"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) Senators Introduce Graduation Promise Act: New Legislation Would Target Lowest-Performing High Schools; (2)…

Teacher certification/licensure requirements across the United States are in constant flux. Career and technical education (CTE), with its many subject disciplines, has historically had two pathways to certification/licensure: a traditional degree-based program of courses, field experiences, and exit exams, and an alternative pathway based…

Dropping out of high school is related to a number of negative outcomes. For example, the average income of persons ages 18 through 65 who had not completed high school was roughly $20,100 in 2005.1 By comparison, the average income of persons ages 18 through 65 who completed their education with a high school credential, including a General…

Many countries that have undergone expansion of access to public education still face significant disparities in school enrollment and attendance rates at sub-national levels, and fail to reach a high proportion of children who are outside of the government system. Completion and student learning have also continued to be system-wide challenges…

Corruption in higher education is a newly emerging topic in the field of education research. There is a phenomenal growth in the number of media reports on corruption in higher education over the last decade. However, the rigorous systematic research on education corruption is virtually nonexistent. This paper considers corruption in higher…

Richard Murnane observes that the American ideal of equality of educational opportunity has for years been more the rhetoric than the reality of the nation's political life. Children living in poverty, he notes, tend to be concentrated in low-performing schools staffed by ill-equipped teachers. They are likely to leave school without the skills…

Today, over a third of the nation's English language learners attend school in California, where they comprise more than a quarter of all its students. However, one million 18- to 24-year old Californians, about 30 percent of this age group, do not have a high school diploma. Regarding high school graduation rates, California ranks 45th among the…

This document presents statistics about the higher education in Maryland for 2009. The tables in this document are presented according to the following categories: (1) Students; (2) Retention and Graduation; (3) Degrees; (4) Faculty; (5) Revenues and Expenditures; (6) Tuition and Fees; (7) Financial Aid; (8) Private Career Schools; and (9)…

The first U.S. charter school opened in 1992, and the scale of the charter movement has since grown to 4,000 schools and more than a million students in 40 states plus the District of Columbia. With this growth has also come a contentious debate about the effects of the schools on their own students and on students in nearby traditional public…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 established a requirement that all States develop and submit to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) a performance plan designed to advance the State from its current level of compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the law…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) is a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with Arkansas and 15 other member states to improve education at every level--from pre-K to postdoctoral study--through many effective programs and initiatives. SREB's "Challenge to Lead Goals for Education", which call for the region to…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) is a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with Alabama and 15 other member states to improve education at every level--from pre-K to postdoctoral study--through many effective programs and initiatives. SREB's "Challenge to Lead Goals for Education", which call for the region to…

The Southern Regional Education Board is a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with Florida and 15 other member states to improve education at every level-- from pre-K to postdoctoral study-- through many effective programs and initiatives. SREB's "Challenge to Lead Goals for Education", which call for the region to lead…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) is a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with Delaware and 15 other member states to improve education at every level--from pre-K to postdoctoral study--through many effective programs and initiatives. SREB's "Challenge to Lead Goals for Education", which calls for the region to…

The Southern Regional Education Board is a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with Kentucky and 15 other member states to improve education at every level--from pre-K to postdoctoral study--through many effective programs and initiatives. SREB's "Challenge to Lead" Goals for Education, which call for the region to lead the…