Released in October 2003, this detailed and helpful report from the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution offers a broad overview of the current state of American education from kindergarten through 12th grade. Authored by Tom Loveless, the director of the Brown Center, the report notes that overall student achievement across the United States was largely a mixed affair, as...

Submitted to the White House on July 1, 2002, this report, produced by the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education, highlights issues relating to federal, state, and local special education programs. Since October of 2001, the Commission has held 13 open hearings and meetings across the country, and have heard thoughts, concerns, and suggestions of more than 100 witnesses...

The American Council on Education, headed by David Ward (the former Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin), "seeks to provide leadership and a unifying voice on key higher education issues and to influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives." To this end, their Web site is a vast repository of papers, research initiatives, and newsletters that will assist those...

In a speech at the first annual Teacher Quality Evaluation Conference (recently held in Washington, DC), US Secretary of Education Rod Paige urged all states to radically alter their teacher certification programs by increasing the standards and decreasing the barriers that currently keep many qualified candidates from pursing teaching careers. Paige's speech was based on results of the 78-page...

The Brookings Institution has had a long-standing interest in the American system of education, and this thoughtful 73-page report takes a close look at how the federal government might best intervene in this particular area of American society. The report was released in October 2008, and it was authored by Sara Mead and Andrew J. Rotherham. In their report, the authors suggest that the federal...

Many policy analysts and commentators have been bemoaning the fact that the United States’ substantial lead in the worlds of technology and scientific discovery seems to be fading rather quickly. A number of policy think-tanks have preoccupied themselves with exploring this question, and The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education has been exploring the very complex link between...

This report from the RAND organization analyzes results from the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) state test scores of 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1996. The report is unique in offering comparative data on similar student demographics across states, allowing the authors to examine the impact of state educational reforms on comparable populations. The results show that some states are...

Created by the National Literacy Act of 1991 by a bipartisan Congressional coalition, the National Institute for Literacy is the response to requests for a federal office whose prime directive would be to engage in work on the issue of literacy in the United States. The primary work of the Institute is "to ensure that all Americans with literacy needs have access to services that can help them...

All Talk, No Action: Putting an End to Out-of-Field Teaching, a recently released report by the Education Trust, highlights the troubling numbers regarding the percentage of public school teachers at the middle and high school levels who have little if any college training in the subjects they are assigned to teach. According to the report, an average of 24% of classes in secondary public schools...

Originating from the Reinvention Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, this 41-page report is a follow-up report to the original Boyer Commission Report on undergraduate education first released in 1998. Following up on the 1998 report, this document examines the progress made by various universities in 10 different aspects of undergraduate educational areas identified by the...