Congress considers renewal of the Higher Education Act. Momentum is slowly building to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA) with college costs and student debt under bipartisan scrutiny. The most recent reauthorization of the HEA passed in 2008 and expires in 2014. On Thursday, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on reauthorization. It is the first of 12 hearin...
The Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy hired Chad d’Entremont as its new executive director. A former research and policy leader at Teachers College of Columbia University and Strategies for Children, d’Entremont managed Massachusetts’ successful application for a $50 million Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge award. At Rennie, he succeeds Jill Norton, who ov...
The federal No Child Left Behind law of 2002 left it to states to establish their own academic standards and assessment systems. Those standards vary across the country in rigor and quality. Yet as former Maine Commissioner of Education Susan A. Gendron noted in March 2010: "What is different about mathematics in Maine from California? ... I don't believe there is a difference."The National Govern...
In mid-June, we reported that Connecticut and Vermont had completed budgets in record time. Now it's Maine and New Hampshire's turn in this very difficult budget year. Maine State Budget
After a rocky start, Maine's newly elected Republican Gov. Paul LePage got much of what he asked for, as the Republican-controlled Legislature approved a $6.1 billion two-year budget, which included the eliminatio...
The Florida Department of Education announced the nation's first state assessment to incorporate common core standards.Working with the test developer McCann Associates, Florida will launch the test at 28 colleges in an effort to both place students and assess readiness for college-level work. Florida's Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) will be given to high school and entering postsec...
Congress considers renewal of the Higher Education Act. Momentum is slowly building to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA) with college costs and student debt under bipartisan scrutiny. The most recent reauthorization of the HEA passed in 2008 and expires in 2014. On Thursday, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on reauthorization. It is the first of 12 hearin...