Under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP), the government guarantees and makes consolidation loans to help borrowers manage their student loan debt. By combining loans into one and extending repayment, monthly repayments are reduced. Unlike other student loans, consolidation loans carry a…

Context: The Veterans Health Administration (VA) provides comprehensive health care services to veterans across the United States. Recently, the VA established an Office of Rural Health to address the health care needs of rural veterans. Purpose: To review the literature on rural veterans' health care needs in order to identify areas for future…

This report offers information and advice to assist all levels of government in its work to establish evidence-based policies, programs, and practices across the life cycle of disasters. This report provides examples of effective community efforts with respect to people with disabilities, and evaluates many emergency preparedness, disaster relief,…

The authors of this memo to President-elect Barack Obama state that many in Congress are now proposing that the federal government intervene to address a range of problems in education by creating new programs and federal subsidies, including public school infrastructure and construction, funding for runaway college tuition costs, and the costs of…

Changes in the context of the national educational enterprise that influence federal education information dissemination policy and programs are discussed. Education issues claiming the attention of educators, policymakers, and the general public are identified as the first area of contextual change. Two issues currently of public concern--the…

The history of Captioned Films for the Deaf, an agency now called Media for the Handicapped, is traced along with the contributions of individuals and groups which led to the eventual passage of legislation in 1959. (CL)

The paper delineates key elements of a preschool program that could lead to the prevention of academic failure, first presenting an overview of the legal history, and then describing the program elements of an effective preschool program for handicapped children. (Author/CL)

This Postsecondary Education Descriptive Analysis Report uses data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Studies (NPSAS:96, NPSAS:2000 and NPSAS:04) to examine trends in Stafford loan borrowing among undergraduates. NPSAS consists of nationally representative survey data that focus on student financial aid and the enrollment and background…

The objective of this report is to review studies that report language and literacy outcomes associated with preschool curriculum-based interventions. Results from studies reporting on interventions targeting preschool children from low-income families were included regardless of the specific type of program. Although the majority of preschool…

Head Start is a national program that provides comprehensive developmental services for preschool children (ages 3 to 5) from low-income families and social services for their families. Approximately 1,400 community-based nonprofit organizations and school systems develop programs to meet specific needs. Head Start began in 1965 in the Office of…

Summarizes three aspects of the federal government's involvement with social science information: changes in scope of federal statistical efforts; rise and decline of federal support for bibliographic information systems and services; development of National Technical Information Service into social science information resource. Eleven references…

Describes the mental health problems of the nation's children and youth and the lack of services to address these problems. Traces the recent history of federal programs targeted toward youth mental health, and criticizes the current administration's "Most in Need Program" in terms of its administrative and conceptual approaches. (GC)

This article provides a critical review of the quality of 12 recent large federal program evaluations. The review focused on elements of the evaluation design, inclusion of evaluation expertise among those who have oversight of the evaluation, and evaluation dissemination. Overall, the process analyses from these evaluations provide good models…

This discussion addresses several nutrition issues considered important to schools, students, and educators in the United States. Contents consist of a review of malnutrition and learning research and discussions of food additives and allergies, diet and hyperkinesia, the effects of caffeine and sugar on children's behavior, and the National…

The document contains the transcript of the congressional hearings on H.R. 2318 to extend authorizations of appropriations for programs established in the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act of 1978. Among the individuals presenting statements are the following: A. Cohn on…