As lawmakers return this week to Des Moines, the state's school districts are banking on the Iowa Legislature to extend a sales tax they rely on to pay for building projects — and hope changes to the tax code don't dampen other sources of K-12 funding.

Carnegie Mellon University's free, online curriculum for high school students helps instructors teach programming skills using graphics and animations. Now being piloted in 40 schools, the Computer Science Academy's CS1 will be available for general use this fall, free of charge.

Catapult Learning and the Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL) are establishing the Institute for Scaling Evidence-Based Education. The partnership, which initially calls for Catapult Learning to provide professional development for CTL's Enhanced Core Reading Instruction program, plans to cover CTL's full suite of programs and services.

Transition planning for special education students has evolved so that the activities students participate in now mirror more closely mainstream college- and career-prep programs.