I grew up in Iowa. I attended Iowa public schools. I’ve participated in the Iowa caucuses. And yet, I also think it’s time for Iowa to lose its privileged status as the first contest of the presidential primaries. Read why in my latest column for The 74.

Andy Rotherham on the toxic debate around charter schools, and how that obscures the hard challenges both sides should be tackling instead.

This is a good short primer on the status and results of performance-based funding initiatives in higher education.

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation is donating $100 million to boost low-income student graduation rates at the University of Texas.

The Urban Institute has a set of policy briefs about what we can learn about postsecondary outcomes and success using state data systems in Connecticut and Virginia. Here’s their summary of the whole series.

Eric Hanushek has a new paper outlining the arguments for raising teacher compensation, especially for the most effective teachers. (Disc: I gave comments at an earlier stage of the project.)

–Guest post by Chad Aldeman