All states value their distinct approaches to policy and to life and the U.S. Constitution embeds the idea of state rights and responsibilities as a core principle in the federal system. California arguably takes this further than most. This paper provides a new way to think about how national policies might complicate or augment the next state…

For as long as there have been struggling schools in America's cities, there have been efforts to turn them around. But overall, school turnaround efforts have consistently fallen far short of hopes and expectations. Quite simply, turnarounds are not a scalable strategy for fixing America's troubled urban school systems. Fortunately, findings from…

A Washington research group is raising questions about the wisdom of the U.S. Department of Education's favored strategies for turning around the lowest-performing schools with stimulus funding, saying that its research shows that similar federal approaches to school restructuring have not been effective. The questions raised by the new study were…

This document explores the interaction between the Title I legal framework and selected state and local compensatory education programs (SCE). Specifically, it is concerned with: (a) whether the language of the Title I legal framework setting forth the basic local educational agencies (LEA) program requirements applicable to SCE programs is…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) focused attention on the academic achievement of more than 5 million students with limited English proficiency. Obtaining valid test results for these students is challenging, given their language barriers. This testimony describes: (1) the extent to which these students are meeting annual academic…

As part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the U.S. government began subsidizing Internet and telecommunications access in classrooms and libraries through a tax on long-distance services (the E-Rate Program). This paper analyzes the impact of this program on public schools' technology adoption during 1996-2000, examining data on technology…

The stated purpose of this report is to locate the scattered pieces of information concerning adolescence and compensatory education in order to assess whether these pieces form any coherent pattern, and determine the possible implications of any such pattern for federal policy in education. Four principal sources of information were available for…

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides an opportune occasion to take a fresh look at the federal role in teacher professional development. Funds designed to improve teachers' professional prowess currently are tucked into a number of federally funded programs--programs, for example, for students living in…

This monograph is based on a conference that was held under the sponsorship of the Midwest Administration Center, Department of Education of the University of Chicago, in February 1977. The conference centered on varying interpretations of the role of the school, the home, and the state in the governing and financing of education in Illinois and…

For several decades, education has assumed a vital role in this country's economic, social, and political development, catapulting less advantaged citizens into higher social classes and the political process. A testament to education's fundamental importance in our society are the numerous programs designed during the 1960s to eliminate the…