School districts such as Alabama's Birmingham City Schools are taking innovative steps to ensure a sustained academic rebound, a new report finds. Here's how.

"We worked on creating the story with the people of the community—it's their story. Community members wrote their own story of what they wanted their community to look like for their children," Superintendent Jennifer Lowery says.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy urged lawmakers late Tuesday to pass his pilot program that would pay teachers bonuses of up to $15,000 a year, pitching it as an investment in the classroom, even as education leaders say a more significant investment in the state's K12 public school system is needed.

Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders is not sitting idly by while New Hampshire remains at the bottom of the list for per-pupil funding.