Forty years after its opening, Americans must reconsider the efficacy of a federal, Cabinet-level Department of Education. Rescinding agency status, eliminating duplicative, ineffective, and inappropriate programs, and re-organizing remaining programs under a restored Office of Education within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services…

The Committee on Education and Labor met to hear testimony on "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the United States Department of Education." The U.S. Department of Education was making a budget request for Fiscal Year 2022 and the Committee wanted to examine the Department's priorities to support students, educators, and…

Using a sociological framework this article explores the emergence and possible consequences of the 2015 U.S. Department of Education's proposed federal regulatory policy on teacher education programs and alternative route providers. After describing the key features of the policy, we examine the research literature looking for evidence of the…

Washington is at a crossroads on K-12 education policy. Policymakers can (1) continue down the path of top-down accountability; (2) devolve power to states and districts, thereby returning to the status quo of the mid-1990s; or (3) rethink the fundamentals, do something different, and empower parental choice. This article discusses how the federal…

States are pushing ahead with efforts to make sweeping changes to education policy through the Race to the Top program, despite some of them having seen individual schools and districts back out of the process because of concerns over the time and money required to make those plans a reality. The Obama administration has envisioned Race to the…

As the National Assessment Governing Board marks its 20th anniversary, it looks back at its stewardship of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) with understandable pride. NAEP existed for 20 years before the Board was established to provide an independent governance structure for the assessment. During its first two decades, NAEP…

This chapter discusses the relationship between the various processes of educational policy-making and the corresponding sectors and processes of general governmental policy-making, particularly at the federal level. In her discussion, the author describes and analyzes educational governance as a subarea of the overarching system of American…

This volume, the third of a three-part handbook of Federal educational policies, programs, and proposals, analyzes and classifies the Federal training and educational programs under the headings of (1) method of administration, (2) levels of education concerned, (3) geographic areas affected, and (4) number and types of persons affected. In…

This report, second in a three part series, surveys the educational activities administered by Federal agencies. It describes each program and summarizes the activities including data on funds obligated for them. Such activities are construed to include: (1) educational activities which are a Federal responsibility as indicated by statute or other…