President Obama and members of Congress aim to make preschool more widely available. Two new studies on preschool programs evaluate academic gains — and offer clues about what it takes to boost student progress.

One student is critically wounded, two others injured, in a rural California high school where, just hours before, school officials had been reviewing lockdown procedures for such a case.

Some 40 percent of students are failing to graduate from college in six years. A study calls for higher-quality college prep, with more advanced math, advanced placement classes, and better advising.

An Ivy League union organizer with deep ties to Chicago's community activists, Karen Lewis is emerging as the new face of resistance to a national education reform movement. She's a match for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's storied temper, backers say.