Joy Resmovits

Huffington Post Education Reporter

SNL Takes On Sequester.. On Friday night, President Barack Obama signed an executive order activating the across-the-board spending cuts known as "sequestration" that came as a result of an ongoing political budget standoff. Saturday Night Live explains the sequester, having an Obama impersonator bring up examples of folks affected by these cuts. Start at 1:15 to see a Philadelphia public schools teacher who was supposedly laid off. (Hint: The glee of her reaction to leaving that job is off message for Obama's grim tone. "Good luck reading Beowulf, you monsters," she says.)

Steve Nelson

Head of the Calhoun School in Manhattan

If the College Board ever intended to create equity in college admission, its effect has been the opposite. It advantages the already advantaged. The disproportionate weight given to SAT scores in admission further magnifies the many advantages already enjoyed by privileged kids.

Lisa Petrides

President, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education

Great teachers have recognized this truth, and now, by leveraging the connectivity brought about by the Internet, through content that is openly available, and by those willing to help champion the learning efforts of our students, anything is possible.

Julia Li

Founder, HCD Global

Who should be responsible for this part of education? Ideally this should be the parent's responsibility. The question is: Who is giving parents that knowledge?

John M. Eger

Van Deerlin Endowed Chair of Communications and Public Policy and Director of the Creative Economy Initiative, San Diego State University

The challenge today is not acquiring information, or memorizing it. Rather, it is determining which information is relevant. What do our young people need to know and why, in this new, global, technology-driven world?

Gabriel Sanchez Zinny

Managing Director at Blue Star Strategies in Washington, DC

Latinos, who have long suffered from an "achievement gap" in educational performance in comparison with white and Asian students, have seen their attendance rates rise and dropout rates fall. What is behind this decrease in dropouts?

Larry Magid

Technology journalist

Sometimes I think there should be a big sign in front of some schools saying, "Welcome back to the 20th century." But just as online news, music and video helped revolutionize the media industry, we are starting to see significant changes in education.

Jacqueline Edelberg

Author, community activist, social entrepreneur

Here we all are, waiting on pins and needles for the CPS computer to spit out a letter informing us if our kids made it into one of Chicago's selective enrollment high schools -- about as likely as the Cubs winning the World Series.

Tony Zini

Elementary School Teacher

It's time to work smarter, not harder. James Marzano said it would take 25 years to teach the elementary school curriculum if we were to do to right.

Steve Nelson

Head of the Calhoun School in Manhattan

Among the emerging trends in education -- from pre-school to post graduate -- is the genuflection at the altar of technology. Much of this is pure hype, manufactured and distributed by the tech companies who stand to profit immensely from efforts to digitize education.

Megan Rosker

Mother, Teacher, Writer, MOMentum Nation and founder of Let Children Play

Children need to be inspired to learn and we, as a culture, have greatly underestimated the power of being inspired. If we empower our children with soul, they will have something to live for, they will have something to look into the future and hold dear.

Harriet Sanford

The NEA Foundation

Getting communities more involved with their public schools can lead to strange bedfellows, like the group of motorcyclists that descended upon Littleton Elementary School in Lee County, Fla., this past holiday season.

Jenny Stefanotti

Fellow, Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

Motherhood has shown me how tremendously competent children can be. Yet, the vast majority of programs that adults have designed for kids grossly underestimate what they are capable of.

Tom Healy

Writer and poet teaching at NYU; chairman, Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board

To venture into the impossible. That's what Dr. Mitra's experiments did, and out of the impossible, he came back with the incredible: an approach to education in which children learn to teach themselves, in small groups, everything from English to brain science.

Tim King

Founder and CEO of Urban Prep Academies

Our changes must go beyond simple gun control; they must be thoughtful, comprehensive and persistent. Controlling the proliferation of guns is important, but supporting educational and community programs are our best bet to break the cycle of violence.

Dan Cardinali

President, Communities In Schools, Inc.

Austin, Texas, likes to cultivate a reputation for weirdness, but there are some pretty wonderful things going on in the Austin Independent School District. Throughout the city, students are learning about persistence, empathy and honesty right alongside math, science and history.