Afternoon Announcements: Obama Advocates for Race to the Top, Early Learning in State of the Union Address

In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama stressed the importance of Race to the Top and early-childhood learning as ways to improve education in America. Politics K-12

On-time graduation rates have reached a new high in Maryland, according to new data released for the class of 2013. Graduation rates rose to 85 percent from 83.6 percent in 2012. The Washington Post

The Detroit News reported earlier this week that 14 percent of school districts in Michigan do not have the minimum Internet bandwidth needed to support online tests for students. The Times-Herald.com

Adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards has been slow among states. Of the 26 states that helped develop them, only eight have formally signed on. Education Week