During the panel, Democrats worried that a bill from Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act would hurt the most-disadvantaged students.

States can cook up their own turnaround interventions for low-performing schools using federal SIG dollars and submit them to the U.S. Secretary of Education for approval.

The U.S. Secretary of Education is unhappy about what he sees as a lack of resources and accountability in GOP legislation to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act.

The California Department of Education is seeking a one-year reprieve from the U.S. Department of Education from the use of student performance on Smarter Balanced assessments in determining school performance.

The House education committee will mark up a proposal to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act on Feb. 11, and the House will debate the measure the week of Feb. 24.

When it comes to Washington's role, experts seem to agree that, "it's the strict federal accountability system that's the problem, not the tests," Alexander said.

Letting Title I dollars for disadvantaged kids follow students to the public school of their choice would end up diluting the program's focus on children in poverty.

Under the current U.S. Senate draft to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act, 67 federal education programs would be eliminated or not reauthorized.

If you're familiar with the Student Success Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013 on a party-line vote, this bill should seem like old hat.

A draft bill in the U.S. Senate that would roll back the federal footprint in education is drawing mixed reactions.