The Secretary of Education, in his State of American Education Address, suggests that the nation is no longer at risk, but on the move. He indicates that Goals 2000 is the force behind the effort to raise standards, to get technology into the classroom, and to set high expectations for everyone. (JOW)

Lessons regarding performance measurement that have been learned since the inception of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) include the following: (1) performance standards drive program behavior; (2) performance standards should clearly reflect policy goals; (3) incentives get results; (4) keep it simple; and (5) performance standards are a…

Accomplishments of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (OAA) include (1) identification of needs of older people; (2) development of strategies to meet those needs; (3) provision of help to older Americans; (4) development of an infrastructure to help older people; and (5) recruitment of professionals to the field of aging. (JOW)

Reviews paralysis of U.S. social policy. Notes that, although federal government has implemented new social programs, programs either are provided on condition of willingness to work or are modest in scope. Linking paralysis with literature on government ineffectuality, traces origins of ineffectuality of political/economic policies of past 20…

High school career academies are a time-tested model for improving academic outcomes and preparing students for both college and careers. Career academies (1) are smaller learning communities taught by a team of interdisciplinary teachers, (2) provide a rigorous academic curriculum based on a career theme that demonstrates how knowledge is used…

The Office of Management and Budget requested that the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) oversee an independent impact evaluation of the federal Student Mentoring Program, and in 2005 IES contracted with Abt Associates and its team of subcontractors (Branch Associates, Moore and Associates, and the Center for Resource Management) to conduct…

The authors express reservations about additional federal funding for the National Science Foundation, including new funding for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education programs, provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. For more than 50 years, American political, business, military, and academic leaders…

Policymakers and researchers have focused on improving the quality of our nation's 3 million teachers to raise the achievement of students in key academic areas, such as reading and mathematics. Given the importance of teacher quality to student achievement and the key role federal and state governments play in supporting teacher quality, GAO's…

As the national education policy community prepares for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), revamping the school improvement approach leveraged by accountability systems has risen to the top of the agenda. There is an emerging consensus that the school improvement process should be systemic, led by states and…

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), historic legislation designed to stimulate the economy, support job creation, and invest in critical sectors, including education. The ARRA lays the foundation for education reform by supporting investments in innovative strategies that…

This non-experimental, correlational study looked at the relationship between bureaucratic structures in middle and high schools in bringing about change in individual teacher classroom instructional practices through the centralized directive of membership in a professional learning community. Using a continuum of bureaucratic structure, from…

Early Head Start serves newborns through toddlers. It is an offshoot of Head Start, the 44-year-old federal program for low-income children ages 3 through 5. Social scientists studying brain development and emotional growth increasingly identify early education as critical to preparing children for kindergarten. As well, researchers have linked it…

State governments wield significant authority in the management of public schools. As a nexus for federal funding, state funding, and regulatory authority, states have both the legal and financial power to help drive school change. The "No Child Left Behind Act" has required each state to create a system of standards-based assessment and…

This study offers a small, highly contextualized counter-example to several recent large-scale analyses depicting Latino underachievement in higher education (R. Fry, 2002; J. Immerwahr, 2003; S. Miller & E. Garcia, 2004; W. Swail, A. Cabrera, & C. Lee, 2004; W. S. Swail, K. E. Redd, & L. W. Perna, 2003). The purpose is to analyze…

Using interviews and 10 weeks of consecutive lesson plans with supporting documentation, the author analyzes four first-year teachers' assigned in-class and out-of-class reading assignments and their choices and uses of reading strategies they learned in their preservice program. (Contains 2 tables.)