As Congress considers the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), there is bipartisan interest in finding ways to address concerns about student debt and the quality of higher education. One possibility for bipartisan cooperation might be an attempt to provide more accountability in the higher education sector, including additional data…

The federal role in education will soon be transformed in ways that could produce an even greater society than President Lyndon B. Johnson envisioned. The authors identify underlying principles of this new role and describe how it represents a significant departure from the past. Historically, for example, the federal government has been…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Standard Response: Senate HELP Committee Chairman and Top Republican Agree that Standards Movement Needs to Be Led by States,…

America continues to make progress in meeting its high school dropout challenge. Leaders in education, government, nonprofits and business have awakened to the individual, social and economic costs of the dropout crisis and are working together to solve it. This year, all states, districts, and schools are required by law to calculate high school…

Monitoring the well-being of children and adolescents is a critical component of efforts to prevent psychological, behavioral, and health problems and to promote their successful development. Research during the past 40 years has helped identify aspects of child and adolescent functioning that are important to monitor. These aspects, which…

In this article, the author discusses the discrepancy in high school dropout rates throughout the U.S. and in national studies because of different measures of the dropout rate. Many states began to use a common dropout definition developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Not included among the 37 states using the NCES…

"Pushouts" are victims of discriminatory discipline procedures in public schools. Pushouts first came into view with the publication of a book by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the Southern Regional Council. The book is called "The Student Pushout: Victim of Continued Resistance to Desegregation." The Office for Civil Rights in the Department…

As a follow-up to a study of education and training beyond basic schooling issued in 1985 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and in response to the OECD's request, this paper presents a detailed case study of the United States that focuses on government policies and education and training options for 16- to…

The structure of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) is built on the belief that flexibility and responsibility are necessary at the state and local levels to tailor successful programs. The purposely limited federal role allows state and local decisions to flourish. JTPA's private-public partnership has been a major public relations success…

This document provides an account of the status of Hispanics in inner-city public high schools, and recommendations for improving that status. The report has two main parts. The first gives background data which reveal, among other things, that although the majority of Hispanic students enter high school with aspirations as high as any social…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) U.S. Mayors Adopt Alliance's Recommendations on Teacher Induction at Annual Conference; (2) Chicago to Close…

This document profiles 31 federal programs from which funding for adult literacy may be available. The document's three sections present descriptions of the following types of sources of funding and programs: (1) single pieces of legislation that contribute the major federal share of federal support for adult education in the United States; (2)…