For a century, most students have advanced from grade to grade based on the number of days they spend in class, but in New Hampshire, schools have moved away from “seat time” and toward “competency-based learning,” which advances students when they have mastered course content. Strengthening High School Teaching and Learning in New Hampshire’s Competency-Based System, a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education, profiles how two high schools in New Hampshire made this shift and examines the changes that were necessary to make competency-based advancement an important part of New Hampshire’s strategy for implementing the Common Core State Standards and ensuring that students graduate ready for college and a career.

The federal student financial aid system, originally designed to increase access to higher education, must undergo a transformation to help more students earn a higher education degree or certificate and meet the increased demands of the twenty-first-century economy. A new Alliance for Excellent Education report, Repairing a Broken System: Fixing Federal Student Aid, outlines a comprehensive approach for revamping the student aid system into one that better supports students and institutions of higher education and focuses on access and completion.

With less than one month until the second annual national Digital Learning Day on February 6, the Alliance for Excellent Education announced today initial details of the organization’s national effort to promote digital learning and spotlight successful instructional technology practice in the classroom. To date, forty-six states and the District of Columbia, and more than 16,000 teachers have already signed up to participate in digital learning activities throughout the day and beyond. (States participating in Digital Learning Day appear in green in the map to the right).

A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education outlines serious problems with the current federal student financial aid system and calls on policymakers to simplify both the process and the programs and shift the system’s emphasis from simply access to providing the overall support resulting in postsecondary completion.

As students of color and diverse ethnicities rapidly become the leading population of public school systems in numerous states, closing educational achievement gaps and providing a quality education to all students can secure the United State’s future economic prosperity, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. Noting that two-thirds of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending, the report, Inseparable Imperatives: Equity in Education and the Future of the American Economy, argues that raising individuals’ education levels will boost their purchasing power and increase the national economy.

While the U.S. Congress must confront crucial economic issues this month, every school, district, and state leader must make critical decisions in the next two years involving digital learning that will shape education for decades, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report, The Nation’s Schools Are Stepping Up to Higher Standards, identifies four key challenges that public school district leaders must systemically address in the next two years and outlines the essential elements for developing a comprehensive digital strategy.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) offer great promise for advancing the quality of education and outcomes for all students, but meeting the higher expectations associated with them could prove especially daunting for the rapidly growing population of English language learners (ELLs) who must learn grade-level content while simultaneously trying to master the English language. A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education discusses these challenges, highlights initiatives already underway to help ELLs meet these challenges, and outlines how policy and practice must change to help ELLs graduate ready for college and a career.

This afternoon, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, testified before the Texas Joint Interim Committee to Study the Public School Finance System on how digital learning and the effective use of technology can help drive better learning for all students in Texas, regardless of their geography or socioeconomic status. Gov. Wise emphasized the necessity of incorporating digital learning into the new funding formula the committee is studying.

As teachers and students prepare to go back to school, there is at least one important date they will be marking on their calendars: February 6, 2013. In just six short months, they will be joining millions of students and tens of thousands of teachers, as well as dozens of states and national organizations for the second annual Digital Learning Day (www.digitallearningday.org), an unprecedented campaign that celebrates teachers and shines a spotlight on successful instructional practice and effective use of technology in classrooms.

Yesterday afternoon, the National Research Council (NRC) issued Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century, a new report that validates the “deeper learning” approach in the nation’s classrooms and recommends that it be broadly adopted in schools across the country. In response, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, made the following statement.