ESEA, RIGHT AWAY!: Voters Want Federal Action on High School Reform, According to New National Poll: Improving the quality of public high schools through the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is a voting issue for over eight in ten voters, according to a new bipartisan national poll from the Alliance for Excellent Education. Additionally, over half of voters say that their decision to vote for a current elected official in the 2010 congressional elections will be affected if Congress takes no action to reform the law currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

STRIKING A BALANCE: House Appropriations Subcommittee Falls Short of President Obama’s Education Funding Goal: On July 15, a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee fell short of meeting President Obama’s funding goal for the competitive Race to the Top (RTT) and Investing in Innovation (I3) programs as it began its work on the bill that will fund the U.S. Department of Education in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, which begins on October 1, 2010.

THE STATE OF STATE STANDARDS—AND THE COMMON CORE: Common Core State Standards Are Stronger than Current Standards in Three Quarters of States, New Report Finds: The Common Core State Standards released on June 2 are stronger than English language arts (ELA) standards in thirty-seven states and math standards in thirty-nine states, according to a new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The report, The State of State Standards—and the Common Core—in 2010 also finds that the Common Core State Standards are better than both ELA and math standards in thirty-three of those states.

LEARNING FROM LEADERSHIP: New Report Finds Effective School Leadership Is Strongly Connected to Student Achievement: A recent report from the Wallace Foundation presents new evidence confirming that strong school leadership, particularly in principals, is positively linked to student achievement. The report, Learning from Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning, asserts that among school-related influences on student achievement, school leadership is second in importance only to classroom instruction.

ECONOMIC BOOST: New Alliance Report Examines Economic Impact of Reducing the High School Dropout Rate Among Students of Color: Cutting the high school dropout rate in half among students of color will greatly increase the nation’s economic vitality, according to the latest report in the Alliance for Excellent Education’s continuing work linking improved educational outcomes to economic returns.

LOG ON: New Alliance Publications Examine How Online Learning Can Help in Overcoming Three Major Educational Challenges in Each State: New state profiles from the Alliance for Excellent Education examine how three educational challenges—global skill demands versus educational achievement, tight state budgets, and looming teacher shortages—play out in each state and detail to what degree a state is using online technology to help overcome them.

TRANSFORMING THE HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE: New MDRC Report Examines How New York City’s Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Raising Graduation Rates: A new report from MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research firm in New York City, finds that “small high schools of choice” in New York City increase students’ likelihood of earning credits, progressing through school, and graduating in four years with Regents diplomas. According to the report, Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City’s New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates, students attending these schools had a 68.7 percent on-time graduation rate, compared to 61.9 percent of students who did not.