U.S. Federal Information on Foreign Countries: Education

USAID is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. U.S. foreign assistance has the twofold purpose of furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world. Part of the assistance includes education.

This is the premier database for education literature. It indexes scholarly material and other works created by government entities, school districts, non-for-profits, and others. Books, journal articles, conference proceedings, policy papers, manuals, handbooks, guides are all included here. The free online ERIC database does include some full text content. The search interface also allows users to limit results to only that which is available freely online.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is known as the investigative arm of Congress. GAO helps improve the performance and accountability of the federal government by examining and reporting on the effectiveness of government policies and programs. Though domestic issues are emphasized, International policy issues are not outside the GAO's purview. See example document on assessment of U.S. education assistance in foreign countries.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a branch of the Library of Congress that provides nonpartisan research to the U.S. Congress. CRS reports have an excellent reputation for clear presentation of essential facts, and for providing fair and even-handed summaries of controversial issues. See example CRS report on education reform in Pakistan.

This 3-volume country-by-country survey of educational systems provides detailed essays on the histories, legal foundations, and primary and secondary educational systems of 233 countries.