"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Show Me the Money: Alliance Analysis Finds That States Could Generate Millions More in Wages by Raising High School Graduation Rates; (2) Confronting the Dropout Crisis in California: Conference Convenes Researchers on Dropouts, Hopes to Inform a Public That Is "Largely Unaware" of the Problem; (3) A City At Risk: New Research Identifies Sixth-Grade "Risk Factors" That Can Predict Future High School Dropouts in Philadelphia; and (4) Overview of 2005 Smaller Learning Communities Activities: U.S. Department of Education Announces Special Competition to Evaluate Supplemental Reading Programs Targeted at "Striving Readers." (Contains 3 footnotes.)