The Biden administration is developing regulations around gainful employment (GE) that would protect students from career-oriented college programs that don't adequately serve their students. A draft GE rule released earlier this year would require that graduates of certificate programs at public and nonprofit colleges and nearly all programs at…

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…

When the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) became law in 2002, it provided large sums of money to states for education. The program also had very strict performance requirements, including a 2014 deadline for all students to be proficient in mathematics and language arts. To provide some relief from the provisions of NCLB, the Obama administration…

The Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education adopts final requirements for the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program, authorized under section 1003(g) of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA). These final requirements make changes to the current SIG program requirements and implement…

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that he plans to demand radical steps--such as firing most of a school's staff or converting it to a charter school--as the price of admission in directing $3.5 billion in new school improvement aid to the nation's 5,000 worst-performing schools. In sharp contrast to the current free-flowing nature of…

All students, including students with disabilities, participate in state accountability systems. Most students with disabilities participate in the regular assessment, with or without accommodations. Students with more significant cognitive disabilities participate in the alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). A…

This report was prepared in response to requests by Senators Specter and Kennedy for information regarding charter schools. It presents data on the following: the number of charter schools approved under state law; characteristics of charter-school instructional programs; factors for school autonomy; accountability mechanisms; and the challenges…

This article describes a model developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Office of Children and Youth, Bureau of Child Development Programs for the evaluation of its child day care programs. The evaluation effort has two phases. The first phase, the Child Development Program Evaluation (CDPE) was designed to provide a…

Current and proposed standards for satisfactory academic progress for recipients of federally sponsored student financial aid under Higher Education Act Title IV are reviewed. The review covers the following standards, proposals, and guidelines: the Veterans Administration standard, a self-regulatory initiative and guidelines for colleges provided…

This semiannual report to Congress summarizes the activities of the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the 6-month period ending September 30, 1997. The OIG gave Congressional testimony regarding the modernization of student-financial-assistance-information programs, the Loan Consolidation process, the Federal Direct…

The extent to which the Reagan Administration has achieved its deregulation goals in the area of higher education is addressed in three articles: "Deregulation and Higher Education: The View a Year Later" (Sheldon Elliot Steinbach); "Student Financial Aid Deregulation: Rhetoric or Reality?" (Robin E. Jenkins); and…

The extent to which colleges are complying with the 1982-1983 Pell Grant validation requirements was assessed. Fall 1982 financial aid data were drawn from a representative sample of 3,490 Pell Grant recipients at 317 colleges that are part of the Regular Disbursement System. Key findings show: (1) the vast majority of institutions collect the…

Academic progress requirements of federally funded student aid programs administered by the Department of Education (ED), the Veterans Administration (VA), and the Social Security Administration (SSA) were investigated. Eighteen public and private two-year and four-year colleges, as well as one public vocational school and one proprietary school,…

An audit guide to assist independent public accountants in performing audits of federal student financial assistance (SFA) programs is presented. The audit assists the Department of Education in determining whether a recipient has (1) provided financial data, including basic financial statements and other financial reports; (2) maintained a system…

The management and operations of federal student assistance programs are addressed in hearings before the Committee on Education and Labor. In fiscal year 1981, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Department of Education (ED) issued 4,811 audit reports on postsecondary education programs. Costs disallowed or questioned amounted to $25.3…