This article reports on the results of a study undertaken by the U.S. Department of Education on the impact of the Reading First program, which offer little insight into which parts of the program are worth saving and which need revamping. The study found that the $6 billion spent on the program has helped students with basic decoding but not with…

This guide outlines strategies for financing asset-building initiatives and provides information on 71 federal funding sources that can be used to support a range of activities and services. It includes well-known sources of funding for asset building, for example, the Assets for Independence Demonstration Program and the Family Self-Sufficiency…

As the number of large federal programs increases, so, too, does the need for a more complete understanding of how to conduct evaluations of such complex programs. The research literature has documented the benefits of stakeholder participation in smaller-scale program evaluations. However, given the scope and diversity of projects in multi-site…

Although research has provided a substantial amount of information about key characteristics of effective school leaders, there is a growing need for continued improvement and reflective practice on the continuous development of instructional leaders. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent elementary principals perceive they are…

These tables show undergraduate Stafford loan borrowing rates and average Stafford loan amounts from 1989-90 to 2007-08, using data from six separate administrations of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS): NPSAS:90, NPSAS:93, NPSAS:96, NPSAS:2000, NPSAS:04, and NPSAS:08. The estimates that appear in these tables reflect the newly…

President Obama's FY 2013 budget request includes another major spending increase for the Department of Education--2.5 percent more than last year--to nearly $70 billion. American taxpayers are calling for spending restraint in Washington, yet President Obama's proposals would exacerbate the existing bureaucratic maze of federal programs and…

The content of this guide was derived from ongoing work of a working group on growth models coordinated and facilitated by the SLDS Grant Program's State Support Team. The Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant Program was asked by several states to review current growth models with the goal of determining the impact of different models…

The United States Department of Education (USED) granted 11 states waivers (eight full waivers and three conditional waivers) to provide what the USED termed "flexibility" from meeting some of the requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Much of the flexibility relieves schools from the Adequate Yearly Progress mandate that requires…

This review focuses on broad themes characterizing marital research in the past decade. In addition to continuing themes, such as a focus on conflict, violence, and impact on physical and mental health outcomes, we also address the impact of the Healthy Marriage Initiative on marital research and recent advances in methodology. We highlight an…

The documents enclosed in this report provide a comprehensive and systematic review of the progress made in developing a network organization capable of supporting nanoscience education for the public on a national scale. There is a logic to the studies that were done and to the reports that are included in this notebook. The following are the…

This secondary analysis of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a randomized study of program participation of children and families in Early Head Start (that is, enrolled in programming prior to children's first birthdays) investigated sociodemographic (race and ethnicity, income level, and maternal education level) and program…

There is a call across the country and in Texas to improve health care systems through integrated care. Integrated health care is the systematic coordination of physical and behavioral health services. The idea is that physical and behavioral health problems often occur at the same time and that integrating services will provide the best results…

How well a particular industry fares during any given time has an impact on countless other industries and consumers. Case in point--rising gas prices are affecting everything from airfares to the price of getting a pizza delivered. This article describes a similar situation that is happening with the wave of home foreclosures as the subprime…

Narrative skills that are important for preschoolers include retelling stories, telling personal stories, and answering questions about stories. Narrative abilities form the foundation of reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an individually delivered language intervention on the narrative skills of…

"Education is the source of shared values essential to democracy, (...) [however], values are not enough for democracy to function well; expert skills are also needed" (Fuhrman & Lazerson, 2005, xxvi). With the turn of the 21st century, debates over the nation's public school system's ability to ensure No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act…