2006-07 Annual Report

Raising Awareness, Empowering Parents, and Building Consensus for Change to Close America’s Largest Achievement Gap

 Download the complete annual report

A Message from the Chair  A Message from the Executive Director  I. Raising Awareness  II. Empowering Parents  III. Building Consensus for Change

II. Empowering parents to make informed choices and to serve as effective advocates for their children.

SCHOOL AND DISTRICT REPORT CARDS

Launched a first-in-the-state school and district report card website with letter grades on the performance of more than 1,000 schools and 160 districts.

Since its launch in September 2006, the interactive report cards have provided more than 10,000 Connecticut parents and concerned citizens with a straightforward assessment of how well their child's public school is meeting the needs of all its students.

PARENT EMPOWERMENT WORKSHOPS AND PARENT GUIDEBOOK

Launched a parent empowerment initiative in April 2007 in cooperation with the Connecticut NAACP, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Connecticut Appleseed. Produced a 48-page parents guide entitled "How to Make Sure Your Child is Not Left Behind."

ConnCAN held workshops in Hartford, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Hamden, helping train 250 parent advocates. Five hundred print copies of the parent guide were distributed in English and Spanish, with an additional 500 PDFs downloaded from the ConnCAN website.

FREE TUTORING PROJECT

Conducted 72 supplemental educational services (SES) presentations and workshops for parents and provider organizations and distributed over 5,000 free tutoring brochures, helping more than double the number of students receiving free tutoring under NCLB in Bridgeport and Hartford.

Drawing upon surveys of Connecticut parents and partner organizations, ConnCAN teamed up with the Center for Children’s Advocacy in an unprecedented campaign to overcome the information gaps that were preventing 90 percent of qualified children from getting the free tutoring to which they were entitled. The campaign served as a model for child advocates and service providers from as far away as Washington State.

ACTION TEAM

Launched in fall 2006 with an initial cohort of 24 parents. Conducted email and letter campaigns as well as rallies that brought over 500 parents to Hartford during key education hearings.

These dedicated parents share a common desire to take action on behalf of their kids and to bridge the divide that far too often separates concerned parents and educators. Working together, they have emerged as a powerful new voice for change.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

• "If I hadn’t gotten involved with ConnCAN, I wouldn’t have known enough about what was going on with the school system. It’s important to me that my children get a good education because I dropped out and later went back. But I want my two children to get the most out of the system the first time around." –Ebony S. Adams, ConnCAN Action Team member
• "Working parents can’t make PTOs during the day to see what is really going on with their child, but they know that something isn’t right. I personally have two children in the special education department. Being a member of the ConnCAN Action Team, I get information on the school system, and just knowing what is going on, knowing what the achievement gap is, has helped me." –Denise Tillman, ConnCAN Action Team member
• "The partnership between the NAACP, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Connecticut Appleseed and ConnCAN is unique and special because of the marriage of the community distribution channels of the NAACP and the strong technical and legal expertise of the Lawyer’s Committee, Connecticut Appleseed and ConnCAN." –Scot X. Esdaile, Connecticut NAACP
• "Our partnership with ConnCAN over the past year was most rewarding. Thanks to our organizations’ combined efforts in 2006, we achieved tremendous results in expanding access to free tutoring for thousands of Connecticut children in need." –Emily Breon, Center for Children’s Advocacy
• "It has been especially refreshing to work with ConnCAN as an equally committed partner over the past year to devote the necessary manpower and fiscal resources behind our groundbreaking efforts to connect parents with much-needed education services for school-age children." – Cynthia Moore, CDI Headstart, Bridgeport, CT

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