Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane have gathered a diverse group of scholars to examine the shifting federal role in education across the presidential administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. While the administrations were vastly different, one thing remained constant: an ongoing and significant expansion of the federal role in…

Six papers discuss the increasing role of federal Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) in program evaluation. This issue presents an overview of such inspections, case studies from three federal agencies, and a review of questions and concerns about inspections by OIGs. (SLD)

Research evidence on the potentials of health education for contributing to resolution of national health issues was reviewed. It is concluded that greater investments in health education on selected problems for selected populations would yield a better cost-benefit return than comparable investments in tertiary medical care. High priority groups…

Contributors to this collection examine how today's federal education programs work and show how, instead of working for school improvement, these programs have begun to function as obstacles to the efforts of reform-minded states and schools. The following essays are included: (1) "Overview: Thirty-Four Years of Dashed Hopes" (Chester…

Six articles discuss college savings plans. "Introduction and Overview" by Janet S. Hansen addresses the affordability of college, parental responsibility for college savings, incentives for saving, and the risks and rewards of planning for college expenses. "The Need for College Savings" (Sandy Baum) emphasizes the parents'…

Five papers which criticize Charles Murray's book, "Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980" are presented in this report. In general, the papers dispute Murray's thesis that the poor did not benefit from social policies but were, instead, substantially harmed by these programs. The papers (and their authors) are: (1)…

Thirteen articles, with an introduction, focus on the overall nature and effect of federal involvement in education and suggest what the federal role ought to be. The first five articles examine federal policy dilemmas in the areas of federal educational expenditures, fragmentation of federal programs, elementary and secondary education, criteria…

This occasional paper consists of three essays devoted to evaluation, inquiry, and local planning in federal vocational legislation. In their paper entitled "Evaluation and Accountability in Federal Vocational Legislation," Jerome Moss, Jr. and George H. Copa propose a rationale and a set of recommendations for federal legislation dealing with…

The 16 chapters in this book are intended to stimulate thinking about approaches to dealing with the substance of public assistance policy as it bears on coordination issues, organizational arrangements for policy development and delivery, and processes for building linkages between disparate but related programs. Part I, an introduction, contains…

In March 1995, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Personal Responsibility Act (H.R. 4), part of the House Republican Contract with America. The bill would move primary responsibility for child and family programs to states and communities, reduce federal spending, and consolidate programs into block grants for child care, child…

This publication contains ten papers designed to show relationships between job creation and vocational education. Information is presented regarding three areas: (1) national and state perspectives of job creation, (2) examples of how specific vocational education disciplines impact in the job creation process, and (3) case studies of job…

The seven major papers in this collection discuss the implications of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) (Public Law 97-300) of 1982 from the points of view of its various constituencies. Two of the papers discuss the effects of the JTPA on national employment and training programs, and on state-level programs, while a third discusses…

Fifteen papers commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education's School Finance Project are contained in this volume. The papers examine the changing dimensions of the federal-state partnership in education. The volume is organized into four sections. The first section is devoted to state educational policy concerns, including various state…

This volume compiles and reprints the responses of 37 organizations to a series of questions issued by the House Committee on Agriculture in anticipation of debates concerning the Research Title of the 1995 Farm Bill due for updating and revision. The questions address some of the following topics: the role of the federal government in…