"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) Strengthening America's Competitiveness through Common Academic Standards: House Committee Looks for Ways to Support State-Led Efforts to Produce Common Standards; (2) "Action Required": New Alliance Brief Calls for New Federal Approach to Improve the Nation's Lowest-Performing High Schools; (3) "Can You Hear Me Now?": Nation's Seventeen-Year-Olds Make No Progress in Reading or Math Since Early '70s; and (4) "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools": Report Finds that Achievement Gaps Impose the Economic Equivalent of a "Permanent National Recession."