The guests in First Lady Michelle Obama's box will reinforce the themes of education and innovation.

President Obama is expected to talk a lot about K-12 policy in his State of the Union speech. Here's a look at what to watch for.

A second, smaller Race to the Top competition will attract far less interest from states.

Congressional Republicans are proposing to take back unused stimulus funds to pay for cuts to the federal budget.

Iowa is burning through its stimulus money the fastest, while Alaska, Wyoming and Texas have the most remaining.

Arne Duncan says common standards could produce technological innovations in schools. Top White House economic adviser Gene Sperling says the administration will seek to protect education, research, and development.

Sen. Bingaman will be the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate on ESEA reauthorization.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is clearly not kidding around about wanting to get a bipartisan reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act done this year. In fact, he's so committed, he's willing to brave Minnesota in the middle of January. Duncan is slated to appear with Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the newly-minted chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, at Crystal Lake Elementary School in Lakeville, Minn., next Friday. This marks the first time he's traveled to Kline's district. The high temperature is supposed to climb to 10 degrees. So I hope Duncan's packing some of ...

Just in case there is a future for the Investing in Innovation, or 'i3', competition, the U.S. Department of Education is gearing up. They've published proposed regulations that seek to tweak the rules that governed the 2010 competition. Comments are due by Feb. 9. Among the changes: the department wants to give itself more flexibility in determining what priorities i3 grant applicants must focus on when they make their pitches, and what selection criteria will be used to judge the applicants. In addition, the current regulations specify that a grant recipient can only win two awards and no more ...

Rumor has it that the president is going to make a big push for renewing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in his address to the newly divided Congress, slated for Jan. 25.