Last year, Fairfax County, Va. made headlines when it protested the use of state assessments for students whose native language was not English—these students needed extra time and their results shouldn’t be counted, officials argued. They lost that battle, but a new report shows many Virginia districts are using alternate portfolio assessments for these and other students, and those scores might be inflating pass rates. In other news, Chicago is getting a counseling program and other new resources to stave off school violence, the USDA is vowing to better alert schools about food recalls, and Texas’ new governor will face some severe school finance problems. Read these stories in School Board News Today.