Federal

Post: Duncan wants more accountability in higher education. Easier said than done.

Photo Credit: Medill DCby Nick AndersonEducation Secretary Arne Duncan delivered this week a dual message on accountability in higher education. He said the Obama administration aims to crack down on schools that fail to deliver what they promise to students, but he lamented that politics and bureaucracy in the system of oversight often stymies efforts to get tough on dismal school performance.Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post.

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From NPR: How The Big New Education Law Could Cut Testing Time

Both houses of Congress have now passed versions of the bill that would update the largest federal education law, known as No Child Left Behind, for the first time since 2001. They are big, meaty and complicated, and now they have to be reconciled into one messy Dagwood sandwich of a bill to go to the president. Read the rest of the story on NPREd.

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U.S. News: Senate approves No Child Left Behind overhaul

Photo credit: Tim Evansonby Jennifer C. Kerr, Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — More than a decade after No Child Left Behind established a stronger federal role in public education, the Senate on Thursday approved a rewrite of the much-criticized education law that would return much of that power to the states.Read the rest of the story at U.S. News and World Report.

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NY Times: Lawmakers Move to Limit Government’s Role in Education

by Jennifer Steinhauer and Motoko RichWASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday moved to substantially scale back the federal government’s role in education, particularly the use of high-stakes standardized testing to punish schools, in the first significant proposed revisions since the No Child Left Behind law was passed 14 years ago.Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

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