This article examines the federal role in adolescent literacy from its roots in Lyndon B. Johnson's administration with the Economic Opportunity Act (1964) through the Reading for Understanding grants of 2010. The authors consider the extent to which the recent attention to and changes in the federal approach to adolescent literacy can be…

This article reviews the historical context in which Canadian legislation and policy for children with special needs has evolved. The potential for the rights of students with special needs in light of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is outlined. The role of the Federal and Provincial governments in legislation and policy vis-à-vis…

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…

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…

Historical overview of federal government's commitment to statistical coordination notes creation of Central Statistical Board in 1933, decimation of federal statistical coordination beginning in 1952, resignation of Chief Statistician (1982), and government sources of statistical information. A 16-item annotated list of additional information…

The report reviews progress and problems of states and localities in reporting, investigating, treating, and preventing child abuse and neglect. Six major recommendations focus on the role of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, established within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to help states in identification,…

Federal education policy should: (1) define objectives and targets of its activities more precisely; (2) define minimal conditions of organizational performance; (3) distinguish among sources of variability in state-local program implementation; and (4) specify the relationship between strategy and structure. (CJ)

Examines two government voluntary job creation programs: the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act in the 1970s, that have created conflicts with the logic of capitalist production for profit. Suggests principles and policies for a progressive government work program. (JOW)

This report provides an overview of research findings on major Federal welfare system design issues. The report is based on: a review of 100 major welfare studies completed since 1975; interviews with Federal, State, and local welfare officials; the results of the General Accounting Office's (GAO) welfare work; and an analysis of the Census…

The education evaluation efforts of the federal government are discussed, focusing on the question of their effectiveness in informing the policymaking process. Successful evaluation criteria are outlined. An evaluation must provide useful information to policymakers to be a success. (DWH)

This article examines federal policy in the context of professional development and in-service education for school personnel. (MM)

In examining the book "The Changing Politics of Education," the author attacks neo-conservative revisionism that claims that the goals of national policy are either impossible to achieve or undesirable because they frustrate popular will. (Author/IRT)

Discussion of the role of the federal government in supporting educational technology focuses on its efforts to enhance the growth of computer use in the nation's schools. Highlights include legislation, emphasizing the Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Act of 1988; and programs sponsored by the Department of Education…

Presents the roles of the federal government, business, professional organizations, state and local governments and the "information entrepreneur" in advancing the state-of-the-art in social service systems applications. Federal government will continue to act as catalyst for systems development but information entrepreneurs and others will play…

Historically, policies and funding guidelines for most federal educational programs have not adequately recognized the diversity of rural schools. A dichotomy of rural and urban, or even a tripartite classification (urban, suburban, and rural), would mask the internal diversity of rural schools. Current efforts to understand the condition of…