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In the News
February 6, 2012
Wall Street Journal

 Connecticut would pump more money into charter schools and increase their numbers under a legislative proposal Gov. Dannel Malloy plans to unveil Monday.

February 5, 2012
Hartford Business Journal Online

 Thanks to its strong educational system and manufacturing industry, Connecticut will pace America’s high tech-sector for the next generation.

January 25, 2012
Hartford Courant

 After about two years of wrangling, a group representing teachers, school administrators and school boards agreed Wednesday on a new way to evaluate teachers that places a strong emphasis on student achievement.

Members of the state Performance Evaluation Advisory Council said the breakthrough in their discussions on the contentious issue occurred in the past few months under the leadership of Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.

January 25, 2012
Connecticut Mirror

Years of disagreement have stalled efforts to grade teachers and dismiss those who are ineffective. That all changed Wednesday when a group of educators -- including teachers' unions, superintendent and school board groups -- agreed on how to properly evaluate teachers so those who are struggling are identified and put on a path to improve or be dismissed.

 

January 24, 2012
Associated Press

 Connecticut's policies to improve the quality of teaching in its public schools are mediocre at best, and particularly fall short in efforts to keep the best teachers and remove those who are ineffective, according to a new nationwide assessment of states' regulations. 

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In the News

Torrington showing 'growth' in Mastery Test scores

July 15, 2010
Register Citizen
View source article

 By Mike Agogliati

The state of Connecticut released its Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) scores on Thursday and Torrington Public Schools have shown progress on many different levels.

“The district has shown some growth at the elementary and middle school levels,” Superintendent of Schools Christopher Leone said in a press release.

According to Leone’s press release, Southwest School demonstrated the highest annual gains in students scoring proficient or higher.

The smallest school in the district posted double digit increases in third grade math (12.1 points), third grade reading (14.5 points), fourth grade reading (19.5 points), and fifth grade math (13.5 points). The school’s largest decrease came in fifth grade reading (-10.4 points) but that same grade of students was up over 20 points from its third grade results in 2008.

“Southwest students and staff have every reason to celebrate regarding their efforts and hard work as reflected in the CMT results,” Southwest School Principal Judith Theeb said. “We will continue to implement and refine the instructional strategies that assisted our students in their learning, with a keen eye on the areas of need.”

East School and Forbes School joined Southwest in posting gains in seven of 10 possible indicators. East posted its highest gain in third grade reading (11 points) and also scored a perfect 100% on the 5th grade writing assessment. Forbes, a 2009 ConnCan awarded school, had gains in 4th grade reading (15.1 points) and 4th grade writing (11 points).

These gains were met with losses in other areas. The school didn’t sustain all 2009 increases and saw large reductions in fifth grade math (-18.4 points) and reading (-10.3 points).

Torringford, continued its streak of consistent performance with gains in 3rd grade reading (5 points) and 4th grade reading (13.5 points).

Vogel Wetmore, also a ConnCan award winner, had mixed results with increases in third grade math (11 points), fifth grade math (10.6 points) and fifth grade reading (14.4 points). These were offset by decreases in fourth grade math (-10.2 points) and fourth grade reading (-14.7 points).

Torrington Middle School had mixed results with increases coming in seven of 10 indicators.

One of the top five largest middle schools in the state showed increases in math for all grades but decreases in 7th and 8th grade reading.

The largest annual increases came in 6th grade writing (6.9 points) and 7th grade writing (6.3 points).

The middle school continued to show a gap in achievement with respect to reading in all grades. The largest gap came in 8th grade reading with a (-8.8 point) difference from the state level in proficiency or above.

In August, Torrington will become the first district in the state to release school-based report cards to all of its families. 

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