A rebellion over "No Child Left Behind" has begun, and the starting point is Idaho. Many states say they need emergency relief from the controversial education law's requirements, or a huge number of decent schools will face sanctions. Idaho says it will just ignore the law this year.

Legislation creating Maine's first charter schools is headed to Gov. Paul LePage's desk for his signature. After years of failed attempts, advocates for charter schools finally succeeded in receiving legislative support for allowing public schools that must meet state and federal academic standards but are given more flexibility in curriculum, budgeting and other areas.

As the school year draws to a close, it's time to take stock of the current situation in American education.

While the Obama administration's proposed reform efforts continue the obsession with test scores and the folly of trying to be globally competitive without being globally competent, students in other countries are hard at work to ensure that they become globally competent. America is "woefully behind almost all other countries of the world, particularly industrialized countries" in terms of foreign language studies, as Marty Abbott, the education director at ACTFL, told Education Week's Erik Robelen. I have been aware of and worried about this well-known fact, but what I saw and heard over the last few weeks gave me more reason to worry.

Three months after his surprise ascension to head the nation's largest school system amid its worst leadership crisis in recent memory, Mr. Walcott, 59, has worked hard to improve the administration's relationships with key constituencies through frequent, sometimes unannounced, school visits and constant contact with the teachers' union. But even after a tumultuous year in which parents, educators and advocates were shocked by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's appointment of a publishing executive with no education experience - and her subsequent implosion and ouster - Mr. Walcott still sees his role as building support for, and tweaking - not changing - policies.

Bad Teacher offers the most straightforward accounting of the underlying assumptions of paying-for-scores that I've yet seen, in print or on screen. A lousy, unmotivated teacher who desires breast implants is inspired to work much harder to earn the cash. There you go: honest, straightforward, incentive-driven--and utterly disinterested in social justice or the larger purposes of schooling. She changes her behavior because there are rewards for doing so. There's no expectation that the change is permanent, that it alters the content of her character, or even that she'll teach any better--only that she'll teach harder. And, it should come as no surprise that she looks for an opportunity to cheat when her other efforts aren't getting it done. At the same time, for all these thorny issues, I'd absolutely argue that her kids are better off after she learns about the bonus than they were before.

Every time I hear about a school where there are allegations or proof of cheating on standardized testing, I reflexively think about roaches, or, rather, the adage that if you see one or two of the pests running across the floor, there are probably an army of others having a party in the kitchen.

Today the Walton Family Foundation announced investments totaling more than $157 million in education reform initiatives for 2010 - a $23 million increase over 2009, in which education reform grants totaled $134 million. Grants were made to organizations and programs that empower parents, particularly in low-income communities, to choose among quality, publicly funded schools for their children.

This report provides a first-of-its-kind descriptive summary of private school expenditures. It includes comparisons of expenditures among different types and affiliations of private schools, and it also compares those expenditures with public school expenditures for districts in the same state and labor market. Results indicate that (1) the less-regulated private school sector is more varied in many key features (teacher attributes, pay and school expenditures) than the more highly regulated public schooling sector; (2) these private school variations align and are largely explained by affiliation -- primarily religious affiliation -- alone; and (3) a ranking of school sectors by average spending correlates well with a ranking of those sectors by average standardized test scores.

Some teachers thrived. Others gritted their teeth and managed, while a few walked out the door.

Surrounded by charter-school students, Florida Gov. Rick Scott touted school choice Monday during a bill-signing ceremony intended to praise programs that offer parents options for their children outside traditional public schools.

At a recent Shanker Institute conference, a guest presenter from the United Kingdom was discussing the historical relationship between public spending and democracy. I don't remember the exact context, but at some point, he noted, in a perfectly calm, matter-of-fact tone, that one U.S. political party spends a great deal of effort and resources trying to suppress electoral turnout.

New York State United Teachers has filed suit against the Board of Regents and State Education Commissioner John King, declaring regulations adopted last month violate state law and exceed the Regents' authority, including a regulation that allows school districts to double the weight of state standardized test scores in teacher evaluations.

The Woonsocket Education Department believes that Rhode Island's new formula for funding education does not go far enough to meet the challenges of the state's urban communities and is joined by Pawtucket in a lawsuit to address the system.

State-level momentum in support of vouchers and tax credits that help students go to private schools highlights what, to this point, has been a largely theoretical issue: private school capacity to support voucher-financed enrollment.

Emily Strzelecki, a first-year science teacher here, was about as eager for a classroom visit by one of the city's roving teacher evaluators as she would be to get a tooth drilled. "It really stressed me out because, oh my gosh, I could lose my job," Ms. Strzelecki said.

Many in the forefront of what is called the education reform movement - like Bill Gates, the philanthropist, and Arne Duncan, the nation's education secretary - have attended private schools with small class sizes. Others, like New York's mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and its former schools chancellor Joel I. Klein have sent their children to private schools with small class sizes. Imagine if the poorest public school children had the same opportunity. That is what has been happening for several years in this urban district of 130,000 students. Using state money and federal stimulus dollars, San Diego has held class size to 17 in kindergarten through second grade at its 30 poorest schools.