STANDARDS MOVEMENT GAINING STEAM: Duncan Announces Plan to Commit Up to $350 Million for Assessments Linked to Common Standards: Earlier this month, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) announced that forty-six states and the District of Columbia have signed on to a joint effort to develop a common core of state standards in English language arts and mathematics for grades K–12. The standards will be “research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations, and include rigorous content and skills,” according to a press release from CCSSO.

MEANINGFUL MEASUREMENT: Collection of Essays Published by the Alliance for Excellent Education Examines the Role of Assessments in Improving High School Education: Federal policy must support a radically different system of assessments if the United States is to succeed in preparing all students for college and career. So says Meaningful Measurement: The Role of Assessments in Improving High School Education in the Twenty-First Century, a new collection of essays written by leading education experts and published by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

THE SECOND DERIVATIVE: Student Math Proficiency in States and Districts Fails to Measure up to Global Benchmark: According to a recent report from the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the math performance of American students in almost every state and city is ranked “average” at best and pales in comparison to student performance in several Asian countries including Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, and Japan. In grade eight, Massachusetts is the only state achieving academic proficiency and fully preparing its students to compete with students from top nations.

THE OPPORTUNITY EQUATION: In Effort to Raise Math and Science Levels of American Students, Report Says that the Nation Must “Do School Differently”: A new report from Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Institute for Advanced Study Commission on Mathematics and Science Education argues that the United States must “mobilize for excellence” in mathematics and science education so that all students achieve much higher levels of math and science learning. The report, The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy, says that knowledge and skills from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are crucial to virtually every endeavor of individual and community life and maintains that all young Americans should be educated to be “STEM-capable,” no matter where they live, what educational path they pursue, or in which field they choose to work.

DUNCAN OUTLINES OBAMA’S EDUCATION BUDGET BEFORE HOUSE AND SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEES: On June 3, in appearances before the Senate and House appropriations subcommittees with jurisdiction over funding for the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined key aspects of President Obama’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget request and discussed how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) would serve the dual role of creating and preserving jobs while also promoting school reforms. However, Duncan also faced pointed questions from key Democrats on several of President Obama’s budget proposals, including one that would shift $1.5 billion in Title I funding into School Improvement Grants.

NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE FALLS BELOW 70 PERCENT: Diplomas Count 2009 Finds Rate Fell Nearly 1.5 Percentage Points: From 1996 to 2005, the national high school graduation rate increased from 66.4 percent in 1996 to 70.6. However, from 2005 to 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, the rate fell by 1.4 percentage points. The decrease for the Class of 2006 marks the first significant annual decline in more than a decade, according to an analysis of high school completion by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, which recently published its findings in Diplomas Count 2009.

ON THE FRONT LINES OF SCHOOLS: National Survey of Teachers and Principals Finds Tepid Support for Holding All Students to High Standards: Less than one third of teachers believe that schools should expect all students to meet high academic standards, graduate with the skills to do college-level work, and provide extra support to struggling students to help them meet those standards, according to a national survey of public high school teachers and principals who say that at least a few students drop out of their school and fail to complete their high school education each year. This belief flies in the face of an earlier survey of high school dropouts, in which two thirds of dropouts said they would have worked harder if more were demanded of them. On the Front Lines of Schools, a report presenting the results from teachers and principals, says this “expectations gap” between teachers and students must be narrowed if efforts to close the achievement gap are to be successful.