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The article reports that U.S. federal grants have been made available to Native American tribes to allow them to make improvements to schools that are overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and serve Native American students.

The article offers news briefs on U.S. governors' state of the state addresses as of January 22, 2014. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal is increasing state aid to education. Indiana Governor Mike Pence wants the state to leave the Common Core State Standards guidelines. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe hopes to reform educational assesment.

The article discusses the National Civic League's Campaign for Grade-Level Reading contest for improving child literacy in the U.S., addressing school readiness, school attendance and summer learning.

The article focuses on the use of web systems by schools to screen visitors. Since 2003, more than 100 districts in Florida, Ohio, Maryland, Texas, and other states have installed, or made plans to install, visitor-tracking systems that link school officials to a database containing the names of hundreds of thousands of sex offenders from 48 states. Some are buying the technology despite tight budgets. The most popular system, made by Houston-based Raptor Technologies, uses names and dates of birth on driver's licenses and other government-issued identification cards to compare against the registries.

The article focuses on the efforts of Governor Phil Bredesen to expand pre-K opportunities. Education initiatives that ranged from boosting teacher salaries to driving down high school dropout rates dominated much of Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen's State of the State Address to lawmakers in Nashville. The Democratic governor, who is in the final year of his first term and gearing up for a re-election bid, pledged increased education spending amid the state's still tight, but improving, fiscal condition. Among his new spending proposals for schools, the governor wants to add $90 million over last year's amount for the state's K-12 basic education program. An official with Tennessee's largest teachers' union said boosting high school graduation to the governor's stated goal in six years would be tough, but otherwise praised his education plans.

The article reports on political disputes between Florida officials Governor Rick Scott, state education Commissioner Pam Stewart, and Miami-Dade County Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the U.S. Department of Education over its treatment of English-language learning instruction and accountability.

The article provides information available on the publication's website regarding a 2014 report from the Migration Policy Institute that states U.S. immigrant families often do not take advantage of early childhood educational opportunities for their children.

The article covers the In-State for Dreamers Act, proposed legislation that would offer financial incentives to U.S. states that make college tuition more affordable fro undocumented students as well as raise fees on visas issued to international students studying in the country.

The article discusses the 2013 decision of U.S. District Judge Raner Collins regarding a suit filed by parents of English-language learners (ELL) from the Nogales school district in Arizona, who claimed their children's civil rights were violated by the district's policies regarding the amount of time spent in English classes.

The article reports on Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton's February 15, 2012 State of the State address in which he is cited as touting an increase in public school funding, holding off from new education programs, and urging legislators to cooperate with teachers.

The article reports that the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) office for civil rights is examining the adequacy of education English-language learners are receiving in charter schools in Boston, Massachusetts.

The article discusses the funding formula in Rhode Island that was passed in June 2010.

The article discusses a report by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform which examined grassroots organizing efforts to reform schools and noted that where such efforts existed, student achievement rose, teacher recruitment improved and college preparatory curricula were adopted. Successful strategies included solution-oriented approaches to solving problems, successful creation of public support and leadership training for parents and students.

The article focuses on the aftermath of the firing of Creg Williams, who had served 15 months as superintendent of the St. Louis public schools. The author discusses the consequence of this decision, which was made by a school board that is increasingly divided. Williams has been replaced by Diana M. Bourisaw, who is St. Louis' sixth superintendent in three years.

The article reports that hundreds of parent activists from New York City and Chicago are urging Los Angeles parents to reject Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's bid to take control of the 727,000-student district. They argue that Mayoral control has not delivered greater accountability and transparency in New York and Chicago. Los Angeles parents feel disenfranchised now by the district's bureaucracy and elected school board will be shut off entirely from the decision making process if the mayor is in charge. The mayor has been campaigning for his plan at the state Capitol in Sacramento, where lawmakers could vote on the matter later this summer.

The article reports that William F. Coleman, superintendent of the city of Detroit, Michigan has expressed his concerns about lavish spending on staff retreats after a recent professional-development workshop for 30 high school employees. Coleman had earlier enacted a policy that will set limits on professional-development expenditures. The new rules require principals and administrators to hold retreats on school district property when possible. School administrators will have to seek a location that is within the Detroit city limits.

This article reports that in May 2006, a state circuit court judge ordered school officials from Baltimore and the Maryland Department of Education to spell out how much it will cost the school district to implement a series of state-imposed mandates to improve low-performing schools. A lawyer for the district told Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan that complying with the state's reform requirements would cost between $30 million and $40 million. State education officials did not offer an estimate. Judge Kaplan ordered both parties to present him with a full accounting of costs within 60 days.

The article reports that students in regular public schools in the U.S. equaled or outperformed private and charter school students on a national mathematics examination when factors such as socioeconomic status, race and school location were taken into account, according to a study. Christopher Lubienski, an education professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the co-author of the study. The study also found that 4th grade students in charter schools scored 4.4 points lower than students in traditional public schools.