OBAMA RELEASES FY 2011 BUDGET: Obama’s 7.5 Percent Increase for Education Programs Signals Commitment to Reauthorize ESEA: In a State of the Union address that was heavily focused on the economy and creating jobs, President Obama called for greater investments in education and a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: New Alliance Report Calls on Congress to be More Responsive to the Needs of Rural High Schools: Despite often being shortchanged by current federal education policies, rural high schools routinely use practices that could be useful to boosting student performance in their urban and suburban counterparts, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report, Current Challenges and Opportunities in Preparing Rural High School Students for Success in College and Careers, also finds that growing rural populations and increased diversity mean that high schools—and high school students—in too many rural communities are in trouble. Currently, one in four rural students fails to graduate from high school, and the rate is even lower for minority youth.

STATE OF THE STATES 2010: Despite Discouraging Fiscal Outlooks, Education Still a Priority: In keeping with a theme raised by President Obama in his recent State of the Union address, several governors across the country made the connection between education and the economy as they called for greater investments in education in their state of the state addresses. This article highlights state of the state speeches from the governors of Alaska, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, and New Mexico.

THE HIGH COST OF LOW EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE: New OECD Report Finds that 25 Point Increase in PISA Scores Could Lead to $40.6 Trillion Increase in United States’s GDP: Relatively small improvements in students’ educational performance can have large impacts on a nation’s future economic well-being, according to a new international study from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). The study uses economic modeling to show that even modest and achievable gains in student learning yield large increases in gross domestic product over the long run.

SOTU BINGO 2010: Will President Obama Mention ESEA Reauthorization in His January 27 State of the Union Address?: During his State of the Union address on January 27, President Obama is expected to touch on the budget deficit, reform of the financial industry, energy, immigration, and education-all of which are likely to be framed around a plan to rebuild the economy. But how much will Obama say about education? To help viewers keep track of these and other topics during the State of the Union address, the Alliance for Excellent Education has brought back its popular State of the Union bingo cards.

“BEST ECONOMIC STIMULUS IS A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA”: New Alliance Study Finds Lowering the High School Dropout Rate Boosts Job Creation, Home Ownership, Automobile Sales, and Economic Growth: Cutting the dropout rate in half in the nation’s fifty largest cities will result in a significant increase in job growth, home ownership, and automobile sales, among other economic benefits, according to a new study from the Alliance for Excellent Education.

COLLEGE- AND CAREER-READY: New Education Sector Report Offers a Different Take on Measuring Student College and Career Readiness: A recent analysis from Education Sector looks at how well high schools are utilizing accountability systems to evaluate student performance, progress, and readiness for succeeding at the next level. The report, College-And Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success, argues that the best way to measure student-preparedness levels is to implement data tracking systems that take into account how students actually perform once they arrive at their college or workplace destination.