Debates over the use of college rankings are often framed in binaries: ardent advocates versus outright rejectionists, rankers versus rankees. But the American higher education landscape is complex, and so too should be discussions of rankings. Moreover, the policymaking process is simultaneously intricate and predictable--information is processed…

The importance of the role of partnerships in research is evidenced by the federal government's, private sector's, and nonprofit organizations' continued interest in and approach to funding research through these vehicles. In education research involving interorganizational partnerships, partnerships are needed to create coordination and alignment…

This paper presents the U.S. Department of Education's Fiscal Year (FY) "2010 Annual Performance Report" (APR). This report provides detailed information on: (1) the status of strategic goals, and (2) the outcomes of the strategic performance measures identified in the Department's "FY 2007-2012 Strategic Plan" and updated previously in the "FY…

Many education reporters are drawn to the beat because of its complexity and rich variety. Few topics provide such a wealth of political, business, human interest, breaking news, feature, and investigative stories. A reporter's day can start in a classroom with 4-year-olds struggling to learn to read, and end at a school board meeting with…

Canada weathered the global economic crisis well, mainly reflecting sustained growth in domestic pending, and the economy is continuing to grow despite the persistence of international turbulence, most recently stemming from the euro zone sovereign debt crisis. In Canada's case, several factors are acting in its favour. Federal fiscal plans are…

Through a citation analysis of dissertations at Mississippi State University from 2000-2004, the author examines doctoral students' use of federal government publications as bibliographic references in light of the ongoing migration of these sources to the Internet. The study indicates an increase in the use of federal government documents in Web…

Plants that bear less familiar names such as switch grass, "Miscanthus," and kenaf, are not much to look at, having weathered Iowa's winter snows. But Iowa State researchers see these crops as seeds of change in alternative fuels. Rows of experimental crops line the test plots at Iowa State University's research farm. Although corn is…

Congress created Upward Bound in 1964 with the goal of preparing more low-income students for college. A few months later, it created a second college-preparation program, Talent Search. The pair of programs formed the foundation of TRIO, which now includes six outreach and support programs for disadvantaged students and veterans. Upward Bound's…

As tuitions continue to rise, Congress is looking for ways to mitigate the costs of college attendance for students and their families. Legislators are giving particular scrutiny to how colleges spend money from their endowments, which have grown significantly over the past decade. Some lawmakers have proposed that institutions with endowments of…

Results are reported from an empirical study of an interorganizational collaboration to prepare underrepresented students for elite postsecondary education and beyond. The LEAD (Leadership Education and Development) Program in Business is an initiative involving twelve U.S. universities, nearly forty multinational corporations, a federal…

In an integrated set of jurisdictions, where residents of one country may obtain higher education in another country and later return home (with some probability), the question arises of which country has to pay for higher education abroad - the country of origin of the student, which is likely to benefit from the education acquired abroad, or the…

A federal committee has found that there is almost no evidence to judge whether the more than $3-billion the federal government spends annually to improve science and mathematics education is effective. The committee's report calls for greater assessment and coordination of such programs. The committee, known as the Academic Competitiveness…

Aid to college students has increased by 82 percent over the past decade but still falls short of covering the average price of a college education, as the cost of attending the nation's public universities has continued to outpace inflation, family income, and sources of grant aid, according to two new surveys from the College Board. More than…

The investigation of New York State's attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, into the questionable practices of lenders in federal student-loan programs has helped raise public awareness of one of the greatest scams in our government: The Federal Family Education Loan program, otherwise known as the guaranteed-student-loan program, is unnecessarily…

In the 2008-2009 school year, about 2,000 for-profit schools received almost $24 billion in grants and loans provided to students under federal student aid programs. In the early 1990s, Congress was concerned that some for-profit schools receiving federal student aid were recruiting students who were not ready for higher education. Many of these…