Volume 6, No. 1, Spring 2002

Why I'll be Voting Against the Education Bill
Jim Jeffords

In 1988, Jeffords was elected to the United States Senate and is now in his third term. Jeffords is the Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and is a member of the Finance Committee, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging.

Exploring Education Innovations that Last: An Annotated First Person Narrative Turning Practice into Theory
James S. Catterall

James Catterall is a Professor of Education at the University of California at Los Angeles, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS). He joined UCLA in 1981 and is a past Chair of the GSE&IS Faculty. Professor Catterall specializes in measurement and assessment of learning and program evaluations focused on learning in and through the arts.

Schooling and Training Participation by Displaced Workers: Evidence from Administrative Data
Louis Jacobson, Robert J. LaLonde, and Daniel Sullivan

Louis Jacobson is currently at Westat, Inc. Robert J. LaLonde is a professor at the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. Daniel Sullivan is the Vice President of the Microeconomics Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The Role of Early Childhood Education in Current Federal Education Policy: Ensuring future academic success through high quality language and cognitive experiences for young children in poverty
Jennifer Guerrero Flood

This essay examines federal policy on early childhood education for children in poverty and the current policy focus of using scientific research on children's cognitive development as the basis of early childhood policies. The author provides evidence for why early childhood education is an important component in efforts to ensure children's academic success in elementary school and beyond, a brief historical overview of early childhood policies since 1965, and how both of these discussions inform current policy. Last, the author discusses the current federal approach to early childhood education, by considering many of the criticisms of current policy and analyzing the challenges that the field of early childhood education faces.

Jennifer Guerrero Flood is a former elementary school teacher. She received B.S. degrees in Psychology and Political Science from UCLA, and received her Masters in Education Administration and Policy from Harvard University. Currently, she works in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education.

An Empirical Assessment of Lottery Proceeds on Education in the American States
Rodney E. Stanley and P. Edward French

State operated lotteries have recently been classified as panaceas for eradicating revenue disparities existing across public school districts in the American states. The research question posed in this study is as follows: "are state operated lotteries impacting per pupil expenditures in the American states?" The purpose of this research project is to empirically confirm these accusations for attributing credibility to this revenue-generating device because educational disparity portrays a grave injustice in the United States. Pooled time series cross sectional regression analysis is the methodological mechanism employed to test the data in this research project. This study suggests that state operated lotteries are not having the financial impact on education that many practitioners and scholars originally anticipated.

Rodney E. Stanley is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Government at Tennessee State University. P. Edward French is an Assistant Professor at East Tennessee State University.

Book Excerpt: Education Policy for the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities in Standards-Based Reform
Lawrence B. Joseph

Lawrence B. Joseph is a senior research associate in the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies and in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He is also associate director of the Center for Urban Research and Policy Studies and program director of the Chicago Assembly.