On Thursday, July 12th, we received notification from the SDE about the possible cuts to federal funding should Congress fail to pass a plan for budgetary savings. The cuts would occur in January of 2013. While we are hopeful this won’t occur, we wanted to make sure you were aware. The information was forwarded to superintendents and charter school administrators.

We've heard from quite a few of you that while you appreciate all the information we provide, we've also cluttered your inbox too much. So, we have created a newsletter, the ISBA Voice, that will help to reduce the number of emails you receive from us, but still provide all the information you need.

Nationwide, 73.4 percent of all public school students graduated from high school with a regular diploma in the class of 2009, marking the second straight year of gains following a period of modest declines. The national graduation rate rose by 1.7 percentage points above the rate for the class of 2008, with rates also increasing in three-quarters of the states. This continued climb in the graduation rate is driven largely by strong gains among Latinos and moderate improvements for African-American and white students, which offset small decreases for other groups.