This article is part of a case study of U.S. federal leadership in special education from the perspective of those who served in the roles of Assistant Secretaries of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services and Directors of the Office of Special Education Programs or their equivalents in the former U.S. Office of Education and…

Drawing upon the growing datafication of contemporary schooling, our purpose in this article is to use topological thinking as an analytical device to better understand the professionals and practices within emergent data infrastructures. We address this by attending to an influential national (and subnational) data infrastructure of school…

This document records testimony from a hearing before the Committee on Education and Labor that was held to examine the policies and priorities of the Office of Federal Student Aid. Member statements were provided by: (1) Honorable Frederica S., Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment; and (2) Honorable Gregory F.…

This policy ethnography focuses on a nationwide environmental and sustainability education policy that was developed and enacted in response to United Nations' call for mainstreaming Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The framework of governmentality was used as a heuristic tool to explore the modalities of the Taiwan government and…

The U.S. federal government has played a growing role in setting nationwide education policy since the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965. This Act, along with the 'Equality of Educational Opportunity' report commissioned by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, led the U.S. Office of Education to pursue a policy agenda…

This research examines the gap between federal and state legal standards and policies related to educational provision for school-age youth detained in the United States, and secondary evidence documenting the educational services that are provided to unaccompanied im/migrant children in federal custody. The educational provision for unaccompanied…

This report investigates several key questions concerning the current career and technical education (CTE) policy environment. First, what are common themes in how legislators have discussed the most recent legislative actions on CTE? Second, are there differences in these themes across the House and the Senate? Finally, did Democrats and…

When either privileged or under-resourced families navigate gray areas in the law, including federal laws related to students with disabilities such as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, inequities are revealed. Research and emerging trends have raised increasing concerns about unfairness and abuses of disability policies, particularly with…

In Fall 2022, the U.S. Education Department unveiled a drastic overhaul of federal student loan policies. The new rules serve as a key vehicle to advance the Biden administration's higher education agenda. However, some of the final regulations look quite different from the policy proposals initially outlined in President Joe Biden's campaign…

This study uses critical discourse analysis to explain how legislators determine the role and contributions of academic researchers in Congressional legislative hearings. The discursive practices that legislators use serve to construct the social identity of academic witnesses, characterize witnesses' qualifications, solicit information from…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Fair & Effective Education Policy." Contents include: (1) What Students…

Education tax credits provide federal financial aid to a wide expanse of American taxpayers; however, little research or analysis has been done on these costly programs. There has been little evidence of its link to college enrollment growth. This descriptive paper outlines the establishment of education tax credits, their original intent, and the…

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 long-standing effort to desegregate schools in the United States has been fostered, in part, by the development of magnet schools, which were launched in the 1960s to offer appealing choices of educational programs that could attract an integrated population of families. Magnet schools are public elementary or secondary schools that seek to…

Scholars of political economy have raised the question of whether recent populist movements around the world signal the decline of neoliberal hegemony. What would such a decline mean for education policy, an arena that has been dominated by a neoliberal common sense for several decades? This study investigates the policy discourse of former U.S.…