ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the evolution of national administrative capacity and the implementation of federal education policy in the United States between 1965 and 2012. The most striking feature of American governance is federalism the allocation of constitutional authority across federal and state governments and nowhere is its impact profound than in education. Most other countries have unitary governments that centrally establish and administer policy for schools, including the creation of a single national curriculum and testing system. In the United States, the multi-level and fragmented education governance structure and strong tradition of local control have made the creation of national policy in education, national standards and assessments in particular, politically and administratively. Yet, persistent racial and socio-economic achievement gaps, global economic competition, and the weak performance of US students on international tests have amplified the call for some common goals and yardsticks to measure our children's academic performance, ambitious efforts to turn around chronically underperforming schools.
