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Thursday, February 14, 2013

UPDATE: Duncan warns Congress on impact of ‘sequestration’ on education programs + Let’s measure love (just like we measure teachers)

Let’s measure love (just like we measure teachers):



Duncan warns Congress on impact of ‘sequestration’ on education programs

Arne Duncan testifying earlier this month.
Arne Duncan testifying earlier this month.
Here is the testimony Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave Thursday before the Senate Appropriations Committee on what could happen to education programs if Congress takes no steps to avert a March 1 deadline for automatic spending cuts, known as the “sequestration.” This testimony was provided by the Education Department.
Madam Chairwoman and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for this opportunity to talk about the impact of a March 1 sequestration on education programs.  The across-the-board nature of the cuts would focus an ill-advised reduction on our grant programs and the funds we need to administer them.  In short, sequestration would have a negative impact on the education of our Nation’s children 




Let’s measure love (just like we measure teachers)


LovemeterIf you put together the current obsession with measurement in modern school reform (Bill Gates titled his 2013 annual foundation letter “Measuring Progress”) with the fact that today is Valentine’s Day, you get the following satirical piece by Steve Strieker, a veteran social studies teacher in Janesville, Wisconsin. This appeared on his blog, One Teacher’s Perspective.
By Steve Strieker
With Valentine’s Day here, my family just took its annual love survey.
Using a privately run, publicly funded love rating system, my family members and I rate our love for one another using a scale of 1 to 5. While the surveys are done individually and 

Stop saying that

My colleague Emma Brown recently wrote a glossary to help people better understand the undecipherable jargon used in the education world — words and phrases such as “self-regulation” and “DIBELS” and “scaffolding.” Here’s a related piece, about what a maddening … Continue reading →