A $5 billion grant to states is helping schools develop data networks to monitor students’ progress and keep track of tests mandated under the No Child Left Behind legislation. New York City has the biggest data network in place right now. Beth Fertig, a reporter with WNYC in New York joins The Takeaway to look at how this is working in the country’s largest public school system.

What else is in the stimulus bill? Follow the dollars online and tell us how the stimulus plan is playing out in your community. We're sharing your stories online and on air, and we'll continue the investigation with your help.

ShovelWatch is a joint project of the non-profit investigative outfit ProPublica, the morning news program The Takeaway and WNYC, New York's flagship public radio station. With investigative reporting, interactive features and help from you.

Yesterday, President Obama welcomed Japanese prime minister Taro Aso to the White House. This meeting came hot on the heels of Secretary of State Clinton making Japan the first stop on her first official trip overseas. While Japan has been a close ally of the United States for decades, why is the Obama administration stressing the relationship now? Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist and chronicler of post-war Japan, joins us to help answer that question.

For over thirty years, Iran has been working on a nuclear reactor. They claim that the facility will be used to provide energy to the country, but the West is clearly skeptical. Today Iran conducts a virtual test of the reactor and the world is watching closely. For more, Jon Leyne of the BBC joins us from the site of the nuclear reactor.

Today is the Tibetan New Year, but the Dalai Lama has put celebrations on hold. He's called instead for a commemoration of those killed in a crackdown on demonstrators on this holiday last year. The ongoing conflict with China over autonomy for Tibet is complicating the question of who will succeed the Dalai Lama, who is 74, with the Chinese government insisting that it has the right to designate his next reincarnation. Robert Thurman, a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies at Columbia University and author of Why the Dalai Lama Matters joins John and Jerome with a look at how this transition is likely to unfold.

As the economic downturn hits the states, some governors are considering an unusual cost-cutting measure: abolishing the death penalty. Since capital cases cost three times as much as cases where the death penalty is not sought, cash-strapped states are increasingly looking at the option. Ian Urbina has been reporting on this for the New York Times and he joins us now.

For more, read Ian Urbina's article, Citing Cost, States Consider Halting Death Penalty, in today's New York Times.

In his address last night, President Obama mentioned the need to forge a new strategy in Pakistan. This statement came while the foreign ministers of both Pakistan and Afghanistan are in Washington this week to meet with officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi says that his country and Afghanistan have achieved a new level of trust that will help them work together to combat cross-border attacks. For what this might mean for the U.S. role in Pakistan and Afghanistan we turn to Owen Bennett-Jones, host of BBC Newshour and former Islamabad correspondent.

This week, the U.S. is using diplomacy with Pakistan and Afghanistan to battle Islamic extremism, but on another front of that fight, tensions in Somalia boiled over. Today, an Islamist Somali militia has seized control of a town near the border with Ethiopia following days of fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu that has left dozens dead and over a hundred injured. Joining us now from London is BBC Africa Editor Martin Plaut.

Literature can be a source of comfort in difficult times. Poet Elizabeth Alexander, who read her poem “Praise Song for the Day” at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, joins John and Jerome to discuss how she uses poetry and literature to soothe her spirit during trying times.

Here is Elizabeth Alexander reading her poem at Barack Obama's Inauguration: