The field of 21 judges who will help decide which states get a waiver under the No Child Left Behind Act is dominated by education policy experts with deep experience working for state departments of education.

The top Democrat on the House education committee wants a hearing into whether Congress needs to consider changes to federal laws designed to protect children.

So you've heard a lot about the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. But there's this whole other law that gets much less attention: The Education Sciences Reform Act, which created the Institute for Education Sciences back in 2002. Today, the House Education and the Workforce subcommittee on K-12 education held the first hearing on the reauthorization of ESRA, which has been pending since 2008. Sarah Sparks, of Inside School Research Fame, wrote a great preview, and tweeted the hearing. Perhaps not surprisingly, the politics of education research aren't nearly as charged as the politics of, say, accountability. ...

The nine runners-up states from last year's Race to the Top are eligible to split $200 million for STEM projects, but must meet several requirements before they can pitch their projects.

The U.S. Department of Education did not standardize scores to determine this year's winners of the Investing in Innovation competition, an important change over last year.

The Texas governor and GOP presidential hopeful now officially says the Education Department be one of three he'd get rid of if elected.

Four Race to the Top states—Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, and Tennessee—are among the 11 trying to win the first waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act.

A committee of House and Senate members agreed to the changes, which must now be voted on by both chambers.

The new partnership marries a strong grassroots organization seeking to make an impact on state policy with a politically connected organization that has a focus on minority communities.

A group of House lawmakers from areas with many Asian, African-American, and Hispanic students want performance targets for various student subgroups in any ESEA rewrite.