Afternoon announcements: Student achievement varies by state

Megan Allen, fifth-grade teacher and 2010 Teacher of the year, testifies before the U.S. House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee on Thursday about the particular, devastating impact that sequestration will have on high-needs students if Congress allows the automatic spending cuts to go into effect on March 1. Read part of her testimony. The Answer Sheet

New analysis from the National Center for Education Statistics, released on Thursday, looks how public school students in the nation’s five largest states performed in the standardized math and reading tests between 1990 and 2011. The results were mixed. Washington Post

Arne Duncan spent an hour talking with reporters on Thursday. He commented on NCLB waivers, sequestration, and the Common Core, among other things. Politics K-12

In another look at the results of the analysis on student test scores in the five largest states, it seems one conclusive finding is that Hispanic student achievement varies widely depending on where they live. New York Times

Schools across the country are bracing for the automatic 5 percent spending cuts that will go into effect March 1^st if Congress doesn’t act to stop them. Washington Post