ESEA

The Wyoming Department of Education has asked its federal counterpart to freeze language arts and math standards established by the No Child Left Behind education law at 2011 levels rather than allow them to increase to 2012 levels for the state.

The U.S. Department of Education has turned down Iowa’s No Child Left Behind waiver request, according to a letter sent to Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass that was made public Thursday.

A veteran superintendent who has led turnaround efforts in four large U.S. districts has started a new venture that he expects will broaden his reach.

The Vallas Group, headed by Paul Vallas, former head of the Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans Recovery districts and currently interim superintendent of the Bridgeport (Conn.) Public Schools, is partnering with Dallas-based Cambium Learning Group to bring his school improvement model to more schools in the nation. With experience on projects in Haiti and Chile, Vallas may even bring the model to other countries as well.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants to get the federal government more involved in schools.

The Barack Obama administration has begun issuing long-awaited waivers giving states some flexibility in complying with the No Child Left Behind education law. But with the exception of politicians, educators and parents in the 11 states that have received them, nobody seems very pleased with the changes.

Monday, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released high school graduation rates calculated using a new method.

The Massachusetts education board voted to seek a waiver from the requirements of No Child Left Behind, the federal law once championed by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy but now viewed by the Obama administration and most states as an unrealistic measure of academic progress.

Signaling some unity in the Senate on overhauling the "No Child Left Behind" law, two senators announced Monday an agreement to move forward on bipartisan legislation to revamp it.