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PHOENIX – The Arizona Board of Education has voted to reject Common Core, but for the time being leave its standards in place.

Students shouldn’t spend more than 2 percent of time taking tests, the Education Department says.By Lauren CameraStates and school districts should evaluate the number of tests they administer to students and eliminate any deemed ineffective or duplicative, the Department of Education recommended in new assessment guidance released Saturday.

New poll shows that a majority of American voters support federal spending on early childhood programsBy Lillian MongeauPresidential candidates hoping to attract Millennials, Hispanics and swing state voters in 2016 could be well-advised to make early education a key part of their education platform, according to the results of a new national poll showing that 76 percent of voters support the idea of spending federal money to expand public preschool.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama’s effort to help educate millions of adolescent girls in developing countries has picked up support from Pakistan.In conjunction with a White House meeting Thursday between President Barack Obama and Pakistan President Nawaz Sharif, the first lady’s office announced that the Pakistani government has committed to double spending on education at home, from 2 percent to 4 percent of GDP by 2018. 

By Andrew P. KellyOver just a few years, college affordability has gone from a minor political issue to a headlining one. Why? A wider swath of the income distribution is feeling the pinch, and they are feeling it for longer. Tuition has increased at the same time that family incomes have declined, meaning responsible middle-class families who have saved for college can no longer afford it. Thanks to growing reliance on loans, what used to be a temporary financial crunch has become a lasting financial obligation that hangs around students and parents for years. For the 40 percent of students who drop out, these loans can quickly become an albatross. Taken together, these trends are a recipe for a broader political coalition in search of college affordability.

Get them while they’re young: A baby forms 700 new neural connections per second.By Peter CoyBrain science and economics show that intervening to help children when they’re very young is more cost-effective than waiting until they’re in school. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Bridgespan Group and the Pritzker Children’s Initiative. The report’s lead author, J.B. Pritzker, is an entrepreneur and philanthropist; his sister, Penny, is the U.S. secretary of commerce.

By Sean TrainorCommunity colleges have been at the forefront of nearly every major development in higher educationIn January of 2015, President Obama unveiled his “American College Promise” program – a plan to make two years of community college education available free of charge to “everyone who’s willing to work for it.” In offering the proposal, the president did not just venture a partial solution to the student debt crisis. He joined a growing community of thinkerswho see the community college as central to solving a wide variety of problems in higher education, from cost and inclusivity to career-preparedness and community engagement.

By Griselda NevarezThe U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday released a resource guide to help undocumented students and educators ensure that young people are on a path to academic success regardless of their immigration status. 

As always, our NPR Ed inboxes are clogged with press releases about the latest amazeballs app or product. Like the following, edited to protect the guilty:…an unprecedented new DOODLEHICKY app optimized for iPhone® and Android™ smartphones that includes real-time monitoring of a child’s learning progress. DOODLEHICKY is the tutoring program that fuses the most effective elements of personalized teaching with a fun and engaging iPad® and Android tablet-based experience for measurably improving student DOODLE performance.