Federal Resources

Choose my Plate  offers personalized eating plans, interactive tools to help you plan and assess your food choices, and advice to help you make better choices.'

The MyPlate On Campus Initiative aims to spread healthy eating messages to college students to empower them to improve their eating and exercise habits and encourage their peers to do the same. MyPlate On Campus offers tools, such as a tracker that develops personalized nutrition and activity plans for users, and tip sheets on topics such as choosing healthy snacks and creative ways to exercise. Students interested in promoting wellness at their schools can become MyPlate On Campus Ambassadors and gain leadership experience while hosting fitness and healthy eating activities for their fellow students. 

This resource includes 2015 BRFSS data and related information. The BRFSS is a state-based surveillance system that uses survey phone calls to collect information on risk behaviors, clinical preventive health practices, and health care access for adults 18 and older. 

These contacts provide information about partnership with the National School Lunch Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Service Program. They can also provide organizations with access to food during times of disaster.

This site provides information about programs and grants that faith and community groups are eligible for within FNS, as well as technical assistance for interested organizations.

This site lists links to program information for Nutrition Assistance Programs through Food and Nutrition Service.

Team Nutrition is an initiative of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service to support the Child Nutrition Programs through training and technical assistance for foodservice, nutrition education for children and their caregivers, and school and community support for healthy eating and physical activity. Team Nutrition's Goal is to improve children's lifelong eating and physical activity habits by using the principles of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid

This resource kit is designed to be used by summer meal site operators to teach kids and families about healthy habits. It uses music, games, art, and movement to motivate kids and families to make healthy food and drink choices, exercise, and limit screen time. 

This webpage features English- and Spanish-language resource guides to help connect food insecure families to food assistance resources. 

This toolkit provides communication resources such as flyers, presentations, newsletter articles, and social media posts that schools can use to educate and engage staff and parents in school wellness. Many of the tools can be tailored to represent Local School Wellness Policy activities. 

This electronic prototype application serves as a model for how state and local program operators can develop effective and fully-compliant web-based applications for school meal benefits. 

This website provides information on the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which provides nutritious meals to low-income children when school is not in session. Local organizations can use this website to learn how to be a part of the program. Families can use the search tool to find local sites serving meals. 

ERIC provides ready access to education literature to support the use of educational research and information to improve practice in learning, teaching, educational decision-making, and research.

Two new resources from IES can help to improve support to students who are struggling in school:

• ”Practitioner Data Use in Schools: Workshop Toolkit” (PDF, 53 pages) is designed to help teachers and administrators use education data more systematically and accurately.
• ”A Practitioner’s Guide to Implementing Early Warning Systems” (PDF, 26 pages) describes and provides examples of early warning system implementation strategies in use across the country.

The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics' report, “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2011,” examines crimes occurring in school and presents data on school safety.

This webpage from the What Works Clearinghouse contains information that can help youth-serving and school professionals prepare students to enroll in, and complete, their college education. Resources include tips for educating students and families about college affordability and financial aid, a checklist for helping students complete the steps in the college application process, research on the impact of secondary education interventions, and information that can help schools support students effectively and reduce dropout. 

The Condition of Education 2014 presents an overview of the current state of education in the United States. The report includes 42 indicators, grouped under four areas: population characteristics, participation in education, elementary and secondary education, and postsecondary education. The report includes four Spotlights that look in-depth at issues of current policy interest. Spotlight topics include trends in employment rates by educational attainment, kindergarten entry status, the status of rural education, and financing of postsecondary education. 

A new report from the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, “The Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in School Accountability Systems,” provides information on school-level accountability for those schools accountable for the performance of the students with disabilities subgroup under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

This resource collects, screens, and identifies studies on the effectiveness of educational programs, products, practices, and policies for educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public.  This resource is designed to help schools, school districts, and educational program developers identify potential researchers (individuals and organizations) to conduct studies of effectiveness of educational interventions.

WWC released a widget that allows website visitors to easily connect with the free products and resources available from the WWC. Once the widget is on a website, it will automatically update as new products and features are released. 

This compendium provides brief descriptions of the more than 245 projects focused on social-behavioral competencies or outcomes developed or tested by researchers funded by NCER and NCSER between 2002 and 2013. 

This compendium reviews statistical information covering the field of education from prekindergarten through graduate school. It includes data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons.

This Congressionally-mandated report presents 43 indicators related to education, grouped under four areas: population characteristics, participation in education, elementary and secondary education, and postsecondary education. It also describes issues of current policy interest.

This press release announced the launch of a new tool that can make it easier and more cost-effective for states and school districts to evaluate the impact of their programs. RCT-YES™ is free software that supports sophisticated analysis and reporting of results from randomized controlled trials and other types of evaluation designs. 

These web tables (PDF, 56 pages) provide key statistics on military students enrolled as undergraduates, with a specific focus on military students enrolled after the enactment of the Post 9/11 GI Bill.