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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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Issue Brief: The High Cost of Low-Performing Schools

July, 2006
Report Cover
application/pdf iconIB_Connecticut_Cost_Schools.pdf

Connecticut’s achievement gap has consequences. While we may never be able to quantify the terrible effects of the gap on students’ hopes and dreams, researchers have measured the costs that illiteracy, low graduation rates, and a poor grasp of basic skills impose on our communities, our state, and our country.

Each year Connecticut spends more than seven billion dollars on its 1,200 K–12 public schools. According to the National Education Association, this level of investment provides for $11,893 in spending per student, the third highest out of 50 states and $3,565 more than the national average. It also pays for a student to teacher ratio of 13.3, the ninth-lowest in the nation. Finally, it makes it possible for our public schools to pay their teachers more than any other state: $58,688 per year, on average.1

Unfortunately, this high level of investment has failed to provide a commensurate return in student achievement. In fact, Connecticut’s achievement gap at all grades, in all subjects, for all disadvantaged groups, is among the largest in the nation.

What is this failure to educate all our children costing us?

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