ABSTRACT
The history of contemporary education can be written of as the search for objectives that would permit educators to legitimate their function by reconciling promise with performance. A compromise was arranged: the US Office of Education (USOE) agreed "to make no state-by-state comparisons; not to aggregate pupil data by school or state; to clear for release all federal reporting forms through the Chiefs". To reducing overlap and duplication, Belmont's objectives included providing data for decision-making to Congress, USOE, and state and local education agencies, as well as to all state, local, and federal planners and evaluators. The structure and control of the nation's educational system hampers all reporting, and it may preclude the accountability and impact reports reformers wanted. In a federal system of government, and especially in education, the balance of power resides at the bottom, with special interest groups. Wider access to education decreases its social and economic value.
