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 paper examines labor market conditions and public employment policies in the United States during what some are calling the Great Recession. We document the dramatic labor market changes that rapidly unfolded when the rate of gross domestic product growth turned negative, from the end of 2007 through early 2009. The paper reviews the…

The Interagency Working Group on U.S. Government-Sponsored International Exchanges and Training (IAWG) was created through Executive Order 13055 in 1997 to recommend to the President measures for improving the coordination, efficiency, and effectiveness of U.S. government-sponsored international exchanges and training. The IAWG's four goals for…

The aim of this paper is to indicate how Project Follow Through can contribute to a better-integrated and rationalized federal programming strategy. The first section identifies areas in which federal programs have consistently succeeded or failed and presents reasons why those outcomes are probably the inevitable results of the policy tools that…

Hearings were held on the reauthorization of the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the extension of the Child Nutrition and National School Lunch Acts. Testimony on WIC concerns: the importance of and need for the WIC program; state and federal funding of the program; program effectiveness; experiences of…

A hearing investigated children's health programs and related policies which might provide a healthy future for America's youth. Of particular interest were the coverage and scope of services under existing programs, and deficiencies in child health programs that may be remedied. Areas of concern included initiatives to improve infant mortality…

Discussion of efforts by federal, state, and local government agencies to enhance the library resources and services available to older citizens highlights the roles of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) and the Administration on Aging (AoA), cooperative agreements, and descriptions of state and local programs.…

Federal agencies use information dissemination programs as one of several tools to achieve various social or environmental goals. Evaluations of five federal information dissemination program cases were examined to assist agency efforts in evaluating and improving the effectiveness of such programs. These cases were: Environmental Protection…

Effective practice reviews (EPRs) are described as used in evaluation studies for the Office of Evaluation and Inspections, a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Examples are given of EPRs in addressing new problems, structuring and improving federal programs, and decreasing costs. (SLD)

A research project used a Cornell University library search, online computer catalogs, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database back to 1967, government publications, and Dissertation Abstracts International for the Social Sciences for the past 30 years to investigate the Federal Government's role in working to solve adult…

Three articles on evaluation in the Federal government describe a decline in budget and staff support, narrowing of the agenda to internal management issues, and the subordination of evaluation to other functions. Issues for the future of Federal government evaluation are discussed. (SLD)

This report provides an overview of efforts undertaken by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1990 to review and report on federal program areas its work identified as high risk because of vulnerabilities to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. It reviews the current status of efforts to address these concerns. The six categories of…

Nationally obtained public testimony, evaluations of previous studies, discussions of prior recommendations, examinations of federal reports, and review of federal investigations have identified serious problems that threaten to undermine the integrity of federal student financial assistance programs, as well as public confidence in their…

This report, along with its supplemental volumes, assesses the welfare system and its successes and failures, describes the frustrations felt by the poor in the United States, and proposes a basic change in public assistance policy. America's state and federal governments spend more than $150 billion a year on programs to alleviate poverty, yet…

This report evaluates the Migrant Student Record Transfer System (MSRTS), a national computer system of records on migrant children, that was voluntarily created in 1969 by state directors of the Migrant Education Program (MEP). As the Federal Government instituted policy changes, MSRTS became the primary source of data for federal and state…