The Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program guarantees loans for postsecondary education to students and their parents at a limited interest rate. However, limiting borrowers' rates creates a danger that lenders will not be willing to participate in the program if their costs of financing and servicing the loans exceed the interest rates they…

This book is the second of four volumes in a directory of more than 1,000 discretionary grants and contracts supported by the Research to Practice Division of the Office of Special Education Programs. This volume focuses on projects concerned with personnel preparation and designed to help address state-identified needs for qualified personnel in…

In view of the pending reauthorization of Head Start in 2003, this paper presents information on the effectiveness of Head Start, alternatives to Head Start, program funding, performance standards, and other issues germane to its reauthorization. Topics considered in the question-and-answer format of the report are: (1) Head Start benefits for…

This report documents the proceedings of a 1998 symposium on the causes and prevention of childhood obesity sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion to focus attention on the growing problem of childhood obesity in the United States and the link between nutrition and health. Following opening…

This document presents the 50th semiannual report on the activities and accomplishments of the Office of Inspector General (OIG), U.S. Department of Education (Department). During this reporting period, the OIG issued 123 audits, inspection reports and memoranda, and closed 95 investigations. As detailed in this report, this office continues to…

Say Yes to Education is a scholarship guarantee program that pledges to young children and their families a fully paid, post-secondary education along with academic and social supports that follow children throughout their elementary and high school careers. Since its inception in 1987, the Say Yes to Education program has "adopted"…

This brief paper on a topical discussion session held at a conference on children's mental health about implications of the 1999 report, "Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General," for children. The discussion focuses primarily on the chapter in the report specifically about children and mental health with comments by four individuals who…

WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, is a federal program operated through state and local agencies. American Indian tribal organizations administer WIC programs on tribal lands. There are currently 32 tribal WIC programs. Tribes often contribute significant resources of their own in the form of office…

This document is for administrators, rehabilitation counselors, and other professionals who support the employment of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients with disabilities. It contains strategies for vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs to improve an SSI or SSDI…

As debate in Washington heats up regarding congressional reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, a central question involves what to do about the continued coexistence of the two student loan programs--the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the Direct Loan Program (DLP). With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake for banks,…

The Safe and Drug Free School and Communities Act of 1994 authorizes funding at federal, state, and local levels for school-based drug-and violence-prevention programs. This General Accounting Office (GAO) report reviews the following: (1) accountability measures required at the federal, state, and local levels (by the act); (2) activities used by…

Goal 4 of the National Education Goals envisions that teachers will have access to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills. This book examines what federal agencies are doing to enhance teacher preparation, presents information on career-long development, and offers program descriptions and contact names. The first…

The Literacy Learning Center Project, a project of the Meriden Public Library (Connecticut), targeted the educationally underserved and functionally illiterate, and involved recruitment, retention, space renovation, coalition building, public awareness, training, basic literacy, collection development, tutoring, computer assisted services, and…

As part of a 5-year evaluation of the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, this study assessed the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) administration of the program. Data were obtained through interviews with ED and other federal officials, institutional surveys, reviews of documents, attendance at meetings and training events, facilitated…

This report offers a profile of the financial and human resources devoted to research and development (R&D) in the United States and other nations, focusing on the role of universities in carrying out R&D and in supporting the development of scientific and technical personnel needed for a competitive economy. It found that R&D…