Well into his second year of office, President Nixon proposed a two-part emergency program to alleviate the problems that desegregation was creating for the nation's schools. Shortly thereafter the Congress authorized one-half of the President's 150 million dollar request for a short-term, crash program for project grants to school districts who…

The Federal Government has a responsibility to help States and localities meet specific education needs that involve the national interest. It has a companion responsibility to provide such assistance with as much equity, simplicity, and stability as possible. For greater equity in the distribution of Federal funds, Congress should reform the…

During the Truman administration, the concept of federal aid to education became clearly defined and gained considerable political support. President Truman supported general aid for education as a policy consistent with the administration's overall objectives in domestic programs, but he avoided leadership because of the controversies surrounding…

This report provides information on how federal funding is being used to reduce class size and to spur academic achievement in U.S. urban schools, focusing on the federal Class Size Reduction Program signed into law in 1998. Data from surveys of 40 members of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the U.S.'s largest urban public…

Canada's first constitution gave the provinces and territories the responsibility for education. Training for employment was interpreted as a shared responsibility between the federal and provincial governments. In 1960, with the passage of the Technical and Vocational Training Act, the federal government assumed a major role in occupational…

This document contains the transcript of a Senate hearing on the crisis in science and math education. The document includes mathematics, science, and engineering education; enhance the scientific and technical literacy of the U.S. public; stimulate the professional from the state of Oregon; Carl Sagan, Cornell women and minorities in careers in…

Progress made in DHEW during 1970-72 has been directed toward a more responsible government in meeting a broad range of human problems through better internal coordination, planning, and management accountability. The reforms and legislation enacted are summarized here. Management effectiveness was achieved by formal policy making and…

The federal mission in educational research from 1868, when the Department of Education was established, to 1954, was to collect statistics. In 1954 the Cooperative Research Act authorized the Commissioner of Education to finance research and demonstrations in education. Outside the Office of Education (OE), the National Science Foundation…

This paper reviews how the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) will operate regarding different groups of students and schools, examining factors that could delay or dilute its guarantee of educational accountability for the academic achievement of all children. It discusses such issues as: what kinds of tests must be used and when, who must…

Voluntary efforts to promote racial integration in K-12 schools have met strong resistance from the courts in recent years, despite the long history of court involvement in desegregation litigation. Race-conscious policies have invoked both the integration ideals stemming from Brown v. Board of Education and the diversity rationale in higher…

The four papers in this series were commissioned for the first meeting of the National Commission on Adult Literacy, which met in Nashville on November 14, 2006. The first paper, "Adult Education and Literacy Legislation and Its Effects on the Field," provides the basic provisions of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA,…

While preparing for reauthorization of the Vocational Education Act, the United States Department of Education is looking at the inadequacies of the present law: overemphasis on process and accountability resulting in its being administratively burdensome, inadequate provision for basic skill development, and no provision for improving and…

This speech by the U.S. Commissioner of Education surveys the impact of formal education in raising the level of intellectual and social achievement in America. It also discusses the role of the federal government in streamlining bureaucratic regulations and paperwork so that educational grants can be more readily available and more efficiently…

Vocational guidance and counseling is supported by the United States government through a variety of laws. The Vocational Education Act (VEA) and other federal legislation consistently provide funds for services to assist in the transition from education/training to work, from unemployment to employment, or from one career to another. Most…

This monograph looks at the legislative requirements for coordination between the Vocational Education Act of 1963 (VEA) and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 (CETA). It describes attempts at coordination with vocational education by CETA's most significant antecedent, the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962. Complex…