Commentary - From Alex's Desk

Commentary by executive director Alex Johnston, as featured in the quarterly ConnCAN Compass print newsletter. To sign-up to recieve a FREE subscription to the Compass, email Allison at allison.pelliccio@conncan.org.

The Schools Our Teachers Deserve (Spring Compass, 2008)

Great schools start with great teachers. This idea has been repeated so many times in recent years, it’s easy to overlook how central it is to the effort to raise student achievement. Decades of research have pointed to teacher quality as the single greatest driver of student achievement. Yet as much as great schools start with great teachers, the reverse is also true: attracting and retaining great teachers starts with an effort to build great schools. 

If Connecticut is to provide all of its students with the education they deserve in the coming decades, we will have to find ways to create the kinds of school environments that will become magnets for and nurture the next generation of great teachers.

Filling the Gap with People Power and New Philanthropy (Winter Compass, 2008)

Recently, Education Week’s 2008 “Quality Counts” report found that Connecticut not only has America’s largest achievement gap, but that it increased faster than in any other state since 2003. Facts like these are enough to make some people wonder whether Connecticut’s achievement gap is one of those problems that our state and city governments just can’t solve.

That response is half right. This is a problem that our state and city governments can’t solve alone.

Instead, closing Connecticut’s achievement gap will require a statewide effort that draws upon two new approaches to tackling public problems: “people power” and “new philanthropy.”

Here are three ways that the combination of these two movements can make an enormous difference in the effort to close Connecticut’s achievement gap.

Lessons from Connecticut’s Success Stories (Fall Compass, 2007)

What will it take to close Connecticut’s achievement gap? Fortunately, we don’t have to search far for an answer. Across our state are a number of public schools serving diverse student populations that have made tremendous strides in raising student performance. Many have closed the achievement gap altogether, and numerous others are well on their way to doing so.

When you talk to the principals, teachers, and staff, they will tell you securing big gains in student achievement isn’t rocket science, but it is hard work that constantly tests them to bring their very best to school every day. While there is no silver bullet, here are several lessons that emerged again and again in conversations with these homegrown educational heroes.

A Plan with Real Promise for Hartford’s Schools (Summer Compass, 2007)

After putting its faith in several prominent approaches to fixing its schools over the past two decades, along with a number of broken vows “never to be last again,” Hartford now has a new superintendent with a plan to reshape fundamentally how the city’s public school system works. Many in Hartford, and across the state, could surely be forgiven if their first instinct is to roll their eyes and say “Here we go again….”

Why will this turnaround plan succeed where so many others in Hartford have not? In an exclusive interview in this edition of the Compass, Hartford superintendent Steven Adamowski explains in his own words why his approach is different. Two elements stand out: 1) Putting Parents in the Driver’s Seat and 2) Building on Proven Approaches to Raising Achievement.

More Bang for More Bucks (Spring Compass, 2007)

As this year’s legislative session comes to a close, Connecticut is likely on the eve of the largest increase in public education spending in more than a generation. But will this historic infusion of funds help ensure that all Connecticut students have access to a great public school? The answer will depend on whether our state leaders from both political parties are willing to use their political capital to connect this new financial capital to real reforms.

Although the achievement gap costs Connecticut’s poor and minority communities the most, we all have a compelling stake in ensuring that it is closed. In these final days of the legislative session, our state’s leaders have a historic opportunity to help close America’s largest achievement gap by insisting not just on more educational dollars, but also on the systemic reforms needed to make this spending truly count for all our kids.