This document records testimony from a hearing held to examine the implementation of the promise to restore state and local control over K-12 education through the Every Student Succeeds Act. The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act puts states and school districts back in charge of education and includes more than 50 pages of provisions to…

When the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) became law in 2002, it provided large sums of money to states for education. The program also had very strict performance requirements, including a 2014 deadline for all students to be proficient in mathematics and language arts. To provide some relief from the provisions of NCLB, the Obama administration…

Even though 34 states and the District of Columbia have No Child Left Behind Act waivers in hand, many of them are still negotiating with the U.S. Department of Education over their teacher evaluation systems--a crucial component if they want to keep their newfound flexibility. More than six months after waiver recipients turned in their…

This article offers an analysis of the origins, evolution, and impact of the Obama administration's Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive grant program and places it in the broader context of the debate over the No Child Left Behind Act and the shifting intergovernmental relations around education. RTTT is fundamentally about two things: creating…

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) expanded the federal role in American education, and by doing so altered the distribution of power among the federal government, states, and local districts. When the law was enacted, it was unclear how this change in the distribution of power would play itself out. This study examines the…

The problem of differential and uniform treatment of states, from the federal government's point of view, is examined, including the federal role and the various instruments available for achieving federal purposes. State governments' perspectives are also examined, including ways in which states differ, implementation of federal policy, and…

The Education Amendments of 1978, Part B of the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title IX were implemented because of the growing concern about illiteracy, test score decline, and educational accountability. They establish funds and technical assistance to state and local education agencies for program implementation and test development. Both…

This issue of the quarterly newsletter of the Institute for Research on Educational Finance and Governance contains five articles summarizing five papers on the regulation of education that were originally presented at the institute's Law and Education Seminar. Each summary was written by the author of the original paper. David Kirp's article…

This document summarizes the preliminary findings of U.S. House of Representatives and research on the workings of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) of 1982 during its first nine months. To prepare this print, the committee conducted Congressional forums and site visits in Seattle, Washington; Cleveland, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee; and…

Partly because of the rise of block grants, federal distribution mechanisms raise the issues of federal control and distributional equity in elementary-secondary grant programs. Data--drawn from such major programs as aid for education of the disadvantaged, aid for education of the handicapped, vocational education, and bilingual education--were…

Future federal education policy should shift from complex, detailed regulations to broader grants of authority to state governments, with clear guidelines that specify national goals. Past federal activities, classified as distributive, regulatory, or redistributive, are reviewed to assess factors indicating effectiveness. (CJ)

Resting on the assertion that there is less criticism of the federal role in education in Australia than in the U.S., this paper attempts to identify the structures and practices associated with this less negative view and to determine if they are transferable to the U.S. The first section provides a contextual comparison for national education…

Implementation of educational innovations is considered from three policy perspectives: the political, the organizational, and the interactionist. In periods of educational decline, in terms of enrollments and expenditure, there is need to know how to support and encourage capacity building for change. (RL)

A study examined states' development of automated systems for the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program administered by the states, with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) responsible for program oversight and direction. Results indicated that ACF had not provided direction and focus in its systems development guidance…

In the last two decades, the federal government's role in state and local affairs has shifted markedly from subsidy to regulation. This report examines the origins and effects of the new "regulatory federalism" and proposes reforms. Chapter 1 delineates the subject, chronicling the growth of intergovernmental regulation and discussing…