This publication begins with a stunning declaration: “The people are no longer content to have our federal Government confine its activities within the bounds of what are generally understood to be purely national affairs.”

Edward N. Clopper, who made that declaration, was the assistant secretary of the National Child Labor Committee of New York (NCLC), an activist group. Thus, Clopper’s statement is a classical rhetorical switcheroo: an elite attributes his preferred position to the multitude, then assserts that he is simply giving voice to them.

There is no evidence that Americans in 1918 craved federal intervention in schooling, despite the enactment of the Smith-Hughes Act (high school vocational education act) the previous year. Federal policymaking was mostly confined to federal objectives se out in the U.S. Constitution, such as defense, trade, and mail delivery.

What is undeniable is that Clopper and the NCLC were in the progressive vanguard. They, along with groups such as the Committee on National Aid to Education (which John Dewey led), were pushing for Congress to fund aid to elementary education. And in this bulletin, the NCLC includeddraft legislation to cretae a U.S. Department of Education.

That effort for K-12 federal aid made little progress until the 1930s, albeit the measures were temporary and expired before the conclusion of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Congress did not enact lasting elementary school aid until the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. And the effort to create a cabinet-level education agency would not bear fruit until 1979.

The University of Pennsylvania’s library’s website has links to online copies of The Child Labor Bulletin, and its successor publication, The American Child.

National Education Goals Panel, National Education Goals Report: Building a Nation of Learners 1994

On September 24, 2014February 13, 2023 By Kevin R. KosarIn Organizations, StudiesLeave a comment

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Until now, this report was unavailable online. ERIC does not have it; nor does the NEGP archive.

So here it is—the only digitized copy online so far as I can discern.

As noted elsewhere on this blog, the National Education Goals Panel was a major payer in federal education policy in the 1990s. It moved the policy conversation to center on accountability, standards, and testing.

Read here to to learn where to get free copies of the other NEGP reports.

House Republican Research Committee, Ideas for Tomorrow, Choices for Today (1985)

On October 28, 2013February 12, 2023 By Kevin R. KosarIn Organizations1 Comment

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The full title of this document is Ideas for Tomorrow, Choices for Today: Policy of the Committee on the First One Hundred Days.

This document is posted here on the Federal Education Policy History website because it includes an entry on education that expresses the perspective of many Republicans of the time. Page 20 speaks of education as “an investment in a healthy democracy and a growing economy.” It also makes a case for “tuition tax credits” to help families choose “independent” (i.e., private) schools, which provide “diversity and competition” (for public schools).

As the address on the rear of the booklet indicates, this is no private sector, think tank document. The House Republican Research Committee published this document, which was authored by the Committee on the First Hundred Days. These aforementioned groups are what as known as “congressional member organizations.” This document is, as page 63 notes, what House Republican leaders were presenting as “a set of policy alternatives for the 99th Congress and beyond.”

You can read the entire document in the window below. To view it a larger window, click here.

National Council On Education Standards and Testing

On May 24, 2013 By Kevin R. KosarIn Organizations1 Comment

The National Council on Education Standards and Testing was established by Congress in 1991 (P.L. 102-62; 102 Stat. 305). It may have had the worst acronym for any governmental entity ever—NCEST.

The council was created for the purpose of providing “advice on the desirability and feasibility of national standards and testing in education.”

NCEST had 32 members, most of whom were appointed by the Secretary of Education. NCEST was tasked with issuing its report by December 31, 1991.

The National Council On Education Standards and Testing (NCEST) met its deadline, publishing Raising Standards for American Education, which advocated national standards and assessments. RAND took issue with the findings, offering critical testimony before Congress. NCEST’s statute authorized $1 million in appropriations to do its work, and required it to disband 90 days after submission of its report.

The National Education Goals Reports 1991-1999

On February 24, 2012September 12, 2015 By Kevin R. KosarIn Organizations, Studies1 Comment

The National Education Goals Reports provide a trove of education data. Reading them also gives the researcher a feel for the big subjects of the tumultuous federal schooling debates of the 1990s. Additionally, the movement to establish education standards grew out of the effort to reach education goals—standards being the benchmarks for progress thereto.(1) The National Education Goals reports were published by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP). This organization formed after the historic 1989 Charlottesville education summit, which was attended by governors and President George H.W. Bush. NEGP was established to report annually on the nation’s progress toward the nation’s education goals. The 1994 Goals 2000: Educate America Act (Sections 201-207) gave federal statutory recognition to NEGP, which further heightened its position in the education policy debates of the time. NEGP was effectively abolished by Section 1011 of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. Continue reading “The National Education Goals Reports 1991-1999” →