Great Schools for All: A Plan Big Enough to Close America's Largest Achievement Gap

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Executive Summary

No problem in American education is as persistent, as costly, or as challenging as the achievement gap—the significant disparity between the academic achievement of low-income and minority children and their white, middle-class peers. This is particularly true in Connecticut, home to America’s largest achievement gap.

Our lack of progress to date in shrinking this gap is not the result of a lack of effort. Connecticut is home to some of the hardest working teachers and principals in the country. Nor is it due to the unwillingness of state and district educational leaders to experiment with new ideas and new reforms. And, most importantly, it is not a question of the ability of our public schools to overcome the social and economic challenges that form the roots of the gap: numerous public schools across Connecticut have proven that it can be done.

What has been missing in Connecticut is a comprehensive and consistently implemented statewide strategy grounded in the proven elements of education reform: higher standards, greater freedom to innovate, more parental choices, better teacher and principal recruitment and development, and increased transparency and accountability for results.

Connecticut’s own experience over the past decade, and the lessons from states across the country, demonstrate that significant progress is only possible when each of these critical elements is in place. By pursuing a multi-pronged reform strategy that tackles the achievement gap on several fronts simultaneously, this approach holds the promise of transforming public school districts and ultimately the entire state public school system into high-performing systems that educate students to the same level as the best individual schools.

What would such a package of reforms look like? ConnCAN’s “Great Schools for All” plan recommends a six-year, $1.3 billion commitment grounded in five big ideas:

1. Expanding Access to High-Quality Preschool: Increasing funding for preschool education, evaluating programs to ensure high quality, and providing grants directly to parents so they can choose the program that is right for them.
2. Creating Innovative New Public Schools: Jumpstarting progress in closing the achievement gap by expanding the availability of high-performing public charter schools, experimenting with pilot schools and small high schools, and strengthening the state’s magnet schools.
3. Recruiting Teacher and Principal All-Stars: Streamlining the recruitment and preparation processes and partnering with innovative non-profit organizations to help place candidates of the highest caliber in our urban school districts.
4. Helping Districts Implement Proven School Improvement Models: Providing support services for teachers, principals and district leaders to help implement comprehensive models for raising student achievement, and creating new college-readiness assessments and formative assessments to support these efforts.
5. Ensuring Transparency and Public Accountability for Results: Increasing the capacity of data and financial accounting systems to track student progress, reduce resource inequalities between schools, and increase the funding that goes directly to improving instruction.

The bottom line is clear: Connecticut does not tolerate inequality in its laws or political institutions. It should not tolerate inequality in its schools, either. The achievement gap can be shrunk and ultimately eliminated, and the first step is believing that in the right school environment, with the right mix of expectations and incentives, every child—in every one of our communities—can achieve academic success.

There are no silver bullets. There are no easy answers. There is no one reform that will close the achievement gap overnight. But pursued in concert, these five elements can ensure we make significant progress toward the goal of closing the achievement gap.
And just as the solutions are within our reach, the time to act is now. There are more than 100,000 struggling students across Connecticut whose future depends on our ability to deliver on the promise of “Great Schools for All.”