The group includes a blend of government officials, traditional district leaders and leaders from educational organizations.

The Allentown, Pa., school district will have to take a number of steps to better prevent and address sexual harassment to resolve a federal investigation into how it handled the sexual assaults by a 5th grade student on 6- and 7-year-old schoolmates.

The Boston Consulting Group, which has worked with districts and states around the country, suggests that cash-strapped school systems need to make cuts with an eye towards getting the most out of budget dollars.

The four will serve on the board of directors of The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, joining 12 other members.

State and local education officials say that federal data requests take a lot of time and effort to fulfill, according to a report from a Congressional watchdog agency.

After the school board attempted to fire its superintendent, the Alabama schools chief said he or a designee will run board meetings for the time being.

Leaders of large suburban districts say they're looking for a voice in crafting federal policy, as well as a place where they can share best practices with similar systems.

The agency that collects education statistics plans to implement new checking procedures to catch unusual outliers in the data.