TWO OMNIBUS BILLS AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE?: Final Vote on Education Appropriations Bill Could Come Before Christmas: With only five of the twelve annual appropriations bills signed into law by President Obama and the debate on health care overhaul occupying much of the floor time in the U.S. Senate, Congressional leaders are mulling options on how to finish work on the seven remaining appropriations bills before the stopgap continuing resolution expires December 18.

MAKING A LIST AND CHECKING IT TWICE: Data Quality Campaign Issues Annual Progress Report on State Data Systems: Over the past four years, states have made tremendous progress in developing longitudinal data systems that can track the progress of individual students throughout their education careers, according to the Data Quality Campaign’s (DQC) annual progress report on state data systems. Whereas no states reported having all ten essential elements of a high-quality longitudinal data system in place in 2005, eleven states have all ten elements in place today. DQC’s report also notes that policy issues previously considered “untouchable,” such as addressing obstacles to linking student growth and achievement data to teachers and principals for the purposes of evaluation, are now being discussed.

THE PROMISE OF PROFICIENCY: New Report Focuses on Need for Additional Data in “Year 13,” the First Year After High School: If high schools are to succeed in their mission to prepare students for college and careers, they must be given the data and management tools to determine how their graduates are doing in “Year 13”—the first year after high school. So says The Promise of Proficiency: How College Proficiency Information Can Help High Schools Drive Student Success, a new report coproduced by the Center for American Progress and College Summit.

“NO READER LEFT BEHIND”: New Report Finds 1.4 Percent of National News Coverage Dealt with Education: During the first nine months of 2009, only 1.4 percent of national news coverage from television, newspapers, news web sites, and radio dealt with education, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution. The report, Invisible: 1.4 Percent Coverage for Education is Not Enough, argues that this “paucity” in education coverage makes it difficult for the public to follow the issues at stake in education debates and understand how to improve school performance.

URBAN RENEWAL: New Alliance Research Shows U.S. Urban Economy Will Grow By Billions of Dollars If High School Dropout Rate is Reduced in America's Fifty Largest Cities: On November 18, the Alliance for Excellent Education released new research showing that the U.S. urban economy would grow significantly if the number of high school dropouts were cut in half in the nation's fifty largest cities.

WHEN CARS FLY?: Report Projects State Revenues to Recover in 2014 or 2015, Recessionary Effects on State Budgets to Last Until Late in Next Decade: Although the national economy is showing signs of recovery, the picture is not nearly as rosy for states, according to the preliminary findings of the report, which is published jointly by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). In fact, even after accounting for spending cuts and tax increases, states are expecting new budget shortfalls totaling $14.5 billion for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 and $21.9 billion for FY 2011-amounts that are expected to increase dramatically over the next several months.

GRADUATION FOR ALL: House Education Committee Chairman Introduces Legislation Targeting Nation's Lowest-Performing High Schools: Last week, U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, introduced legislation that would provide $2 billion to improve the nation's lowest-performing middle and high schools. The bill, the Graduation for All Act, would target the nation's approximately two thousand "dropout factories," which have dropout rates above 40 percent, and the middle schools that feed into them.

HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON IMPROVING READING AND COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS: On November 19, the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education held a hearing to examine current federal literacy initiatives and determine how to improve reading and comprehension skills of children from birth through high school. The hearing, "Improving the Literacy Skills of Children and Young Adults," featured practitioners, researchers, and representatives from business and the foundation world as witnesses.

SUCCESS AT EVERY STEP: New Report Profiles Twenty-Three Programs that Help Prepare Students for College and Career: A new report from the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) profiles twenty-three programs that primarily serve youth in middle school, high school, and postsecondary education and have been successful in preparing them for college and careers. The report, Success at Every Step: How 23 Programs Support Youth on the Path to College and Beyond, provides policymakers and practitioners with a short summary of the research findings for each program and a short description of why the programs work.