Federal regulations (U.S. Department of Education, 2007a) provide states with the flexibility to offer an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS). This assessment option is for a small group of students with disabilities who can make significant progress, but may not reach grade-level achievement within the…

Much attention has been focused on the accountability, student learning outcomes, transfer of credit, and illegal file sharing provisions of the two related bills that have moved through the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives to amend and extend the provisions of the 1965 Higher Education Act (S. 1642 and H.R. 4137). One of the…

The organization and format of this primer which is designed for state officials differs from the other two in this series based on the recommendations of the state officials who participated in the Special Education Technical Assistance for Charter Schools (SPEDTACS) Project state team meetings convened to assist in the development of the set of…

As Congress considers reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, it should recognize the need for fundamental reform of federal K-12 education policy, which since 1965 has followed a path of greater federal control of education, the proliferation of bureaucracy, higher administrative costs, and new federal programs. Under the…

Since its enactment in 1975, the federal special education law, now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), has made each state responsible for the compliance of all their local education agencies (LEAs) and other public agencies that provide special education for students with disabilities. The 2004 reauthorization of the…

This article reports on a federal legislation that may chart a new course for states considering whether to grant in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant students. Experts say college attendance by undocumented students would be much higher if they did not have the added burden of financing public education at out-of-state or foreign student…

These hearing transcripts provide testimony on a rule proposed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), "Nutrition Objectives for School Meals," that would require meals served under the national school lunch program to be consistent with federal dietary guidelines. The majority of the testimony addressed the content of…

This document contains the text of the Veterans' Education and Training Act of 1994, as amended and reported out of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs with a recommendation for passage. As reported out of committee, the major provisions of the bill are the following: (1) make permanent a flight training program previously established; (2) include…

Most National Education Association (NEA) members are covered by a type of retirement plan called a defined benefit pension plan, which provides a specific benefit periodically throughout an employee's retirement. This report provides an overview of the federal tax rules relating to the different types of retirement plans, savings plans, health…

This collection of 8 papers from the Seventeenth Annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference includes: (1) "The Measurement, Evaluation, and Encouragement of Telephone Service Quality" (S. Berg and J. Lynch, Jr.); (2) "Impacts of Deregulation and Competition on the PBX/Centrex Market" (H. Ware); (3) "The…

These seven symposium papers examine the record of federal intervention in the workplace and focus on the forces that gave rise to federal intervention. Although a precise calculus for evaluation has not yet been designed, the presenters attempt to assess whether federal actions have served the interests of labor, management, and the public at…

This description of the copyright protection available for automated databases provides a definition of an automated database; discusses the extent of copyright protection, i.e., the compilation of facts; explains copyright registration and what constitutes publication of a database; and describes the procedures for registering both published and…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: A federal judge in New York has ruled that, under federal copyright law, a group of Buffalo area school districts cannot videotape the televised works of three filmmakers - even for temporary educational purposes. U.S. District Judge John Curtin's decision deals another blow to the Erie County Board…

This paper examines two issues in telecommunications policy in which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has attempted to pursue policies that were distant from the policy desires of their supervising committees in Congress, and in which congressmen made use of various instruments of congressional influence: the FCC's attempt to…

The press of telecommunication technologies and their progeny have undermined the natural monopoly basis for long distance telecommunications and customer premise products, forced open regulatory doors, toppled barriers to market entry, and led to the reshaping of regulatory philosophy as regulators have seen new, wider horizons for the industry.…