News Releases

ConnCAN News Release - July 18, 2008
Connecticut's Three Biggest Cities Buck Statewide Trend With CMT Gains

ConnCAN's analysis of the 2007 and 2008 Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) results reveals that Connecticut's three largest districts--Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport--secured bigger gains in the percentage of students within goal range on the CMT than the statewide average, with Connecticut's capital city leading the way.

ConnCAN News Release - July 15, 2008
High School Achievement Gap Widens Even As Statewide Scores Improve

The 2008 results from the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) reveal a growing achievement gap across the state of Connecticut even as the percentage of students meeting the state goals increased. At the same time, a number of urban high schools made significant gains over the past year.

ConnCAN News Release - June 5, 2008
New Report Finds Connecticut’s High School Graduation Rates Are Overstated and Declining
 
In this second annual comparison of official district graduation rates, calculated by the Connecticut State Department of Education, and independent rates, calculated by Education Week’s Research Center for its Diplomas Count project, ConnCAN finds disparities as large as 39 points.

ConnCAN News Release - February 20, 2008
ConnCAN Ranks Connecticut’s High Schools

Connecticut’s technical high school system is leading the way in helping narrow Connecticut’s achievement gap, securing more Top 10 finishes in the new ConnCAN High School Rankings than any district in the state. ConnCAN’s research also revealed 50 point achievement gaps in Hartford, Greenwich and New Haven high schools.

ConnCAN News Release - January 16, 2008
National Education Leader Joins ConnCAN

Tom Vander Ark, current president of the X PRIZE Foundation and former executive director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Education Initiative, became the newest member of ConnCAN’s advisory board on January 16. Vander Ark said he looks forward “to the progress to come over the next three years in the push to close America’s largest achievement gap.”

ConnCAN News Release - October 27, 2007
ConnCAN Ranks Connecticut’s Public Schools

Hartford has the public school with the most Top 10 finishes in Connecticut, Jumoke Academy, but Bridgeport’s and Stamford’s public schools secured the most spots on the Top 10 lists, according to ConnCAN’s new compilation of the top elementary and middle schools across five key performance categories.

ConnCAN News Release - September 25, 2007
Connecticut Dead Last in Achievement Gap on 2007 ‘Nation’s Report Card’ 
                   
Analysis by ConnCAN of the results from the 2007 NAEP released on September 25th reveals that Connecticut's achievement gap, already the worst in the nation, increased significantly over the past two years.

ConnCAN News Release - July 30, 2007
Progress, Setbacks Leave Achievement Gap Unchanged
 
New analysis by ConnCAN of results from the 2006 and 2007 Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMT) shows that during the 2006-07 school year, areas of progress in closing this gap were offset by setbacks in others, leaving Connecticut’s largest-in-the-nation achievement gap essentially unchanged.

ConnCAN News Release - June 26, 2007
State Budget Funds Key Programs for Closing Achievement Gap

Three key provisions of ConnCAN’s “Great Schools for All” plan for closing Connecticut’s achievement gap—expanding high-quality preschool, creating innovative new public schools, and ensuring greater accountability for results—received a significant boost with $123 million in new funding over two years in the State Budget.

ConnCAN News Release - June 14, 2007
New Report Finds Connecticut’s High School Graduation Rates Are Overstated

While the consequences of a low graduation rate are clear, a new report by Education Week’s Project Graduation suggests that Connecticut’s official graduation rates are anything but. ConnCAN’s comparison of the results to official Connecticut State Department of Education figures reveals significant discrepancies between this cumulative approach and the official rates.

ConnCAN News Release - April 26, 2007
Coalition Announces Statewide Parent Empowerment Initiative

The Connecticut State Conference of NAACP Branches, the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Connecticut Appleseed have joined forces to give Connecticut parents a greater voice in their children’s education

ConnCAN News Release - April 16, 2007
Democrats’ Budget Boosts “Great Schools for All” Plan

On April 13, three key provisions of the plan—expanding high-quality preschool, creating innovative new public schools, and ensuring greater accountability for results—came one step closer to reality when $101 million in support over two years was included in the budget passed by the Appropriations Committee in the State Legislature.

ConnCAN News Release - February 7, 2007
ConnCAN Praises Gov. Rell for Helping Make 2007 “Year of Education”

Governor Rell’s education proposals come on the heels of a growing groundswell of support for making Connecticut’s achievement gap the top public policy issue in the state, including the Early Childhood Research and Policy Council's recommendations, proposals from the Education Cost Sharing Commission, and ConnCAN’s “Great Schools for All” plan.

ConnCAN News Release - January 24, 2007
Diverse Coalition Calls for Immediate Action to Close ‘America’s Largest Achievement Gap’

Rep. Amann was joined by Rep. Andy Fleischmann, chairman of the House Education Committee, and a diverse gathering of parents and community, business and education leaders from throughout the state at the launch of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now’s “Great Schools for All” plan in the State Capitol on January 24.

ConnCAN News Release - September 26, 2006
Nonprofit Launches Online Report Cards for 1,000 Connecticut Public Schools

Connecticut is home to a number of high performing public schools that have made tremendous progress in raising student achievement over the past year, but also a growing achievement gap that has emerged as the nation’s largest, a newly released report by the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) finds.