This article compares state expenditure data to see how the operating budgets of public community colleges specifically, and public higher education institutions generally, have fared over the past 30 years. Data from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) have long tracked major state expenditure categories, including the…

Over the past 20 years, substance use (SU) among adolescents has decreased to the lowest levels in decades. While there has been a decline, these public health successes have not been shared equally. Significant racial and ethnic disparities exist, with Black and Latinx adolescents, as well as adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds,…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) administers the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP); land-grant universities conduct the program in all states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. EFNEP focuses on reaching the poorest of the poor by working through families…

New Mexico is home to nearly 70,000 infants and toddlers. New Mexico families are the state's strongest asset, yet current policies aren't meeting their needs. Children's growth and development are shaped by early life experiences. Good health, secure and stable families, and positive early learning environments foster children's physical,…

Despite substantial federal, state, and local investments in improving early care and education (ECE), we know little about whether ECE program quality has improved over time. The lack of data tracking the quality of publicly funded ECE programs at scale creates a substantial evidence gap for policymakers attempting to weigh the returns on, and…

Early childhood has always been the most critical developmental period of the life cycle. Yet for most of history, that essential early foundation for all subsequent learning and development was laid in the home, largely through full-time maternal care. Today, though, an unprecedented number of American mothers are in the workforce. Almost…

We analyze changes in financial aid and student enrollment at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that occurred after the U.S. Department of Education increased the credit history requirements necessary to obtain Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS). We use institution-level data to examine financial aid and enrollment…

Many states are passing "free" college plans, and policymakers at both the state and federal level continue to debate the merits of national "free college" or "debt-free college" proposals, also known as Promise programs. Both federal and state "free" college proposals are geared toward a policy objective of…

Andrew Kelly, the director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute, shares his views on the concept of risk-sharing in higher education. The author presents the question: How would a risk-sharing policy--where colleges bear some financial responsibility for a portion of the federal loans that their students do…

This study compared a value-added approach to school accountability to the currently used metrics of accountability in California of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and Academic Performance Index (API). Five-year student panel data (N?=?53,733) from 29 elementary schools in a large California school district were used to address the research…

In November 2014, with broad bipartisan support, Congress reauthorized CCDBG [Child Care and Development Block Grant] (the major federal child care program) for the first time since 1996. The new law strengthens CCDBG's dual role as a major early childhood education program and a work support for low-income families. This implementation guide is…

Background: In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly "turn around" 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require…

In 2013, preschool education received more attention in the media and public policy circles than it has for some time, in part because of a series of high-profile proposals to expand access to quality pre-K. The scientific basis for these proposed expansions of quality pre-K is impressive. This paper brings to bear the full weight of the evidence…

Since 1976, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has relocated low-income children of color from public housing communities to less racially and economically isolated neighborhoods in an effort to improve their developmental opportunities. This article provides the first comprehensive evaluation summary of seven relocation…

This "Stated Briefly" report is a companion piece that summarizes the results of another report of the same name. The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in financial aid and student enrollment at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) after the U.S. Department of Education increased the credit history…