Answered Questions

Hello!

You make a good point - it can be hard to determine if content is credible when you don't know what the author's credentials are. However, government web sites fall outside of the popular - trade - scholarly pattern. The authors who write the content speak for the government of the United States. In that situation, we can rely on the sponsor of the web site, suchas the US Department of Education, to ensure that the content fairly and accurately represents the understanding and position of the agency.

The most authoritative content will be about laws, policies, regulations, and data that the agency has gathered through its research.

No matter what the source, you should think critically about what it says, but you can accept http://www.ed.gov/ as credible and reliable. Government sources provide lots of good information!