An Implementation Study on the U.S.Department of Education Policy.

本研究探讨了《小学和中学教育法》(ESEA，1965)第一章及其修正案，以及《教育巩固和改进法》(ECIA，1981)第1章及其1988年修正案中的授权问题。国会曾四次修改原来的ESEA--1968年、1970年、1974年和1978年。每一项修正案都产生了新的授权，更明确地规定了国会对帮助来自低收入家庭的弱势儿童的承诺。1988年，国会重新授权ECIA第一章，授权全国学校缩小成绩低下和成绩优异学生之间的差距，强调对表现、项目改进和产生结果的灵活性的问责。该计划已经从注重财务问责和监管合规转向基于结果的问责。在这种分析的基础上，我们可以发现两种截然相反的可能性。一个是集中控制。董事会的自由裁量权受到联邦和州政府越来越多的监管规定的挤压。另一种可能性是，公民将通过呼吁联邦和州政府对平等的教育机会进行解释，在地方控制教育方面取得进展。只有那些拥有足够资源的学区才能获得有意义的地方控制。为了满足城市儿童的教育需求，更多的州和联邦拨款将是必不可少的。我在这项研究中澄清的主要观点是，美国教育部已被重组为管理国家教育目标的政策制定机构，如克林顿总统的“2000年目标”。

This study explores the mandate issues in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act(ESEA,1965) Title I and its amendments, and the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA,1981) Chapter 1 and its 1988 amendement. Congress amended the original ESEA on four occasions-1968, 1970, 1974, and 1978. Each amendment resulted in new mandates that specified more clearly the congressional commitment to helping disadvantaged children from low-income families. In 1988, Congress reauthorized ECIA Chapter 1 with the mandate to the nation's schools to close the gap between low- and high-achieving students, stressing accountability for performance, program improvement, and flexibility to produce results. The program has moved from a focus on financial accountability and regulatory compliance to accountability based on results.On the basis of this analysis, we can find two quite opposite possibilities. One is centralized control. The board's discretion is squeezed from the top by increasing numbers of regulations from the federal and state governments. Another posibility is that citizen will make progress in local control of education by calling federal and state governments to account for equal educational opportunity. Meaningful local control is available only to those school districts with sufficient resources. Greater state and federal grants will be essential in meeting urban children's educational needs.The major point I clarified in the study is that the U.S.Department of Education has been reorganized as the policy making body for managing the national educational goals such as President Clinton's "Goals 2000."