"教育在美國極富地方控制的傳統色彩，憲法也將教育的行政權保留給州政府，但聯邦政府仍努力試圖擴展其教育的角色，推展聯邦的教育政策。
本文的目的即在探討1980年代前美國聯邦教育政策的發展，並藉此了解聯邦政府在教育中角色的變化。首先描述聯邦教育政策發展的歷史背景、分析聯邦教育政策的憲法基礎、並簡述聯邦教育行政機構的沿革；其次由1970年代以前影響美國公共教育的重要法案，說明各階段聯邦教育政策的發展；最後再介紹雷根政府的教育政策與措施。

"American education was enriched with local tradition. According to the United States Constitution, the legal authority for education was reserved to the state government. Nevertheless, the federal government tried to expand its role to implement the federal education policy.
The purpose of this paper was to explore the development of the federal education policy as well as t eh role change of the federal government in education before 1980s. The topics covered in this paper were as follows：First, it analyzed the historic background and constitutional foundations of the federal education policy, and outlined the successive changes of the institute of the federal education administration；second, it described the development of the federal education policies in stages through the important Acts that influenced America’s public education before 1970s；at last, it presented the education policy and agenda in the Reagan administration."