TICAS' 2025 Federal Policy Agenda advises members of the 119th Congress on how to strengthen the nation's higher education system to ensure a college degree is both accessible and affordable. Our higher education system faces extensive challenges, but a postsecondary credential remains the most reliable path to economic mobility, and the economy…

Over the last decade and a half, during a period defined in the public consciousness by political partisanship, the legislative and executive branches have quietly forged a bipartisan consensus around the need to build evidence of effectiveness that would ensure high rates of return on investment for the nation's social programs. The establishment…

Enactment of federal educational policy has direct implications for states and local school districts across the nation, particularly in the areas of accountability and funding. This study utilized constructivist grounded theory to examine the impact of policy on science education reform in a large, urban school district over a 5-year period. The…

Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., and Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University, wrote in "How to Rescue Education Reform" in The New York Times on December 5 that the federal government can and should play a…

Across the nation, juvenile courts and corrections systems are littered with poorly conceived strategies that increase crime, endanger young people and damage their future prospects, waste billions of taxpayer dollars, and violate people's deepest held principles about equal justice under the law. While juvenile justice is largely a state and…

Concentrating on executive powers presents a real opportunity for the Obama administration to turn its focus away from a divided Congress and the unappetizing process of making legislative sausage. Instead, the administration can focus on the president's ability to deliver results for the American people on the things that matter most to them. The…

What the author has learned, wandering around in the mists and fogs of the lowlands along the Potomac, is that nothing happens in Congress until there is a will, a consensus, and not just in the leadership, but in the rank and file of both parties that an issue needs to be addressed in a particular way. The problem needs to be explicated until it…

In this paper the first year accomplishments and failings of the Carter Administration in civil rights enforcement are assessed. Areas considered include the following: leadership and management, employment, education, housing, health and social services, and veterans affairs. Enforcement in some areas has improved but progress has been slow and…

In Australia, higher education policy changes are being initiated by a federal government without legislative control over state institutions. Although the federal government wishes to see a more diverse system and claims to be de-bureaucratizing the system, its policies encourage imitation of elite universities and appear to be centralizing…

Explores three alternative paths to dealing with racism, and how human rights agencies can relate to each of these, viz., disruptions of institutions, creation of parallel institutions, and, working through established channels within institutions. (Author/JM)

Perspectives on excellence in education are addressed in a 1982 public hearing. Representatives from Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico are among the witnesses. Attention is directed to federal policy toward excellence in education and signs of improvement. It is noted that many school districts have set rigorous standards for promotion…

Three strategies the federal Department of Education might pursue in realizing the promise of technology in higher education are assessed: (1) maintenance of the status quo, with gradual incorporation of technology; (2) an aggressive, activist federal role in formulating new teaching and delivery systems; and (3) federal deregulation and…

A study assessed strategies agencies use to ensure that their workforces are receiving the training necessary to implement acquisition initiatives. Focus was on the General Services Administration (GSA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and Department of Defense (DOD). Findings indicated that the critical elements important to…

Australia's national policy concerning equity in higher education is examined, particularly policy concerning funding and accountability mechanisms. The absence of any analytical or theoretical basis for planning and prioritization of equity initiatives and resulting limitations on their effectiveness are discussed. (MSE)

The origins of the United States' land-grant universities is reexamined, and an alternative interpretation is offered. Establishment of these universities is seen traditionally as part of the educational evolution of the country; it is proposed that while educational reform played a minor role in their emergence, the primary motivation behind the…