Current national efforts at education reform rely largely on the use of standardized testing, the cornerstone of federal education policy as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, with its requirements for regular testing of all students and demonstrations of adequate yearly progress on tests by all schools. The challenges…

A discussion of second language literacy (SLL) looks at various contexts in which language minorities in the United States attempt to become literate in English, and the effects of conflicting agendas on the individual and the second language classroom. Six areas influencing literacy agendas are discussed. In the first chapter, differing concepts…

In order that we may know where we stand in secondary education, the membership of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools four years ago took the lead in urging a study. When the members of a committee of this association appeared before the Bureau of the Budget in 1928, they received a very courteous hearing. It was…

The U.S. Office of Education has undertaken the preparation of a series of basic studies on education in a number of Central and South American countries under the sponsorship of the Interdepartmental Committee on Cultural and Scientific Cooperation. This series of studies is part of a program to promote understanding of educational conditions in…

The development of the junior high school as a distinct and separate unit of the public-school system is one of the most remarkable and striking chapters in the history of public education in the United States. From humble beginnings in a few scattered cities the movement has gathered momentum until hundreds of school systems have been profoundly…

This report is an account of a survey entitled, "A Project to Survey the Motion Picture Production Facilities of Selected Colleges and Universities in the United States," which was conducted by the University Film Foundation during the Spring and Fall of 1960, under a contract with the U.S. Office of Education. Reasons for the survey included the…

The quality of education provided by the public sector in Pakistan has been poor due to low levels of teacher competence, lack of classroom-based support for teachers, poor quality of textbooks and learning materials, lack of systems to assess student learning outcomes, uneven supervision, insufficient resources for critical teaching and learning…

The analysis of access to education in Ghana builds on the Ministry of Education Sector Performance Report and the World Bank sector studies. Though access has improved it remains uneven and has not grown as fast enough to reach universal levels of participation in primary school and JSS [Junior Secondary School] by 2015. More needs to be…

This report, supported by case studies in Florida (ED508098), Georgia (ED508099), New York (ED508100), and Oregon (ED508101), identifies and examines policy options available to states that are interested in creating sustained K-16 reform. The findings move the K-16 agenda forward by proposing a set of state policy levers that can be used to…

In this paper we examine the research literature on teacher performance pay. Evidence clearly suggests an upsurge of interest in many states and school districts; however, expanded use of performance pay has been controversial. We briefly review the history of teacher pay policy in the U.S. and earlier cycles of interest in merit or…

This paper examines the history of Minnesota's policies in higher education from the end of World War II to the present with emphasis on policies concerning coordination and governance. The paper summarizes decisions and recommendations and analyzes trends to gauge their effects and effectiveness over this time period. The paper begins with a…

A study focusing on vocational education in the Atlanta schools reveals that while vocational education in the Atlanta public schools has a long history, full-fledged job training was quite late in coming to Atlanta's high schools. With the onset of desegregation in the mid-1960s, several new projects were initiated to enhance vocational education…

The depression of the past few years led colleges and universities to seek new ways in which to assist their financially needy students. In January 1937 the Office of Education requested all colleges and universities to send it descriptions of the projects they had devised. The responses to this request indicated a very cooperative spirit on the…

One of the most important factors in the education of children is the establishment of their physical health, without which all learning and training must have less value for the individual and for society than they would have with it. Implicitly in the act creating the Bureau of Education and explicitly in recent acts of Congress, investigations…

One of the first attempts to provide education for neglected children was made in Germany in 1695 in a school founded by August Hermann Francke. A century later a like effort was made in England, when "ragged" schools, supported by voluntary contributions of private organizations, were founded. These earlier schools were conducted by persons who…