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In the News
January 18, 2012
New Haven Register

 Connecticut lost ground in the annual ranking of state laws that govern charter schools, mainly because other states such as Maine and New Mexico passed more progressive reforms in the past year.

January 15, 2012
Hartford Courant

 When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy put education reform on the front burner for 2012, he caught a wave of public sentiment that has been building for a couple of years in every corner of the state. Everybody from superintendents and the state's largest teachers union to business leaders, advocacy groups, parents and political leaders wants to improve the state's public schools.

January 15, 2012
CT Now / Fox 61

"Major education reforms for Connecticut are planned for this year, and I'm here with Michael Sharpe, Director of Jamoke Academy, one of the fastest rising charter schools in Connecticut, in Hartford, [and] Patrick Riccards, the new CEO/President of ConnCAN..."

January 8, 2012
CT News Junkie

By Patrick Riccards, CEO, ConnCAN

Last week, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made a passionate case for why we all must commit to education reform in 2012. Speaking at his education reform summit, the governor made clear that school improvement is a team effort, requiring the involvement of all stakeholders.

January 4, 2012
Connecticut Post

About the only top slot the constitution state still clings to is "largest achievement gap in the nation."

So educational reform advocates say much is riding on Malloy's pledge that 2012 will be the year of education reform.

Malloy is hosting an Education Workshop Thursday at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. Many invited are convinced the policies that begin to take shape there may lead to legislation that can transform the state's failing schools and ultimately assist in growing the economy.

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The ConnCAN Blog

Down but not out

Posted March 4, 2010 at 12:44pm
 in

Connecticut was not one of the 16 finalists in round one of the Race to the Top, according to the announcement by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. In response to Connecticut's rejection, ConnCAN CEO Alex Johnston released the following statement:

Today we learned that 16 out of 41 applicants are finalists in Round One of the $4 billion federal Race to the Top, and Connecticut is not among them.

Fortunately, this race happens to be a relay, and today’s announcement was only about the relay’s first leg. Our loss this week hands off the baton from the governor to the legislature, which now has three months before the second-round deadline on June 1 to pass legislation that will reform our public schools in some fundamental areas.

We know that the legislature has the moxie to pull this off because we’ve seen them do it before. Last year, champions in the General Assembly passed the most significant overhaul of teacher certification laws in 20 years. We’re not starting from zero—we’ve got important accomplishments to build on.

ConnCAN is advocating for four concrete, clear, commonsense goals, which, if implemented, we believe will greatly improve Connecticut’s chance for success in the Race to the Top. It’s a plan to truly reach the top.

Measuring Effectiveness: Connecticut needs an excellent teacher in every classroom and an excellent principal in every school office. To get there, we must first accurately measure the progress students are making in our schools. Right now we have a lot of snapshots of how students are doing at any one time, but we don’t have a trusted system to benchmark their progress against clear expectations for their grade. Connecticut needs a better data system that both measures this growth and links it to teachers and principals. This new system will allow us to begin to both measure the effectiveness of teachers and principals and the programs that train them.

Superstar Principals: Connecticut needs outstanding leadership in our public schools. That means creating alternative pathways for excellent classroom teachers to become principals. Just like “Teach for America” created an alternative pathway for some of our most promising college graduates to teach in urban public schools, programs like “New Leaders for New Schools” can do the same for Connecticut’s principal corps.

Money Follows the Child: Connecticut’s antiquated school finance system has become fiscally unsustainable. We need to begin the transition to a commonsense, transparent, funding system where money follows children based on their learning needs. This year we have an important opportunity to begin these financial reforms—and an urgent need to start with our state’s high-performing public charter schools because of Race to the Top’s special emphasis on these schools.

World-Class Standards: To make the most of these new measurements of effectiveness, we need loftier goals to strive towards in our public schools. Connecticut needs to take our academic standards for students to the next level, such as the ability to develop a thesis in English or prove a theorem in Math. These goals must be internationally benchmarked to prepare Connecticut students to compete in the global economy. Connecticut has already signed on to national Common Core Standards Initiative but we must commit to actually implement these new standards by August, 2010. This action lies with the executive branch, not the legislative branch, which still has an important role to play.

 

Write your state senator and representative and urge them to help Connecticut win round two of Race to the Top. 

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