Petraeus moves up; Education law overhauled

last updated 8 January 2015

Petraeus moves up

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. officer in Iraq, will be the next commander of the U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced this week. Petraeus succeeds Adm. William Fallon in the post, which has command responsibility for the entire Middle East region. Fallon resigned in March, saying that widespread reports of his policy differences with the Bush administration made his position untenable. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking officer in Iraq, will succeed Petraeus.

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With Congress unable to agree on reforms to the No Child Left Behind law, the Department of Education announced far-reaching changes of its own. Rather than change the law itself, the department will revise regulations spelling out how the law is administered. The biggest change is in the way states calculate high school graduation rates. States currently use a variety of methods, often resulting in exaggerated claims of success. Beginning with the 2012–13 school year, states will be required to use a uniform method of counting graduates.