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Fix poverty by fixing schools

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In the News

Time to stop whining and make serious education reforms

August 31, 2010
Hartford Courant

By Rick Green

Maybe you saw what New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did last week after he learned about the bungling behind his administration's failure to win $400 million in the federal Race to the Top competition that rewards states that adopt aggressive education reforms.

Christie fired his education commissioner.

Bravo. At least we know what matters to Gov. Christie, a Republican making waves across the country. That's more than I can say for Connecticut, land of timid leadership.

Hwang to receive education award tomorrow at Fairfield U.

August 30, 2010
Trumbull Times

By Donald Eng

Conn. learns why it lost out on fed funds

August 28, 2010
New Haven Register

By Abbe Smith

In the most recent round of federal Race to the Top awards, Connecticut scored lower than every state it borders.

The state learned last month that it did not make the list of finalists, but didn’t get details about why it missed out on the $175 million it was seeking until final scores and reviewer comments were released this week.

State's teacher evaluation plans too weak, federal reviewers say

August 25, 2010
Connecticut Mirror

By Robert Frahm

The weakness of a plan to link teacher evaluations to student performance was a key factor in Connecticut's failure to qualify for millions of dollars in federal school aid, according to a government report released Wednesday.

The proposed evaluation system lacks detail, won't be ready for years, and fails to include adequate provisions for rewarding successful teachers or removing ineffective ones, said reviewers for the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top school reform competition.

The business of education

August 25, 2010
Connecticut Business News Journal

By Melissa Nicefaro

In every Connecticut city and town, public education is by far the largest budget item. Yet the schools’ stewards don’t always treat those dollars as their own

When terms such as “layoffs,” “closures” and “belt-tightening” are tossed around, the education industry may not be the first that comes to mind. That was true until this year, anyway.

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What We Do

Fixing poverty by fixing schools.

ConnCAN is a platform for Connecticut citizens to effectively speak up for kids.
 
Without the right political climate, great schools will continue to elude Connecticut’s most disadvantaged children. To close Connecticut’s gaping achievement gap, a new ethos of reform must permeate state government, the education establishment, and the wide community of citizens.
 
We don’t build schools or train teachers. Instead, ConnCAN runs results-oriented advocacy campaigns through:
 

  • Research & Policy. ConnCAN’s original reports and briefs provide the in-depth analysis of public education in Connecticut that is the foundation for our policy recommendations. Our online tools, such as school report cards, which assign a letter to grade to every public school in the state, and the SmartChoices website, which provides a simple, user-friendly guide for navigating Hartford’s all-choice public school system, serve as essential resources for parents and help drive informed school choices.

            

  • Communications & Mobilization. ConnCAN creates informed citizens with a commitment to common sense education reform through a combination of media work, electronic communications and social networking, publications, on-the-ground community organizing, partnerships with like-minded civic and community groups and events. Then, we make it easy for Connecticut’s growing cadre of education reform advocates to take meaningful and impactful action through our e-advocacy system.

 

  • Advocacy for Policy Change. Grounded in our research and policy work, ConnCAN’s expert staff teams with our citizen advocates and key state officials to develop and enact concrete, meaningful education reforms through both legislative and administrative action.
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