America's college financial-aid system has helped millions of students obtain a postsecondary education, but the system's flaws are increasingly apparent. Growth in tuition and fees outpace available resources, particularly for students striving to rise out of poverty. Low- and middle-income students confront frightening levels of education debt.…

During few times in America's history has leadership in education been more critical. Far too many communities continue to face the enduring impacts of systematic racism and generational poverty. The nation's schools have also been impacted by COVID-19 and, for many, the effects are staggering and could last for years. At the same time, as the…

The federal financial aid system is no longer up to today's demands. Built in a different era, its haphazard evolution over the decades has made it inefficient, poorly targeted, and overly complicated. With the need for higher education never greater and college growing increasingly unaffordable, students deserve a streamlined aid system that is…

There is growing unease about suspension and expulsion of children at the preschool level. Preschoolers are expelled at three times the rate of K-12 students (Gilliam, 2005). Boys--particularly African-American boys--comprise a disproportionate number of these cases, a fact that has caused concern among parents, policymakers, and advocates alike.…

Nationally, 28 percent of all public elementary and secondary schools were in rural locations in 2013-14, serving 18 percent of all K-12 students (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 2015). Rural schools serve students in sparsely populated areas and have smaller overall populations than schools in other…

This document records testimony from a hearing held to examine the federal government's mismanagement of Native American schools. The hearing is part of an effort to begin addressing the challenges facing Native American schools so that every child in every school can receive an excellent education. Member statements were presented by: (1)…

This second part of a two-part series is a survey of U.S. government web resources on human trafficking in the United States, particularly of the online publications and data included on agencies' websites. Overall, the goal is to provide an introduction, an overview, and a guide on this topic for library staff to use in their research and…

Over the years, various federal and non-federal organizations have disseminated and promoted a number of protective factor frameworks to reduce risk and optimize family functioning and child development. There is a growing interest in and commitment to examining factors that transcend the traditional deficit-based approach to addressing social and…

The tenor of discussions held in Washington last week by negotiators rewriting federal rules on teacher preparation underscored deep-seated philosophical divisions within the field, including the thorny issue of how much responsibility schools of education should bear for producing effective teachers. Though the panelists did reach compromises on…

The 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests brought countless media reports about unemployed college graduates struggling to repay their student loans and headlines sounding alarms that outstanding student loan debt will soon reach $1 trillion. Even though evidence is mixed on whether today's college graduates leave school with significantly more debt…

The federal government devotes roughly one-sixth of its spending to 10 major means-tested programs and tax credits, which provide cash payments or assistance in obtaining health care, food, housing, or education to people with relatively low income or few assets. Those programs and credits consist of the following: (1) Medicaid; (2) the low-income…

Internet search histories reveal much about the collective concerns and interests of the population. Researchers have demonstrated that searches for terms such as "flu symptoms" predict the onset and prevalence of flu in given geographical areas. Can such an analysis be applied fruitfully to data on searches related to higher education issues? One…

Head Start, the federal government's pre-K program, is at a crossroads. The program has been used as an anti-poverty measure by the government for over 45 years. It has grown significantly since its inception and provided many children with a valuable, high-quality early education, and in FY2012 served more than 960,000 children under 5 on a $7.9…

As the Biden-Harris administration seeks to hasten the country's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reforming the U.S. higher education system to ensure equitable access and attainment for all adults is more important than ever. Most student parents are mothers, students of color, adult and working learners, students with low incomes, and…

Like the federal Pell Grant program, need-based state grant programs are designed to increase access to higher education among low- and moderate-income students. A growing body of research indicates that adequate funding is a necessary but not sufficient condition for successfully achieving this goal. Aid programs that are easy to understand and…