In a bid to help more students read proficiently in 3rd grade--a skill considered critical to their future educational success--new laws and initiatives springing up around the country require educators to step up their efforts to identify and help struggling readers even before they enter kindergarten. It's not unusual for states or school…

Given the flexibility to revise their academic goals under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, a vast majority of the states that received federal waivers are setting different expectations for different subgroups of students, an "Education Week" analysis shows. That marks a dramatic shift in policy and philosophy from the original law.…

On an Election Day filled with dozens of state races and ballot measures with big implications for the nation's public schools, state teachers' unions and charter school champions had plenty to cheer in the aftermath, even as tax measures that would help pay for schools suffered setbacks in some places. Union efforts were instrumental in…

Monarch School is a San Diego-based public K-12 institution that exclusively serves homeless students. Begun by the San Diego County Office of Education as a drop-in center for homeless high school students, the 170-student school is now a public-private partnership between the San Diego school board and the nonprofit Monarch School Project. The…

The recent high-profile data-confidentiality fights in Arizona and Los Angeles have researchers worried that access to educators may become a difficult path. In the course of a decadelong federal lawsuit over English-language-learner programs in Arizona, lawyers for state schools chief Tom Horne subpoenaed the raw data from three studies…

With effective teaching a top policy priority, certain school districts, the federal government, and nonprofit groups are renewing efforts to pilot and study strategies for pairing effective teachers with students in low-performing, high-poverty schools. The results could offer clues about how to rectify an imbalance in the distribution of the…

The author reports on a review of state policies by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, which raises questions about the validity of the use of home-language surveys as a step to identify students eligible for special help in learning English. While it's ubiquitous in schools across the country, the practice of educators'…

In the midst of an attempt by Arizona's legislature and top education official to shut down ethnic-studies courses in the Tucson Unified School District, students at Tucson High Magnet School are flocking to the courses this school year. School district officials say enrollment in Mexican-American studies in Tucson Unified's 14 high schools has…

In an election year dominated by the pitched battle for Congress and major governors' races, state ballot measures involving education are largely tied to a similar theme: the burden of funding K-12 programs when state finances are shaky. In some cases, initiatives, constitutional amendments, and other ballot measures seek to tap new sources of…

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments later this month from a class action Miriam Flores, 42-year-old Mexican-born homemaker, joined on behalf of her first child in 1996. The lawsuit, Flores v. State of Arizona, contends that programs for English-language learners in Nogales are deficient and receive inadequate funding from the state.…

This article describes one community-based nonprofit group that provides free tutoring to poor children under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Unlike most other tutoring sessions under the law, the one at Erie Neighborhood House, a social-services agency in Chicago, is not happening in a school building or at a corporate tutoring outlet. Those…

A growing chorus of people are saying that some school districts are overzealous in categorizing students as English-language learners (ELLs) in the aim of complying with federal and state laws to ensure that children of immigrants get extra help with English. They contend that the information requested on the home-language survey that parents are…

"Quality Counts 2008" reintroduces state grades in six key areas, from the Chance-for-Success Index to the teaching profession. This special issue of "Education Week" includes the following articles: (1) Human Resources a Weak Spot (Lynn Olson); (2) Teacher Salaries, Looking at Comparable Jobs (Christopher B. Swanson); (3) Data…

The Navajo Language Immersion School--"Tsehootsooi Dine Bi'olta'," to use its Navajo name--made adequate yearly progress in all subgroups under the No Child Left Behind Act during the 2005-2006 school year because "the teachers know exactly where their students are in terms of data." The K-8 school with 235 students in the…

Less than six months after the nation's governors gathered for a summit on high schools in February 2005, at least half a dozen states have already enacted policies that require students to complete tougher academic programs to earn a diploma. This flurry of activity is evidence that demands for making high school more rigorous, which state and…