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- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
Beware of Student Loan Debt Relief Offers and Credit Repair “Deals”
This blog post, written by the student Loan Ombudsman at Federal Student Aid, warns recent graduates to avoid student debt relief companies and, instead, reach out to their loan servicer and consult resources on the Department of Education’s websites.
Bullying at Colleges and Universities
This publication from the Department of Education’s Higher Education Center highlights the prevalence of bullying within college-age youth and the policies and programs universities are putting in place to combat it.
Bookshelf
Bookshelf is a resource page from the Department of Education that contains presentations, facts, charts, data, and other information related to improving education, as well as the Department’s programs and initiatives.
Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice: Schools and Special Education
Resources on how to foster collaboration and implement best practices in school and special education settings.
Charter School Guidance
The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has released new guidance confirming that federal civil rights laws that apply to traditional public schools apply equally to public charter schools (PDF, 7 pages). The guidance addresses civil rights subjects in the context of charter schools, including equal opportunity in admissions, provisions of a free appropriate public education to students with disabilities, provision of services to English language learners, and non-discriminatory discipline.
College.gov
College.gov is intended to be the go-to source for information and resources about planning, preparing and paying for postsecondary education.
Choice for Parents: Supplemental Educational Services
Information for parents regarding Supplemental Educational Services including, service providers, state contacts, pilot programs, information regarding No Child Left Behind, technical assistance, and additional resource links.
Connected Educators
The Connected Educators website is part of the Connected Online Communities of Practice Project launched by the Department of Education that aims to create communities outside of the classroom between educators in order to share information about best practices, curriculum, learning activities, resources and other materials that may inform their teaching practices. The site includes informative publications on online communities, access to those that already exist and a toolkit on how to get started.
College Affordability and Transparency Center
The Department of Education has updated the lists featured on the College Affordability and Transparency Center that spotlight institutions with the highest and lowest tuitions, fees, and prices and the highest percentage increases in these areas. This information is also available by sector.
Comprehensive Centers Program
This program awards discretionary grants to establish comprehensive technical assistance centers to help low-performing schools and districts close achievement gaps and meet the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Awards have been given to Fifteen (15) Regional Centers to provide technical assistance to States within defined geographic boundaries; and Five (5) content focused centers to provide expert assistance to benefit States and districts nationwide on key issues related to the goals of NCLB.
Condition of America’s Public School Facilities: 2012–13
This report from the Department of Education provides national data on the condition of the nation’s public school facilities, information on building construction and renovation history, and the estimated cost of the repairs needed to put buildings in good condition.
College Preparation Checklist
This resource can help students of all ages to prepare academically and financially for education beyond high school (PDF, 28 pages). It provides an overview of options for financial aid for college, and checklists for students and parents to reference at each stage of a student’s education.
Civil Rights Guidance to K-12 Schools on Single-Sex Classes
Guidance from OCR advises schools on how to offer single-sex classes (PDF, 36 pages) while complying with Title IX. Presented in a question-and-answer format, the guidance addresses common scenarios that schools may face when designing single-sex programs.
Compendium of School Discipline State Laws and Regulations
Developed by the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, which is funded by the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students and the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Compendium of School Discipline State Laws and Regulations provides information on school discipline laws and regulations for each of the 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Users can search by state or category and can also download the full Compendium in PDF format.
Data on Arts Education in Schools
This report from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics presents findings from a congressionally mandated study on arts education in public elementary and secondary schools.
Department of Education "Dear Colleague" Letter on Braille
The Department of Education released a Dear Colleague Letter to provide information to states and agencies about the importance of Braille instruction, clarify when these services should be provided to students, help school teams understand the evaluation required to guide decisions about services, and highlight available resources that can help personnel meet the needs of students who are blind or visually impaired (PDF, 6 pages).
Digest of Education Statistics, 2012
The 48th in a series, the Digest provides statistical information related to the field of education. Covering prekindergarten through graduate school, this report provides information on a variety of topics including numbers of schools, teachers, and students, federal funds for education, and international comparisons.
Dear Colleagues Letter: Reducing Gender-Based Violence
A Dear Colleagues letter, released by the Department of Education during a White House event on teen dating violence prevention, calls on state school chiefs to take immediate action to reduce gender-based violence in schools. Accompanying the letter was the “What Schools Can Do” toolkit, which outlines simple actions that communities can take to reduce gender-based violence, as well as available resources.
Degrees of Debt
This report from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics examines three cohorts of recent graduates one year after they earned their bachelor’s degree, comparing their student loan debt and ability to pay back their loans one year after graduation and how debt affected their graduate school enrollment and living arrangements.
Does Raising the State Compulsory Attendance Age Achieve the Intended Outcomes?
This study from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance analyzes whether raising the age of state compulsory school attendance has an impact on dropout, truancy, and disciplinary actions, as well as broader social outcomes.
Department of Education's “Shopping Sheet”
The Department of Education's model financial aid award letter, known as the “Shopping Sheet,” aims to promote transparency in student financial aid disclosures by outlining information—such as estimated annual costs, grant money students will receive, the amount of loan money they can expect to take out, and more—up front, before students have enrolled.
Estimated State and National Figures from 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection
The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has released new information, based on a sample of school and district-level data from 2009-2010, that illustrates what the results could look like at the state and national level. The goals of sharing this information are both to reveal urgent concerns as well to highlight progress being made to close the opportunity gap.
ED Office of Safe and Healthy Students Emergency Planning Website
The U.S. Department of Education (ED)'s Office of Safe and Healthy Students' (OSHS) Center for School Preparedness provides support, resources, grants, and training to support emergency management efforts for local educational agencies and institutions of higher education.
Doing What Works
This website houses a collection of research-based instructional practices on topics such as Early Childhood Education, English Language Learners, Math and Science, and Psychology of Learning, with an emphasis on using data for improvement, increasing teacher effectiveness, and turning around the lowest-performing schools.
Education Resources Information Center
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.