CONGRESS PUNTS EDUCATION FUNDING DECISION TO 2009: Education and Other Domestic Priorities Frozen While Defense and Homeland Security Receive Large Increases: In the final days before the start of the new fiscal year, Congress enacted a massive stopgap spending bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 that postpones most spending decisions until next year. The bill, which freezes nearly all domestic spending at 2008 levels, but provides spending increases for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, military construction, and veterans’ affairs, will keep the government running until March 6, 2009.

DIPLOMA TO NOWHERE: Report Pegs College Remediation Cost in Excess of $2 Billion Annually: In 2004, more than 40 percent of all students in two-year public institutions and nearly 30 percent of students at public four-year institutions had to take a remedial course in college, according to Diploma to Nowhere, a new report from Strong American Schools. The report finds that more than one million students every year have to take remedial courses in college at a total cost to the nation of more than $2 billion.

SAT, ACT, IB, AND AP: New Commission Report Studies Use of Standardized Tests in College Admission: Although college admission exams such as the ACT and SAT provide useful information to the college and universities that use them to make admission decisions, Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams may be more predictive of first-year and overall grades in college because they are more closely linked to high school curriculum. So says a new report from the Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission, which was created by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).

“WHAT HAPPENED TO DROPOUTS FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2004?”: Brief Finds Over a Third Not Working and Not in School: A new brief from the California Dropout Research Project (CDRP) checks in with California students who were scheduled to graduate in 2004 but who dropped out after the tenth grade. It finds that in 2006 over one third of these students were doing absolutely nothing—neither going to school (high school or college) nor working—two years after their scheduled graduation date. Nationwide, 30 percent of dropouts were not in school and not working four years after leaving school.

SOMETHING IN COMMON: Achieve Reports That Many States Are Voluntarily Setting College- and Work-Readiness Standards: More and more states are aligning their curriculum standards with those for college and work readiness, leading to “a remarkable degree of consistency” in English and math requirements, finds Out of Many, One: Toward Rigorous Common Core Standards from the Ground Up, a recent report from Achieve.

PREDICTING THE FUTURE: ACT Projects Future Workforce for States, Finds Many High School Graduates Unprepared for Success in College: Earlier this month, using data from the 2008 ACT for high school graduates and long-term occupational projections provided by states, ACT created a profile of the future workforce in thirty-one states. Dubbed the “Future State Workforce Gap Summary,” each profile lists the five highest-growth career fields for the state and compares the projected annual job openings in these fields to students’ interest in pursuing a career in them.

“WHAT DID I DO WRONG?”: New Jersey College Students Push for Tougher High School Courses to Help Future Students Avoid Remediation: Last week, the Associated Press reported on several New Jersey college students who asked the New Jersey Board of Education to adopt more rigorous high school requirements in the hope that they could help future high school graduates avoid having to take remedial courses in college, as they had been required to do.