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. |