In this column, Linton presents updates on congressional action in the House of Representatives on "The Second Chance Act," the anticipated Institute for Higher Education Policy report, and the reauthorization of the "Higher Education Act." He also highlights a resource being provided through the Office of Elementary and…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is, quite possibly, the most comprehensive and systemic education reform act passed by Congress in the last 40 years. Given only 17 states ever fully complied with NCLB's predecessor, the 1994 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it is only proper that legislators, policymakers, and researchers are now asking…

This study examined the relationship between free-play choices and fine-motor skill in 4-year-old children attending Head Start. Children with poor fine-motor skill were matched for age and gender with children in the same classroom that exhibited good fine-motor skill. Each pair was observed during free-play sessions to examine the degree of…

Achieving full compliance with the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal legislation poses major challenges for most of the nation's states. Structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with ranking representatives from a number of so-called high-readiness states: California, Florida, New York, South Carolina,…

This article describes the step-by-step process Ross Elementary in Topeka, Kan., used to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A simple process of using teamwork, setting specific measurable goals, and frequent monitoring of student progress toward these goals allowed Ross to significantly…

What are the characteristics of professional development that improve teaching practice? This report addresses this question, using data from the National Evaluation of the Eisenhower Professional Development Program. The Eisenhower program is part of the federal government's efforts to support education reform based on high standards. The success…

Purpose: This article investigates the extent to which government-subsidized affordable rental units available to low-income older persons are unequally and unfairly distributed throughout Florida's counties. Design and Methods: Primary data sources from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census were analyzed using…

Located at the crossroads of America, Kansas had long experience of interstate migrants. For many decades armies of workers had entered the state to pursue the harvest of a number of crops, or to pick up whatever work was available on their way west in pursuit of a more rewarding life. The U.S. population was highly mobile and migration played an…

The White House recommends that $140 million for math and education research be stripped away from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and gives it to the U.S. Department of Education. But supporters of the NSF, including congressional Republicans, vowed to rebuff the plan. In this article, critics charged that the proposed move of the…

This paper presents the recommendations made by the Advisory Committee on Job Corps to the Secretary of Labor pertaining to the review, development and implementation of policies, legislation and regulations for the Job Corps program. This document represents the culmination of an intensive and comprehensive nine-month process undertaken by the…

This paper studies the nature and impact of credit constraints in the market for human capital. We derive endogenous constraints from the design of government student loan programs and from the limited repayment incentives in private lending markets. These constraints imply cross-sectional patterns for schooling, ability, and family income that…

The purpose of this report is to provide policymakers, primarily at the federal and state levels, with information about youth with disabilities in foster care, so that policymakers can begin to understand the characteristics of this population; the challenges they face; how they fare with regard to safety, permanency, self-determination and…

Leaders of programs serving rural America need to act strategically to ensure the long-term success of their initiatives. This strategy brief describes the funding landscape of rural programs and highlights the unique challenges confronting rural program leaders. It describes the different public and private resources that can support…

In their paper entitled "Why should postsecondary institutions consider partnering to offer (Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)?" the authors reviewed frequently asked questions they encountered from higher education professionals about IDAs, but as their research continued so did the questions. FAQ II has more in-depth questions and…

The U.S. Department of Education has not yet published an official guidance document for using NAEP achievement level scores to confirm state testing results. A review of the literature, however, identified four principles that inform the valid use of NAEP scores in a confirming analysis. The principles address the appropriate NAEP statistics to…