Happy Friday! While you dig into the Halloween candy, check out at these reading treats:

•Those in K-12 programs aren’t the only folks in Edu-Land keeping an eye on the budget battles in Congress. Inside Higher Education examines where post-secondary stands in all this.

• And speaking of higher education, the New America Foundation has this smart blog post on how to make colleges report data on graduation outcomes for students that receive Pell Grants.

•Think that an education bill that sailed through the constantly-contentious U.S. House of Representatives would be totally non-controversial? Think again. Eduwonk unpacks unions’ positions on a bill to bolster educator background checks.

•Does the recent ruling on gay marriage have implications for school districts? You bet it does. Mark Walsh of the School Law Blog explains it all, right here.

•Is the Investing in Innovation program actually yielding any useable results? The jury is still out on that, but early results from Success For All’s turnaround model look promising. And that’s good news for fans of the Senate Elementary and Secondary Education Act proposal. The measure would add a new turnaround model to the menu of options under the School Improvement Grant program: allowing districts to partner with turnaround organizations that have demonstrate strong evidence of effectiveness. Sarah Sparks of Inside School Research fame has much more here.

•Are computer tests really the same thing as paper-and-pencil tests? And what does this mean for states that are about to tackle common core tests? Catherine Gewertz, aka the Queen of Common Core, walks you through it.

•And, just for you edu-media nerds, Mark Walsh takes a look at the story behind the Los Angeles Times John-Deasy-is-resigning-no-wait-nevermind story. And Alexander Russo also has a smart take. Bonus: Russo has also collected Halloween edu-costume tweets.