Improved Elementary Schools In Top Ten List
By Tracy Gordon Fox, Hartford Courant, January 11 2007

COLCHESTER -- Superintendent of Schools Karen Loiselle said she wasn't surprised the town made a top 10 list for the most improved elementary schools in the state.

"We were just pleased to see an independent research study would recognize what we are seeing every day," Loiselle said Wednesday. "And that is teaching and learning is improving dramatically in our schools."

Loiselle released the results to the Colchester Board of Education at Tuesday's meeting. The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, or ConnCan, conducted the research.

Colchester ranked eighth, behind smaller towns. According to the report, it is more difficult for a larger district to improve.

"The larger the town, the more significant it is, because it is a districtwide improvement, and not just one class," said Marc Porter Magee, director of communications and research for ConnCan.

Colchester is considered a community with a larger school system because it has more than 3,000 students.

The list was created using data from the state Department of Education and the Connecticut Mastery Test.

With 250 to 270 students per grade level, Colchester is one of the largest districts in the top 10 list, and had a 13.7 percent improvement in achievement from 2004 to 2006.

"You look at a place like Colchester that made an almost 14 percent jump - if every town was making those sort of gains, we'd be progressing much more quickly than we are now," Magee said.

It was also significant, Loiselle said, that this study looked at how children in fourth grade fared on the Connecticut Mastery Test in 2004, and then how the same children scored two years later as sixth-graders.

"It's the same kids over time, the same students making gains," Loiselle said. "That is why, for us, it was so significant."

Loiselle said the town has been implementing new programs, including summer school, and after-school reading and math. A new reading program in elementary school focuses on decoding and phonemic awareness, as well as comprehension.

"I think we are not ever going to be satisfied until all of our students meet goal," Loiselle said.