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…

Hundreds of U.S. schools will supplement fire drills and tornado training next fall with simulations of school shootings. In response to the December shootings by an intruder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, several states have enacted or are considering laws that require more and new types of school safety drills, more…

Jeb Bush left the Florida governor's office in 2007 with a legacy of having brought sweeping changes to his state's education system, through hard-edged policies that gave parents and students more choices and demanded more of schools. Today, that legacy seems poised to grow--and well beyond Florida. In state capitals across the country, numerous…

Before awarding waivers from core tenets of the No Child Left Behind Act to 11 states, the U.S. Department of Education ordered changes to address a significant weakness in most states' proposals: how they would hold schools accountable for groups of students deemed academically at risk, particularly those in special education or learning English.…

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…

Confronted with widely publicized accounts of assaults by juvenile sex offenders against fellow students or school staff members, several states are grappling with the issue of how to balance a student's right to an education with the threat that such a student may pose. Legislatures and agencies in several states, such as Arkansas, New Mexico,…

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…

This article reports the delayed release of information by many states about whether schools and districts have made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act until after September 8. Among the states that delayed their release of complete information include Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, and Massachusetts. State…