Recently Released Education Reports
- Analysis of Verification Summary Data, School Year 2008–2009. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food and Nutrition Service. (March 2011). This study examines the free and reduced-price meal programs and found that nearly one-third of eligible students might not be getting these meals because parents refused to provide the proper documentation.
- A Portrait of School Improvement Grantees. Education Sector. (April 2011). This study analyzes how $3.5 billion worth of funding for the nation's bottom five percent of schools was allocated and how it has been used.
- Re-Investing in Arts Education: Winning America's Future Through Creative Schools. President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. (May 2011). In this report, a presidential committee recommends that arts education be expanded because it can improve academic achievement and student engagement.
- School Meal Programs: More Systematic Development of Specifications Could Improve the Safety of Foods Purchased through USDA's Commodity Program. U.S. Government Accountability Office. (May 2011). Through its commodity program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides commodity foods at no cost to schools taking part in the national school meals programs, according to the report. Commodities include raw ground beef, cheese, poultry, and fresh produce, and such food products can contain microbial contamination that can result in severe illness. In this report, the GAO states that the USDA should strengthen its oversight and provide more guidelines regarding foods purchased for its commodities program because they go to populations, such as young children, who are at a higher risk for serious complications from food-borne illnesses.
- A Snapshot of Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 2009–10. National Center for Education Statistics. (May 2011). This survey, which focuses on art education in the United States, finds that art education was widely taught in elementary schools across the nation during the 2009–2010 school year but that class offerings were limited, with some schools offering such instruction only once or twice per week. At the secondary level, most schools offered music and visual arts, with 12 percent offering dance and 45 percent offering drama/theater.
