This article summarizes and assesses federal K-12 compensatory education policies during the past six decades. It focuses on the centerpiece of that effort, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Related programs such as America 2000, Goals 2000, No Child Left Behind, and Every Student Succeeds Act are discussed. It…

Early American historians provided the public and policy-makers with information about US history that provided both entertainment and policy suggestions. As American historians became more professionalised in the early twentieth century, they concentrated more on their own scholarly concerns and less on policy-relevant writings. In recent…

Under Horace Mann, children aged 4-16 spent more days in school. Reformers concentrated their efforts on this group. Thus, although there was an overall decline in school attendance, 1820-60, economic historians need to consider quality as well as quantity in assessing the economic productivity of education. (Author/WM)

Utilizing extensive individual-level data files to examine antebellum school attendance in Newburyport (Massachusetts), a procedure was devised to estimate school attendance in Essex County (Massachusetts), during the period 1860-61. Concludes that a substantial minority of antebellum youth attended high school in Massachusetts communities. (SLM)

The origin of the idea of systemic educational reform is traced, placing the concept within the context of educational developments in the 1980s and 1990s. How systemic reform is being interpreted and applied by analysts and policymakers today is explored. Systemic reform should be a useful step toward genuine improvement. (SLD)

The 1994 reauthorization of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) introduced significant changes in the structure of federal support for educational research, development, and statistics. After more than 3.5 years of experience with these changes, it is time to assess the results of the new approach. Rather than looking only at…

This paper describes the creation of the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) in 1998 and examines the background characteristics of the Board members and their attendance at NAGB meetings. The staffing and financing of the NAGB and the relationship between the agency and the National Center for Education Statistics is also considered. The…

Analyzes the expanding federal role in K-12 education after the mid-1960s. Provides a brief historical overview of Title I and Head Start and discusses some of the major evaluations of these programs. Contains 111 references. (SLD)

Discusses nineteenth-century U.S. efforts to educate poor children. Describes educational expansion during the period, which included monitorial charity schools, Sunday schools, and infant schools. Reviews antebellum perspectives on poverty and education. Examines school attendance in 1860 and the relationship between education and social…

A case study of events involving the Beverly High School (Beverly, Massachusetts) circa 1860 exemplifies educational trends in mid-19th century Massachusetts. The hypothesis is that the political situation in mid-19th century Massachusetts was much more complex than has been suggested by radical revisionsts who tend to interpret educational and…

This book analyzes the lessons that history can teach those who wish to reform the American education system. It traces the evolving role of the federal government in educational research; explores the course of early-childhood education in the 19th and 20th centuries; examines the history of the Follow Through program, which existed from 1967 to…

This essay examines the relationship between economic and educational developments in the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War. Early industrialization in the United States began during the first half of the 19th century and seems to coincide with common school expansion and reforms. Yet the link between economic and educational…

The relationship between education and broad changes in American society is explored in these chapters, most of which were previously published essays. The first part of the book examines families, schools, and the challenges of economic opportunity. Chapter 1 examines the relation between family and schooling in colonial 19th-century America,…

One of the most popular and enduring legacies of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs, Project Head Start continues to support young children of low-income families--close to one million annually--by providing a range of developmental and educational services. Yet as Head Start reaches its fortieth anniversary, debates over the…

This study provides a historical setting for the current interest in preschool education by examining the assumptions and efforts of educators and politicians involved in establishing preschool programs in Boston during the 1830's. Parallels are drawn between the early education experiments detailed here and those undertaken recently, in order to…