STIMULUS SHELL GAME?: U.S. Department of Education's Inspector General Warns that Some States are Using Education Stimulus Dollars to Free Up Money for Non-Education Items: An internal memorandum from the U.S. Department of Education's inspector general warns that some states are using stimulus funds to replace money they have cut from their education budgets rather than boosting their investments in education. The memo acknowledges that although this practice may be allowable under the terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), such a reduction "may adversely impact the achievement of the education reforms."

ECONOMIC SCARRING: Report Examines Long-Term Impacts of an Economic Recession on Education, Opportunity, Investments, and Entrepreneurial Activity: A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) argues that an economic recession can lead to long-lasting damage to individuals' economic situations and the economy more broadly, which it dubs "scarring." The report, Economic Scarring: The Long-Term Impacts of the Recession, examines the long-run consequences of recessions in four areas-educational attainment, individual and family opportunities, private investments and technology, and entrepreneurial activity.

PRIORITIZING THE NATION'S DROPOUT FACTORIES: Alliance Brief Calls For "Legislative Triage" To Address Nation's Lowest-Performing High Schools: With the nation in the midst of a dropout crisis that costs more than $335 billion in lost wages for each class of dropouts, Prioritizing the Nation's Dropout Factories: The Need for Federal Policy that Targets the Lowest-Performing High Schools, a new brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education calls on federal policymakers to perform "legislative triage" by devoting attention to the lowest-performing high schools and immediately improving or replacing the most severely "injured" schools.

ARE ACHIEVEMENT GAPS CLOSING AND IS ACHIEVEMENT RISING FOR ALL?: Report Finds State Progress is Evident but Lacking at the High School Level: Although achievement gaps between subgroups have narrowed in most states at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, the least amount of progress has been made at the high school level. So says Are Achievement Gaps Closing and Is Achievement Rising for All?, a new report from the Center on Education Policy (CEP), which was released on October 1.

"QUALITY EDUCATION TOO LONG DELAYED IS EDUCATION DENIED": In Campaign-Like Speech, Secretary Duncan Turns Up the Heat on ESEA Reauthorization: Pushed to the back burner by the economic recession and health care debate, among other issues, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) received a much-needed spark from a speech that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave on September 24.

GRADUATION PROMISE ACT: New Legislation Would Provide $2.5 Billion for Low-Performing High Schools: Low-performing high schools would be eligible for $2.5 billion in federal funds under new legislation introduced on September 23 by U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). The bill, the Graduation Promise Act (GPA), or S. 1698, would provide money to districts and states to help them implement effective, research-based reforms tailored to the specific needs of high schools.

ALLIANCE FOR EXCELLENT EDUCATION UNVEILS NEW MODEL LINKING HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY: If twelve of the nation's largest cities were to reduce the number of dropouts for a single high school class by just 50 percent, they would see a total of more than $1.5 billion per year in additional wages and 61,800 new homeowners, according to a new economic analysis by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

HELPING STUDENTS NAVIGATE THE PATH TO COLLEGE: New Report From the What Works Clearinghouse Examines What High Schools Can Do to Boost College Enrollment: In an effort to help more high schools graduate their students prepared for college, the What Works Clearinghouse recently released Helping Students Navigate the Path to College: What High Schools Can Do, a practice guide for high schools and school districts. The guide contains five recommendations on what educators, administrators, and policymakers can do, beginning in the ninth grade, to prepare students academically for college, assist them in completing the steps to college entry, and improve their likelihood of enrolling in college.