Daily Archives: July 4, 2024


To Add or to Subtract, That Is the Question

In education, addition has been the default choice for improvement. While innovations are important, continually adding new things, often in silo, can create challenges. Despite that subtraction can add value, it is rarely considered and approached as an improvement strategy. In this 2024 SDP Harvard Strategic Data Project Convening presentation, Sean Berkstresser, C. Todd Cummings, Ph.D. and I shared our research and thinking on this long overdue topic and received good feedback. Specifically, we discussed the implications of two subtraction efforts in the legal realm for education: Paperwork Reduction Act and sunset clause. In essence, cycle-based budgeting applies the “sunset” […]