Good news for Louisiana: The state can keep its waiver from many of the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act for another school year. But what's the bad news?

"Governors understand that early childhood education is a key component of building a literate, knowledgeable and skilled 21st century workforce," Govs. Jay Inslee and Robert Bentley wrote to the four congressional representatives.

"Progress Is No Accident: Why ESEA Can't Backtrack on High School Graduation Rates" also reports that the number of high school "dropout factories" has also declined significantly in recent years.

Title I aid, the largest single federal grant program for public schools, is at the center of many of them, but it's not the only horse on the race track.

Over the weekend Hillary Clinton, a longtime charter fan, had some tough words for charters, specifically when it comes to equity. And that sent the internet into a bit of a tail spin.

The goals here include getting more in-depth and current information on what students know and can do than the schools would with traditional summative exams, and helping students tackle material in more meaningful ways.

The state is reluctant to mandate that all its districts adopt teacher evaluations that take student progress into account.

Juneau has emphasized graduation and teacher evaluation during her tenure, during which she's also said no to a waiver from NCLB but yes to a speaking spot at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

The answer may well be yes, if you consider a report by the National Council of Teacher Quality, an advocacy organization that likes the idea of more rigorous evaluations.

Even though both the House and Senate ESEA bills keep annual tests, they go very different ways on a lot of other assessment issues.