In an effort to help students better understand the complexity of making environmental policy and the role of policy actors in this process, we developed a mock congressional hearing simulation. In this congressional hearing, students in two environmental policy courses take on the roles of members of Congress and various interest groups to…

Postsecondary education (PSE) is increasingly becoming an option for students with intellectual disability (ID; Grigal & Hart, 2012). Postsecondary education offers the promise of pursuing a valued social role (that of college student), enhanced social networks, and, most significantly, increased employment options. To date, research and…

The roundtable discussion transcribed in this report focuses on how students with disabilities are accessing and succeeding in post-secondary education. It marks the sixth in a series to examine issues the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions plans to address in the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Statements…

Asia literacy is a growing concern of the Federal Government in relation to the development of an Asia literate workforce. Despite 30 years of funded initiatives, the thought of teaching about Asia is a daunting one for pre-service teachers. This is due to the lack of Asia foci in university pre-service courses and complicated by the definition of…

The National Security Education Program, established under the National Security Education Act of 1991, has had a post-funding service requirement in the Federal Government for undergraduate scholarship and graduate fellowship recipients since its inception. The service requirement, along with the concern that the National Security Education…

The National Science Foundation (NSF), in carrying out the Obama administration's new push for greater public access to research published in scientific journals, will consider exclusivity periods shorter than the 12-month standard in the White House directive, as well as trade-offs involving data-sharing and considerations of publishers'…

Scientific thinking and understanding are essential for all people navigating the world, not just for scientists and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals. Knowledge of science and the practice of scientific thinking are essential components of a fully functioning democracy. Science is also crucial for the…

Over the past decade, the federal government has made substantial efforts to simplify the college-going process and help students to evaluate college choices. These low-cost strategies aimed at improving college access and success by helping students to make informed decisions about college warrant assessment. This study examines the impact of a…

This paper examines the approach Brazil has taken to promote the internationalization of higher education over the last decade. Three key areas are identified: human resources development, institution building, and international partnerships. Our analyses of initiatives in these areas demonstrate that Brazil does not follow global trends such as…

For nearly half a century, the federal government has largely outsourced the determination of which colleges and universities are eligible to receive federal taxpayer money--in the form of student grants and loans--to member-based, geographically oriented accrediting agencies. This outsourcing of responsibility, however, has failed to protect…

Institutional accreditation has served higher education and the public interest well for more than a century, but now its purposes are changing quickly and dramatically. Accreditation began as a voluntary, nongovernmental peer review process internally managed by colleges and universities to determine if schools met threshold tests of academic…

This is the seventh in a series of hearings to inform this committee's reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. The focus of this hearing, teacher preparation, is profoundly important for all students, from the very youngest to adult students. Study after study shows that teacher quality is the decisive in-school factor in boosting student…

The United States Department of Education's (the Department's) "FY 2014 Annual Performance Report" (APR) and "FY 2016 Annual Performance Plan" (APP) provide information relative to the "FY 2014-18 Strategic Plan." Again this year, the Department has consolidated its APR and APP in an effort to provide a more complete…

The 2020 Budget builds off the foundation of the President's previous budgets and provides an avenue toward spending restraint. The Budget meets the President's directive on spending reductions by agency, proposing over $2.7 trillion in spending reductions--more proposed spending reductions than any previous administration in history--and closing…

The purpose of the United States Department of Education's (Department) fiscal year (FY) 2020 "Agency Financial Report" (AFR) is to inform Congress, the President, other external stakeholders, and the American people on how the Department used the federal resources entrusted to it to advance the mission of the Department to promote…