rand…

Discusses the views of the NEA and American Federation of Teachers on the separate Department of Education proposed by the Carter administration. (SB)

Concludes that "community development block grants are operating very differently from the model cities program, but they are no more effective in achieving national purposes. If those purposes are to cut red tape and to encourage cities to spend money on public works, then this program may be a great success." (Author/JM)

Federal agencies have had to begin making automatic budget reductions according to the new version of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit-reduction law, resulting in increased student loan fees and decreased banker subsidies. (MSE)

Discusses the need for standards for the evaluation of educational programs, projects, and materials, and describes the development of such standards by a joint committee representing 12 organizations with widely differing constituencies. (Author)

Reviews literature on U.S. Office of Education-sponsored Adult Performance Level project that cites among its accomplishments (1) a model for competency-based education, (2) creation of national awareness of illiteracy, and (3) individualized programs. Among its insufficiencies are absence of reliable measures of validity, value-laden curriculum,…

Reviews the Reagan administration's approach to maternal and child health policy. Analyzes the administration's legislative and regulatory efforts in this area and concludes that its goal has been to lessen the national commitment to maternal and child health at a time of heightened need for federal intervention. (CMG)

Many federal agencies actively address the problem of violence in schools by acquiring and disseminating information about school violence and supporting strategies that work to reduce violence. This document provides an inventory of federal activities addressing violence in schools. It was designed to facilitate coordination of federal school…

This publication is intended to help postsecondary schools understand FY 1999 draft cohort default rate data. It explains how the Department of Education calculates cohort default rates, the effect of cohort default rates, and how to read the cohort default rate loan record detail reports. Also, it reviews electronic reports available from the…

"Work incentives" encourage and support individuals with disabilities in their efforts to seek employment and have been formalized in federal legislation and regulations, including the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (TWWIIA). In October 2000, Utah received a 4-year federal grant to change the state's systems of work…

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded universal support to eligible schools and libraries. To administer the universal service program for schools and libraries, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) directed the creation of the Schools and Libraries Corporation (Corporation). As a start-up operation, the Corporation has had to develop…

This guide is designed to assist schools with their Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFEL) and the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program cohort default rate. The guide is a reference tool in understanding cohort default rates and processes. This guide incorporates two former guides, the "Draft Cohort Default Rate…

This report reviews auctions used by various federal agencies to examine the feasibility of using similar auctions to determine interest rates for student borrowing through the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program. The review identified 31 different auctions, divided into two major…

The Navajo-Hopi Long Range Act and the War on Poverty, had much in common in terms of assumptions and patterns of interaction between reformers and those being reformed: part of this consistancy may be attributed to a failure on the part of the reformers to examine and profit from the experiences of previous reformers. (Author/JM)

OE's office of legislation groups 24 pieces of federal education legislation according to the fiscal year of scheduled termination. (Editor)