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In the News
February 6, 2012
Wall Street Journal

 Connecticut would pump more money into charter schools and increase their numbers under a legislative proposal Gov. Dannel Malloy plans to unveil Monday.

February 5, 2012
Hartford Business Journal Online

 Thanks to its strong educational system and manufacturing industry, Connecticut will pace America’s high tech-sector for the next generation.

January 25, 2012
Hartford Courant

 After about two years of wrangling, a group representing teachers, school administrators and school boards agreed Wednesday on a new way to evaluate teachers that places a strong emphasis on student achievement.

Members of the state Performance Evaluation Advisory Council said the breakthrough in their discussions on the contentious issue occurred in the past few months under the leadership of Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.

January 25, 2012
Connecticut Mirror

Years of disagreement have stalled efforts to grade teachers and dismiss those who are ineffective. That all changed Wednesday when a group of educators -- including teachers' unions, superintendent and school board groups -- agreed on how to properly evaluate teachers so those who are struggling are identified and put on a path to improve or be dismissed.

 

January 24, 2012
Associated Press

 Connecticut's policies to improve the quality of teaching in its public schools are mediocre at best, and particularly fall short in efforts to keep the best teachers and remove those who are ineffective, according to a new nationwide assessment of states' regulations. 

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New test scores reveal gains in three largest districts, large statewide achievement gap

Improvements in Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport compared to state average on CMT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- July 15, 2010
Contact: 
Jessica Bloom, ConnCAN
Tel: 
203-772-4017 x19
Email: 
jessica.bloom@conncan.org
New Haven, Conn

 Overall, Connecticut saw slight improvements over the past year in closing America’s worst achievement gap. These changes were largely driven by improvements in the large cities of Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport.

Download our full analysis here.

Three major findings came out of ConnCAN’s analysis of Thursday’s release of the 2010 Connecticut Mastery Test for elementary and middle school students:

•In ConnCAN’s measurement of the performance gains made by cohorts of students over the past year, New Haven far outpaced the statewide average with a 4.0 point gain in the percentage of students at goal, compared to a statewide gain of 2.8 points. Hartford (2.9) and Bridgeport (2.7) showed gains comparable to the statewide average, while Stamford (1.7) and Waterbury (-0.2) actually lost ground compared to the state.

• Overall district-level improvement saw similar trends in the five largest cities, with Hartford (2.5), New Haven (2.4) and Bridgeport (2.3) doubling the statewide average (1.2), while Waterbury (0.8) and Stamford (0.2) significantly underperformed compared to the changes statewide.

•On the strengths of the gains made by the three largest districts, Connecticut’s average achievement gap between minority and low-income students and their white and middle-class peers declined 0.5 points in elementary school and 2.6 points in middle school.

“These gains show us that we can make progress, but we continue to be dismayed by Connecticut’s worst-in-the-nation achievement gap,” said Alex Johnston, ConnCAN CEO. “The persistence of this gap underscores the need for bold leadership in the governor’s office and in the State Department of Education to drive comprehensive statewide reform so we can finally close this unacceptable achievement gap.”

These results come in the midst of a vigorous debate about education in this year’s race for governor. ConnCAN’s launch of its Vote for Ed! campaign yesterday is the first step in its push to ensure that education reform is front and center in the governor’s race. Learn more at www.votefored.org.

 

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