U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says he is eager to use a proposed $15 billion federal incentive-grant fund in part to reward states, districts, and even nonprofit organizations that have set high standards for the students they serve. Duncan's comments came in an interview in which he named as priorities reauthorization of the federal No…

Local high schools sending the names and phone numbers of all juniors and seniors to United States military recruiters is more than a back-door assault on student privacy. This may have life-or-death consequences for unwitting kids who are contacted by these recruiters. This student information give-away was mandated in a little-known provision of…

Under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, every school is subject to the controversial mandates for annual test score gains contained in the federal law. The law represents a profound change in the relationship between the federal government and state and local education agencies regarding who controls education and has direct implications for…

In this article, the author talks about a provision that President Bush put the near end of his "No Child Left Behind" Act, forcing school districts to share with military recruiters the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all high school juniors and seniors. Here, the author features the National Network Opposing the…

There are some school leaders who believe that the military offers just one more option for students to consider. Others, however, think that military recruiters are too aggressive and that the privacy of students should be better protected. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) gives the armed services unprecedented access to potential recruits at…

To lure highly qualified teachers to low-performing schools, the Mobile County, Alabama, school board did what a small but growing number of districts are considering: pay teachers more money for working in what are considered less attractive jobs. As school districts are more pressured to raise achievement among all student groups, more are…