Drawing on a qualitative case study of four Head Start sites, this article analyzes a number of governing patterns that have emerged and grown in the field of early childhood education and care in the United States. This article specifically highlights a government's enhanced oversight and management of Head Start programs by mandating a school…

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…

Very brief welcoming remarks (1) assert that true educational improvement takes place in the classroom, (2) provide examples of productive and nonproductive educational initiatives, and (3) challenge the Secretary of Education to eliminate unnecessary federal government intrusion into schools. (RH)

Bills passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in spring 2001 to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reinforce and strengthen the education accountability provisions contained in the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) of 1994. This paper evaluates the accountability provisions in this…

This document contains witness testimonies and prepared statements from the Congressional hearing called to examine what the federal government as well as local and state governments are doing and can do to respond to the growing problem of crack cocaine, and what prevention and treatment approaches are effective. Opening statements and/or…

This paper examines the study plan for the National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) and outlines some of the preliminary results that have been determined to date. According to the paper, the NAVE has identified five broad areas in which to conduct research: (1) implementation of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act; (2)…

The deregulation critique of the federal role in education asserts that education can be as productive with less federal intervention. This critique can be broken down into three groupings of separate criticisms. The first group denies the value or feasibility of federal goals. These criticisms insist either that federal goals are not worthwhile…

This statement of the enforcement of child day care licensing standards identifies basic concepts of the enforcement process and operational procedures necessary to bring about this process. Two types of enforcement operations, negative and positive enforcement of standards, are identified and examined in detail. Positive enforcement is defined as…

The implications for research of the Lau regulations, the political climate in which the regulations were withdrawn, and the Lau remedies are explored. Research activities have been mandated by the Bilingual Education Act of 1978 in the areas of needs assessment, the quality of educational services, and the effectiveness of Title VII programs.…

The way that the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) should conduct its quality assurance function of monitoring a processing contractor is described. For the following quality assurance procedures, information is provided on the goal of the procedure, activities to be measured, measures, and the role of…

A framework for monitoring quality control (QC) of processor contracts administered by the Department of Education's Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) is presented and applied to the Pell Grant program. Guidelines for establishing QC measures and standards are included, and the uses of a sampling procedure in the QC system are…

This publication reports on progress 1 year into the Clinton Administration's "Reinventing Government" initiative, a long-term effort at significantly revamping the federal government's operations. A preliminary chapter notes the culture change involved in the reinvention process. Individual chapters then report progress for each of the…