ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Congress Continues Deliberations on Fiscal Year 2012 Funding; Education Programs Potentially Facing 1.5 Percent Funding Cut: Although Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 began on October 1, Congress has yet to determine the final funding allocations for education programs housed under the U.S. Department of Education. Instead, it has passed a series of continuing resolutions (CRs) that kept funding for education programs at FY 2011 levels minus 1.5 percent for all programs (unless there is a specific exception). With the most recent CR set to expire on December 16 and members of Congress anxious to return home for the holidays, time is running short for a final agreement.

“Storm” Looming Over Washington, DC Could Impact Nation’s Schoolchildren: In the video to the right, Alliance President Bob Wise explains how competing “storms” around education reform in Washington, DC, could impact the educational futures of the nation's schoolchildren.

FISCAL SURVEY OF STATES: States’ Fiscal Situations Improve, but Revenue and Spending Remain Below Prerecession Levels: States’ fiscal situations have rebounded from the depths of the recent recession, but state revenues and spending figures remain below their prerecession levels, according to the Fall 2011 Fiscal Survey of States, released on November 29 by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO).

A NEW MISSION FOR THE MIDDLE GRADES: New Report Encourages Focus on Middles Schools for Postsecondary Preparedness: Middle schools in the South need to forge a new mission of preparing students for more rigorous high school course work and ultimately college and technical training, according to a new report from the Southern Regional Education Board’s (SREB’s) Middle Grades Commission. The report, A New Mission for the Middle Grades: Preparing Students for a Changing World, warns that failure to do so puts the nation’s students and states’ economies at a greater disadvantage when competing with the rapidly developing world.

COMPARABILITY OF STATE AND LOCAL EXPENDUTIRES AMONG SCHOOLS WITHIN DISTRICTS: New U.S. Department of Education Report Finds Many Low-Income Schools Receive Less Than Fair Share of Funding: Many low-income schools receive less than their fair share of state and local funding, according to a new report released on November 30 by the U.S. Department of Education. The report, Comparability of State and Local Expenditures Among Schools Within Districts: A Report From the Study of School-Level Expenditures, finds that more than 40 percent of schools receiving federal Title I money to serve disadvantaged students spent less state and local money on teachers and other personnel than schools that do not receive Title I money at the same grade level in the same district.

RESULTS OF 2011 TRIAL URBAN DISTRICT ASSESSMENTS IN READING AND MATH: Large Urban Districts Narrow Gap With National Average: Although the average reading score for eighth-grade public students increased 2 points from 2009 to 2011, the average reading score remains 9 points lower than the score for public school students in the nation, according to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA). In math, the average score for eighth-grade public school students increased by 3 points since 2009 and 12 points since 2003 but still trails the national average by 9 points.

DEFICIT COMMITTEE’S FAILURE TRIGGERS AUTOMATIC SPENDING CUTS: Education Programs Could Face $3.5 Billion in Cuts: On November 21, hours before its statutory deadline, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, aka the “supercommittee,” announced that it could not come to an agreement on a plan to reduce the nation’s deficit. As a result, the clock began ticking on an automatic spending cut that, if enacted, would greatly impact federal spending on education programs.

FLEX PLAN: Eleven States Submit Requests for Waivers from Key NCLB Provisions: On November 15, the U.S. Department of Education announced that eleven states—Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Tennessee—formally submitted requests for waivers from key provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). These states will be notified by mid-January or earlier as to whether their plans have been accepted. States not applying during this first round can do so in mid-February.

“CHARACTERISTICS OF GED RECIPIENTS IN HIGH SCHOOL: 2002–06”: GED Recipients Do Not Fare as Well as High School Graduates in College, Report Finds: Although the General Educational Development (GED) credential is often considered to be the equivalent of a high school diploma for students who do not graduate from high school, individuals with GEDs do not fare as well as high school graduates in postsecondary education, according to “Characteristics of GED Recipients in High School: 2002–06,” a new issue brief from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

ACE AND PEARSON WORKING TO REVAMP GED TEST: New Test Will Be Aligned to Common Core, Serve as Assurance That Test Passers Are College and Career Ready: Earlier this year, the American Council on Education (ACE) and Pearson announced that they were working to develop a new General Educational Development (GED) credential that is aligned with the common core state standards and assures postsecondary institutions and prospective employers alike that adults who have passed the GED test are prepared to compete and succeed in today’s global economy.

PATHWAY TO RECOVERY: New Report Spotlights Successful Dropout Recovery Programs, Calls for Greater Focus on Out-of-School Youths: In the midst of harsh economic and demographic realities, focusing attention on low-income students and students of color is essential to the nation’s economic well-being and the health of its communities, according to a new report from Jobs for the Future (JFF). The report, Pathway to Recovery: Implementing a Back on Track Through College Model, spotlights innovative programs showing how “dropout recovery can be part of the national recovery” and argues that the time is “ripe” to examine these promising practices and to design public and private investment strategies that will allow this work to grow and flourish.

MOBILITY MAKERS: Increasing Community College Graduation Rate Would Boost Economy, Report Finds: Increasing graduation rates at New York City’s six community colleges by just 10 percentage points for the class that entered in 2009 would provide a $71 million one-year boost to the city and state, according to a new report from the Center for an Urban Future, a New York City–based think tank.