Federal Programs Supporting Educational Change

The sixth volume in a series of reports, sponsored by the U.S. Office of Education, on federally funded (change agent) programs designed to introduce and spread innovative practices in public schools. Phase I of the study of projects funded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII identified factors at local, state, and federal levels that affected implementation (see R-1589/3 (Appendix. C)). Phase II, reported here, examines more explicitly the political context of bilingual education at the local level and answers such questions as: What strategies have project participants developed to deal with the implementation problems bilingual projects face? How have state legislation and the activities of other government agencies affected these problems? How have government activities affected program continuation? What is the stance of local political constituencies? To what extent do politics influence the educational and innovative aspects of these programs? And what are the implications for federal bilingual policy?