Here’s a quick look at the news from last week (November 25 – 29).  

SENATE and HOUSE
The House and Senate were in recess last week and return to session on Monday, December 2, 2013.

The House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training will hold a hearing on Tuesday, December 3 titled “Keeping College Within Reach: Strengthening Pell Grants for Future Generations.”

ADMINISTRATION
The U.S. Department of Education issued a Federal Register notice with a list of waivers granted under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act during the calendar year 2010.

The U.S. Department of Education indicated that twelve states have applied for an extra year to implement new teacher-evaluation systems under the stipulations of their No Child Left Behind waivers: Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Washington.

The California Department of Education announced that it will expand field tests of the new Common Core State Standards-aligned assessments in math and English so that all students in grades three through eight, grade eleven, and a small number of grade nine and ten students will take the fields tests in both subjects next spring. This is intended to address concerns stated in a letter from the U.S. Department of Education that California was at risk of losing their Title I funding if they did not test all students in both reading and math next year.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
Penn Hill Group provides a weekly list of grant opportunities, and summaries for select grants. Please visit our website for more information.