

U.S.
Department of Education; link to State
Department of Education by clicking above, right. CHARTER
SCHOOLS?






New
Superintendent Dr. Colleen Palmer; Dr. John Reed as interim
replacement for both School
Superintendents Jerome Belair and Dr.
Pierson;
Bus Garage; new and old bus fleets together.
LOCAL EDUCATION LINK:
BUDGET FY12 HERE;
including notes from meetings sponsored by the Weston Board of Ed that
we occasionally
attend
in person.
Angry
Parents, Scared Students Seek Answers About Farm Hill School 'Scream
Rooms'
Middletown School Officials Host
Meeting, Pledge Change
The
Hartford Courant
By SHAWN R. BEALS, sbeals@courant.com
11:01 PM EST, January 12, 2012
MIDDLETOWN —
Frustrated parents of Farm Hill Elementary students told school
officials Thursday night they were disappointed by a lack of
communication about the use of "scream rooms," while students described
the school as "scary."
Some parents said their children do not feel safe at Farm Hill because
of what parents described as a distracting and intimidating
environment. Their children, they said, can hear screaming from
students in the rooms, called time-out rooms by school officials.
Superintendent Michael Frechette and Farm Hill Principal Patricia
Girard led the meeting Thursday with the school's parent-teacher
association to address concerns over the so-called scream rooms. About
150 people attended the session, which lasted close to three hours in
the school's gymnasium.
Elexa Belin, 10, a student at Farm Hill, said the school is "scary" to
her.
"I walk down the hall with my head down," she said. "You hear kids
screaming outside and you can't concentrate on your work."
"There's a lot of anger and still a lot of concerns," PTA President
Apryl Dudley said. "Unfortunately I think there's a lot of faith that's
been lost in the administration. We are going to make sure the
administrators and the board of education address the concerns. We're
going to stay on top of this."
"There have been a lot of rumors and accusations," Girard said. "They
are scary and unfounded. They have created a perception that this
school is out of control. That is not reality."
The issue was brought to light at a school board meeting Tuesday, when
parents complained about the use of the rooms, and when a letter Dudley
sent to Mayor Daniel Drew and the board of education was made public.
In response to those complaints, two state agencies have begun
investigations into Farm Hill School. In her letter, Dudley said
out-of-control students were being put in the rooms and allowed to act
out physically while a staff member waited outside until the child
calmed down. School officials this week acknowledged the problems
at
Farm Hill, and Frechette presented a plan to add staff hours and
resources from a variety of state and private agencies to help address
behavior and communication issues.
"I want to ensure the Farm Hill community that we're here to support
what's going on in Farm Hill," Frechette said Thursday night. "We've
narrowed the issues down to communication, climate and student
management. We're going to be aggressive and we have the support in
place to help the administration here, help the parents here and help
the students here."
Girard said the time-out rooms would be moved to out-of-the-way
locations so their use in the future is not disruptive to other
students. Right now, the time-out rooms border a hallway, she
said.
According to the state Department of Education, use of the time-out
rooms is allowed under state law for students with disabilities, "as
specified in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) … as determined
by a team of professionals that includes the parents of the child."
"There are no provisions for the use of seclusion time out for students
that do not have an IEP," according to a statement issued Wednesday.
Frechette said Thursday that the time-out rooms are not used for
students without an IEP.
"Unless you have an IEP this is not part of your daily [plan]," he
said. "The rooms have been used very infrequently for students without
an IEP, but generally they try to find another location for the
students."
James McGaughey, executive director of the state Office of Protection
and Advocacy for Persons With Disabilities, said Wednesday that his
office is conducting a "preliminary investigation," and state Child
Advocate Jeannie Milstein said she, too, would look into the use of the
rooms.
Frechette said Thursday that he was planning to meet with state
officials on Friday. School board Chairman Eugene Nocera said the
comments parents made Thursday night were important to help the
district address problems.
"Mistakes have been made," Nocera said. "We're here to correct those
mistakes."
School officials said their plan for improving things at Farm Hill
School includes adding hours for the school psychologist, adding a
student management coordinator, developing a school climate committee,
increasing training, working with a state consultant on school climate
and a behavior services consultant from a private education agency,
adding teaching training and adding support to the school's Family
Resource Center. The district will also work with a behavioral studies
graduate student at St. Joseph College, who will "assist in developing
and implementing behavior plans," according to the district's plan.
A grim
picture of education on display
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, CT MIRROR
January 5, 2012
More than half the school superintendents in the state say the state is
not helping to close the achievement gap between minority and
low-income and Caucasian students.
One-quarter of the school leaders say they have no authority to turn
around low-achieving schools; 87 percent say they lack the ability to
remove ineffective teachers; and two-thirds say bureaucratic obstacles
-- "red tape" -- stand in their way to implement change.
"There are a lot of challenges," Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor
told a roomful of national and state education advocates and officials
Thursday, as he revealed the results of his recent survey of almost
every superintendent.
Pryor’s presentation took place Thursday afternoon at Gov. Dannel P.
Malloy's long-planned Education Workshop, at Central Connecticut State
University in New Britain.
After laying out the education system’s grim landscape, Pryor offered
his audience some hope with the gamut of changes he and Malloy are
closing in on. Those changes include expanding early childhood
education, intervening in the worst-off schools, replicating successful
education models, cutting bureaucratic obstacles and ensuring that
schools have the best teachers.
"If superintendents don't feel we are helping, we've got some work to
do," Pryor said.
Joseph J. Cirasuolo, the longtime leader of the state's superintendent
association, said there should be nothing surprising about the results
of the survey, given that the state’s 157 school leaders have begged
the state for help for years.
"It's not news to us," he said, of the survey showing the four out of
10 superintendents are doubtful the state's education system will
change, even after Malloy’s promise to tackle the problems facing
education during this coming legislative session.
Connecticut has long held the title of having the largest achievement
gap in the country, a reality numerous task forces and commissioners
have failed to change.
"We are the worst, No. 1," Pryor said. He then added his final
statistic of the day: only 7 percent of the state’s superintendents
believe the state has a "clear plan" to turn education in the right
direction.
"What a shame, but we are going to change that," Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman
told the room, then called out the legislators attending the event to
stand. "Legislators you are going to carry the ball to making sure we
get this done."
The state's superintendents have given the commissioner a wish list of
changes they would like to see, but Pryor was mum on which of those
recommendations he plans to back. Pryor said he intends to conduct
similar surveys of other groups, including employees at the State
Department of Education and, possibly, teachers.
Education
advocates pin high hopes on Malloy for reform
Linda Conner Lambeck and Ken Dixon, Staff Writers. CT POST
Updated 11:20 p.m., Wednesday, January 4, 2012
In Dannel P. Malloy's first year as governor, Connecticut struck out in
its third bid at Race to the Top dollars. The state takeover of the
failing Bridgeport school board is being legally challenged and is in
the hands of the state Supreme Court. Connecticut's standing on
national and international benchmarks continues to slip.
About the only top slot the constitution state still clings to is
"largest achievement gap in the nation."
So educational reform advocates say much is riding on Malloy's pledge
that 2012 will be the year of education reform.
Malloy is hosting an Education Workshop Thursday at Central Connecticut
State University in New Britain. Many invited are convinced the
policies that begin to take shape there may lead to legislation that
can transform the state's failing schools and ultimately assist in
growing the economy.
"I am cautiously optimistic," said Pat Riccards, director of ConnCAN, a
New Haven-based advocacy organization.
Riccards said the governor, thus far, has done everything he said he
would do in his first year of office by appointing a like-minded
commissioner of education, shaking up the state department of education
and setting the stage for movement on teacher performance, early
childhood education and school funding.
"I think the governor is sincere in his attempt to address all six of
the principles he laid out and that we will likely see a plan ... that
offers some real and I would say bold solutions to get us there," said
Riccards.
Late last month, Malloy outlined his reform "road map" in a letter to
state legislative leaders. Malloy -- like the administration before him
-- wants legislation that will give more students access to
high-quality preschool. He wants to improve teaching and school
leadership, deliver more state resources to needy districts, expand
access to high-performing magnet and charter schools, and allow for
more state control of low performing school districts while lessening
the grip on districts that do well.
Gwen Samuel, president of the Connecticut Parents Union, said all that
sounds great, but she isn't getting her hopes up.
"Quite frankly, I don't think the moral courage exists to do what needs
to be done," said Samuel, a Meriden parent whose efforts two years ago
led to a law requiring schools to set up school governance councils.
The councils, which include parents, play a role in reconstituting
failing schools.
Samuel said there are important issues not on Malloy's list that she'd
like to see addressed, such as changing the residency law. This law got
Tanya McDowell, a mother arrested on larceny charges last year for
"stealing" education for her son by placing him in a Norwalk school
when officials said he belonged in Bridgeport.
"I do believe [the governor] will push the envelope. For that I will
get behind him 200 percent, as long as it is not just rhetoric," said
Samuel.
Steve Simmons, vice chairman of the Connecticut Council for Education
Reform, a group of business and foundation leaders, said he is very
optimistic that this year will bring significant change to education in
the state. "This time it's for real," said Simmons, who also co-chaired
the Connecticut Commission for Education Achievement under the Rell
administration.
Simmons said the principles outlined by Malloy would go a long way in
lifting educational achievement of all Connecticut students. He is also
convinced lawmakers will ultimately go along with the plan.
State Sen. Pro Tem Donald Williams this week said education will play
an important role in the short session that starts Feb. 8, but that
jobs and the economy are still front and center.
Rep. Auden Grogins, D-Bridgeport, a member of the General Assembly's
Education Committee, said she is looking forward to hearing Malloy's
educational initiatives and hopes they will help close the achievement
gap -- between students based on race, ethnicity and poverty -- which
has its epicenter in districts like Bridgeport.
"Suburbs don't have as much of the achievement gap as we do," Grogins
said. "They don't face as much as we do, with the large population of
English-language learners. It costs us more. I think the governor is
committed to progress in those areas."
State Rep. Andres Ayala, D-Bridgeport, leader of the city's legislative
delegation, said that the Educational Cost Sharing formula has to be
revised in order to pump more money into the school district. "We need
to be talking about more funding for Bridgeport, more teachers, more
critical services," Ayala said.
The city's delegation recently sent a letter to the task force studying
the ECS issue, inviting them to Bridgeport for a hearing.
Rep. Debralee Hovey, R-Monroe, a member of the legislative Education
Committee whose district includes part of Newtown, said that the
achievement gap looms over all school systems, "but it's an issue you
can't paint with a broad brush." Hovey likes Malloy's idea to give
districts that meet certain educational goals a pass on expensive state
mandates, such as in-school suspensions, where staff must supervise
small numbers of students who are being disciplined.
"My districts are worried about providing the best education they can
for the dollar," Hovey said. "Taxpayers in this economy are very
concerned about spending the money and they want to make sure the money
gets to the kids."
Thursday's workshop will feature an address by U.S. Department of
Education Under Secretary Martha J. Kanter and a number of panelists,
including Sandy Kase, a former superintendent for the New York City
Chancellor's District, who is now in Bridgeport to work under interim
Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas. The governor's office said 350
people have been invited to the daylong event.
Early Childhood Education: We’re for
it – Unless We’re Against it:
What? Wait! Blog
Jon Pelto
December 23, 2011
Wait, or is it the other way around?
If there are any legislators out there – now is the time to speak out
and make a real difference concerning the future of early childhood
education. Please join Representative Gary Holder-Winfield and
Senator Beth Bye who has been very outspoken and Representative State
Representative Matthew Ritter, who was the only legislator to sign onto
a letter written by the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance.
Last week the federal government, once again, rejected Connecticut’s
application for $50 million Race to the Top education funds. That
makes three times that Connecticut has failed to successfully compete
with other states for these vital funds.
This time it was Connecticut’s application for the Race to the Top –
Early Learning Challenge Funding that was rejected. The federal
government was looking for “High-Quality, Accountable Programs;
Promoting Early Learning and Development Outcomes for Children; A Great
Early Childhood Education Workforce and Measuring Outcomes and
Progress.”
The Department of Education in Washington gave Connecticut a C- for its
existing early childhood education programs. Despite the high
hopes, we weren’t even contenders.
This week, Connecticut Voices for Children, the state’s leading policy
think tank, released a report about Connecticut’s early childhood
education system. They found that it “is currently a patchwork of
multiple funding streams, controlled by multiple agencies, with varied
reporting and eligibility requirements and inconsistent and
insufficient data collection.”
The report added that federal and state funding for Early Childhood
Education in the state has declined by about 10 percent over the past
decade.
Connecticut has once more created a system in which there are the
“haves” and “have-nots.” About 67 percent of white children are
in early childhood education programs, compared to 59 percent for
African-American children and 51 percent for Latino children.
Also earlier this week, Governor Malloy reiterated his commitment to
make 2012 the “year of education.” Malloy’s spokesman said,
“The governor has long recognized the importance of Early Childhood
Education, going back to his time as mayor of Stamford where he
launched a universal pre-k program…He agrees that our education system
needs major reform, which is why we released a set of core principles
to legislators earlier this week.”
However, there has been no indication that the Governor or Legislature
are planning to come up with additional money, although the Governor
did write in the federal grant application’s cover letter that “I am
committed to fund one thousand new early childhood education slots
targeted to high need children.”
The good news is that there is an increasing recognition among
Connecticut’s elected officials that Early Childhood Education is
important; that Connecticut is already far behind what other states are
doing; and that a major initiative is needed if we hope to close the
achievement gap and maintain an educated and capable workforce for our
economy.
Yet to be seen is whether our officials will put real money into this
effort.
And, at the other end of the scale, is that move by Attorney General
George Jepsen, with the strong backing of Governor Malloy, to get the
courts to carve out Early Childhood Education from the definition of
education.
As a result of the lawsuit brought by the Connecticut Coalition for
Justice in Education Funding, the Connecticut Supreme Court not only
reiterated that children have a constitutional right to an education,
but that Connecticut’s education system must actually work and provide
children with the knowledge and skills to succeed.
Then, three months ago, the Attorney General, citing the fact that
Connecticut’s Constitution only refers to primary and secondary
schools, petitioned the courts to make it clear that when the state
government addresses the constitutional provisions associated with
funding education, Early Education programs are specifically removed
from what needs to be done to fulfill the state’s duty to its children.
Jepsen has responded to criticism by saying;
“My office, on behalf of the state has not questioned the potential
benefits of press school education of the wisdom of providing such
services to Connecticut children as a matter of public policy
Rather, we have filed a motion asking the Court to decide – as a legal,
not policy matter – whether the Connecticut constitution’s guarantee of
‘free public elementary and secondary schools” was intended to
encompass pre-school services.
Not to raise this important legal issue would be irresponsible and a
disservice to the state of Connecticut and its people”
While reasonable people can disagree about exactly what the state
Constitution means when it refers to education, there are two critical
issues Jepsen overlooks.
First, the one constant that prevails throughout the broader education
debate is that without successful Early Childhood Education programs
you simply can’t have a successful education system.
Second, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that required Jepsen, with
Malloy’s support, to file that motion. As Dick Blumenthal showed
day after day, year after year, the Attorney General’s Office is guided
by a combination of both legal and policy issues. If a future
Attorney General wants to strip early childhood education out of the
definition of education they can.
But as virtually every politician across the ideological spectrum is
calling for a new and profound investment in Early Education, Jepsen
has engaged in a separate, unnecessary and harmful effort to exempt
state government from having to maintain its early educational programs
in the future.
The voters of Connecticut elected George Jepsen over his opponent
because they believed he would use his values and beliefs as he worked
to uphold the law. This second and counterproductive effort is
not only being spearheaded by a Democratic, but it has the blessing and
support of the Democratic Governor.
And perhaps the most amazing piece of all is that only three out of 187
member of the Connecticut General Assembly have stepped forward to
officially ask the Attorney General and the Governor to withdraw their
motion to carve out Early Childhood Education.
Every Connecticut elected official needs to decide: are you for Early
Childhood Education or are you not?
And if they are for Early Childhood Education, they need to have the
conviction to ensure that, in Connecticut at least, the notion of
“education” includes Early Education programs.
Had we done that over the last couple of decades we might have received
that $50 million federal grant. We didn’t get the grant; but
these officials can have an even bigger impact – they can work to make
sure Jepsen and Malloy pull back on their anti-early childhood
education motion.
Legislators, three of your colleagues have stepped up, now is the time
for you to join them and speak out.
Governor
Calls For 'Academic
Excellence For All'
Saying 'We Have
Lost Our Edge,' Malloy Outlines His Principles For Education Reform
The Hartford Courant
1:45 PM EST, December 20, 2011
Saying that "over time, we have lost our edge as a state," Gov.
Dannel P. Malloy Tuesday outlined his principles for education reform,
saying they will serve as a roadmap for the upcoming session of the
General Assembly.
In a letter to state legislative leaders, Malloy called for measures to
help restore Connecticut "as a model for creating academic excellence
for all."
He cited students' stagnant performance on standardized tests and the
fact that the state's position has grown so weak compared with other
states "that we are not competitive in national grant competitions like
the recent Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge." Connecticut
learned last week that it lost its latest bid for federal challenge
grant money.
Worse, Malloy said, is that Connecticut has the largest academic
achievement gap between poor minority students and more affluent peers
in the nation.
In his letter, Malloy said he was asking state Education Commissioner
Stefan Pryor to develop a set of "ambitious and carefully tailored"
legislative proposals for the upcoming session.
He said the proposals would be rooted in a number of principles, among
them enhanced access to high-quality early childhood education;
authorizing intensive interventions and supports in the state's
lowest-performing schools and districts; expanding the availability of
high-quality schools, including magnets and charters; removing red tape
for high-performing schools and districts; and valuing teachers and
principles more for their skill and effectiveness than seniority.
Malloy said he would convene a set of workshops on
Jan. 5, to delve more deeply into the most pressing education reform
issues.
Up next -- education unions' plans to
reform schools
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, CT MIRROR
December 19, 2011
The education commissioner has been to nearly a dozen school districts
during his inaugural tour, hearing what does and doesn't work to
improve education -- and last week was the teachers unions' turn to
pitch their strategy. Instead of inviting the new commissioner to
one of their highest-performing districts, union leaders took Stefan
Pryor to the epitome of the crisis facing education.
"Welcome to Bridgeport," said Mary Loftus Levine, leader of the largest
teachers' union, as the commissioner entered Bassick High School's
library.
The figures were alarming. One of every three students drops out before
graduation. Fifteen percent don't even show up for school on any given
day. And of the students that do make it to 10th grade, fewer than one
in three are proficient in reading, math or science.
"I was petrified to come here," Luise Lenis, a senior, told Pryor.
JoAnn Kennedy, a parent of two freshmen, shared that fear.
"We were terrified because of all the stories I'd heard," she said.
Metal detectors adorn the entrance at Bassick. Nine full-time security
guards stroll the halls and parking lot, and stories of fights and
gangs at the school are frequently in the local newspapers. What
students and parents didn't know was that things were about to change.
The teachers' union had a plan, and the University of Connecticut's
highly regarded education college was there to help.
That plan called for the school's teachers and parents to vote to make
the management decisions themselves so initiatives would no longer be
stalled at the central office. Those changes, to name a few,
include requiring students to wear school uniforms; staff sweeping the
halls and rounding up students not in class; dividing the building by
grade instead of subject area; and making sure that teachers have
common planning periods.
"This is a living example of what school reform is all about," Levine
told a roomful of teachers and state officials Thursday.
"I'm hearing you've achieved incredible progress," Pryor said.
Indeed, test scores and other outcome measures are already beginning
showing dramatic upticks, just a few months into the changed model.
Last year, 32 percent of students were proficient in writing compared
with 52 percent this year. Similar spikes are found in reading, science
and math test scores and daily attendance rates.
"This school is clearly uptrending ... It's so impressive to see,"
Pryor said.
"Teachers were used to being told what to do," said Kathy Young, a
longtime Bassick teacher.
Principal Alejandro Ortiz explained that his staff "was hungry for
change." Parents and teachers overwhelmingly voted to approve the
changes they concocted.
"We gave them a simple voice," he said. "They own these changes."
UConn's Neag School of Education's Center for Education Policy Analysis
believes that giving autonomy to individual schools is critical in
making reforms.
"Local principals and teachers are best positioned to make decisions on
how to help their students reach high levels of academic achievement
because they are most familiar with their talents and their
challenges," reads a policy brief on this initiative, known as CommPACT.
Over the past decade, teachers at Bassick have seen multiple reform
attempts fail, they said. But now many are convinced they have finally
found the right strategy.
An investment
Michele Femc-Bagwell got a little teary as she started to talk about
how far these low-income students have come.
"This is just so great. We're really making a difference," she said to
a group in the library, as emotion started to build. "I have to pull
myself together."
Nearly every child at Bassick comes from a low-income family, 95
percent receiving free- or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts.
So five years ago, the Connecticut Education Association and the
state's other teachers' union, the American Federation of Teachers,
gathered a coallition of parents, superintendents and UConn officials
to brainstorm. They were sick of children not getting a quality
education.
"We were given a blank slate in how we wanted the school to change,"
said Walter Brackett, a Bassick teacher for nearly two decades.
The change wasn't cheap. Launching this model at seven schools across
the state in Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury took $3
million from federal, state and local donations.
"That's about $120 per student," Levine said. "That was a great
investment, just look around."
But the start-up money that spurred these reforms and hired the experts
from UConn is set to begin running out at some of the schools at the
end of next school year. And despite Levine and AFT's president,
Sharon Palmer, insisting that there is a long line of schools their
unions want to expand this model to, there is no funding to do it.
"These schools are really shining stars. Now we just need to validate
what we think is working," Palmer said.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed cutting funding for the initiative as he
worked to close a massive state budget deficit last year, but in the
end the unions succeeded in getting the money back. Pryor said he
is looking into expanding this model.
"It's very important that reform models be able to thrive in our
state," he said.
Switching things up
The norm last year was to find dozens of students, who should have been
in class, roaming the halls. Teachers worked on that by having
all the ninth-graders go to class on one floor, so it would be
difficult for them to get lost as they switched from one class to the
next.
"There was just a lot of room for them not to make it there," the
principal said. Attendance data being tracked by UConn shows the effort
is paying off. Another initiative was to have common time off for
teachers to work on lesson plans with each other, discuss issues facing
the same students and be there for other areas of support
"The research shows this works," Bagwell said.
What also appears to be working is requiring students to wear uniforms.
"It makes you look like you're going to school and not a fashion show,"
said student Brandon Williams, who wore the mandated black polo shirt
and khaki pants during a tour of the school.
"This [uniform] is not a joke, because Mr. Ortiz will send you home if
you aren't wearing it," Sasha Rosario, a senior, told Pryor.
Later, Sasha conceded that the uniforms have shifted the focus to what
school is for.
"We can get to learning now," she said. "What a difference it has made."
Education commissioner
proposes easing bureaucratic barriers
CT MIRROR
By Robert A. Frahm
November 25, 2011
FAIRFIELD - In affluent, high-achieving school districts like this one,
the state's top education official thinks the best strategy might be
for the state education department to step aside and do less, not
more. State Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor asked Fairfield
officials how the state could ease the burden of regulations, annual
reports and other bureaucratic mandates that often lead to a mountain
of paperwork.
"We're interested in hearing about regulatory barriers, anything that
might be a hindrance ... We want to know how to get out of your way,"
Pryor told the Fairfield Board of Education this week.
Fairfield was the latest stop on what Pryor calls a "listening tour" to
visit schools, meet educators and assess the needs of the state's
public education system as he completes his second month on the
job. Pryor, whose most recent job was deputy mayor of Newark,
N.J., was an unconventional choice for the education post, taking over
a system that boasts some of America's best schools but also struggles
with low-achieving schools in the state's poorest towns and cities. On
national tests, Connecticut has the nation's largest academic
achievement gap separating the poor from the well-to-do.
Fairfield is among the state's top-performing districts. More than 90
percent of the town's eighth-graders, for example, met the reading goal
on the state's annual Mastery Test last spring, well above the state
average of 75 percent. Similarly, 87 percent met the mathematics goal,
compared with a statewide average of 67 percent. Pryor
praised Fairfield's record, including its recent expansion of
pre-kindergarten classes to include children as young as age 3.
Nevertheless, despite the success of school systems such as
Fairfield's, the state can do better, Pryor said.
"We are not as high-flying as we may think we are," he said, citing
recent 8th-grade mathematics scores on the National Assessment of
Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card.
Connecticut's scores fell behind those of states such as Massachusetts,
New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas. "I'm tired of hearing
how Massachusetts is beating Connecticut," Pryor said. "There is no
good reason for it. They are doing some things right that we are
not...We ought to aspire to be number one."
He added, "Many states do a far better job of supporting and
intervening with lower-performing schools than we do." In
Massachusetts, for example, the state has a "tight alignment of
curriculum, instruction, professional development and assessment," he
said.
While the education department intends to focus much of its attention
on improving low-performing schools, it also will try to help
high-achieving schools by relaxing some of the state's bureaucratic
requirements, Pryor told the Fairfield school board.
"It's all in pursuit of higher performance in all our districts for all
our children," Pryor said.
Phil Dwyer, a member of the Fairfield board, asked Pryor about the
time-consuming regulations and record-keeping requirements imposed on
schools by the state. "Does it really help us move the needle when it
comes to school climate?" he asked.
Pryor said, "Where there are outdated or irrelevant or barrier-creating
regulations, we want to know about it."
The State Department of Education lists more than 60 reports that are
issued on a regular basis, many of them required annually under state
or federal laws. The reports cover matters such as busing, school
construction, school lunch, discipline, graduation surveys, technical
education, bilingual education, immigrant students, dropouts, teacher
shortages, racial balance and teacher certification.
Across the state, school officials have often complained that state and
federal regulations are burdensome, but reducing paperwork or easing
regulations could be difficult, possibly requiring new legislation.
Fairfield Superintendent of Schools David Title cited the example of
certification regulations for teachers and administrators, saying the
rules are so cumbersome that they sometimes prevent school districts
from hiring talented educators from other states.
Title also said later that the state's annual Strategic School Profiles
- which require schools to report a range of data on demographics, test
results and other matters - are outdated and include information that
also is contained in other reports published by the state.
"It's arcane," he said. "We never get rid of anything. Any data
collection they do really needs to be examined."
New
commissioner looks for schools
that are succeeding
Robert A. Frahm, CT MIRROR
November 14, 2011
MERIDEN - When unionized teachers in Meriden's public schools needed
more time to examine student test data, they voluntarily added extra
classroom time to their schedules to make room for regular weekly data
review meetings.
That simple solution, the result of informal talks between the union
president and school superintendent, was cited Monday by the state's
top education official as one of the reasons for the success of Thomas
Hooker School.
"It's a perfect example of how a district solves a problem - union and
management together," said state Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.
"You are creating a model for the rest of the state."
That spirit of teamwork, along with strong leadership and an intense
focus on monitoring student progress, have made Hooker stand out, Pryor
said.
Pryor, who took over as commissioner last month, stopped at Hooker as
one of the first stops on what he calls a "listening tour" to visit
schools and meet educators across Connecticut and to look for education
strategies that work.
In Connecticut, Pryor oversees a public education system that boasts
some of America's best schools but also has the nation's largest
academic achievement gap separating the poor from the well-to-do. At
Hooker, that gap has virtually disappeared over the past six years as
test scores among low-income children gradually improved.
Although about half of Hooker's students come from low-income families
and one-third of the student body is not fluent in English, the school
regularly posts impressive results on the statewide Connecticut Mastery
Test. More than 90 percent of Hooker's third-graders scored at the
proficient level in reading and math last spring, for example, compared
with statewide averages of 74 percent in reading and 84 percent in math.
Hooker, along with a school in Old Lyme, tied for the Connecticut
Association of Schools' award as the state's top elementary school this
year. Two years ago, it was named a national Blue Ribbon school by the
U.S. Department of Education.
"There are numerous exemplary schools in our state even though there
are certainly challenges statewide," Pryor said after touring Hooker.
"There are bright spots, and we want to highlight those and learn from
them."
Monday's meeting with teachers and administrators provided an early
glimpse of some of the themes likely to mark Pryor's approach as
commissioner.
Although he was an unconventional choice for the education post -- his
most recent job was as deputy mayor in Newark, N.J. -- Pryor's grasp of
key education issues was evident as he took notes and asked the Meriden
educators about curriculum, teacher training and other matters.
In particular, Pryor asked pointed questions dealing with monitoring
student progress: How often do teachers gather data? Does the district
work with the state in designing test questions? Do schools use data to
diagnose problems for individual students?
Meriden Superintendent of Schools Mark Benigni said teachers regularly
review how their students' growth compares to that of students in other
schools, throughout the district and across the state. "We know that
these results matter," he said. "We want to push all our students to
their optimum performance."
Later, Pryor said that Hooker's focus on data was a key element in its
success.
"There is very thoughtful attention being paid to the use of data. ...
There is concern for reaching further into the data to examine
students' needs beyond the surface level analysis of right and wrong
answers on the standardized tests. There's an interest in deeper
diagnosis, which is so important," he said.
"It's rare that you find a school these days that's succeeding at this
level that isn't aiming for such deeper diagnosis. It's great to see it
happening, and it's the kind of thing that the state can enable."
Pryor, who arrived in Connecticut with a reputation as a skilled leader
able to bring together groups with differing points of view, also
praised the union-management relationship in Meriden, citing the
example of altering the schedule to create time for the data review
meetings.
"It was great to see it in action," he said. "There is problem-solving
on a routine basis and also on a structural long-term basis between the
superintendent's office and the union president's office. That is
terrific to see. It's essential."
Hooker's success has not come without obstacles. The school district's
budget has had no increase for the past two years. The building is
aging, and class sizes are edging upward.
"With 29 students, it's a challenge to get to every single one of
them," said fifth-grade teacher Jacqueline Sapinski. Nevertheless, part
of the school's success is the result of the close bond among staff
members, she said.
"It's definitely a school that is a team," she said. "I can depend on
anyone -- the cafeteria worker, the speech therapist -- to help me when
I need it."
A
'change agent' seeks consensus on
school reform
CT MIRROR
By Robert A. Frahm and Caitlin Emma
October 5, 2011
When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy tabbed Stefan Pryor, a charter school
founder, as the state's next education commissioner, the appointment
raised eyebrows among some in public education circles.
Would Pryor, whose career has been shaped both inside and outside the
education arena, be able to win over a public school establishment that
viewed some charter advocates with suspicion?
Those who know him best are betting the answer is yes.
Pryor officially begins his new job Friday, taking over a public
education system that boasts some of America's best schools but also
has the nation's largest academic achievement gap separating the poor
from the well-to-do.
Colleagues describe the 39-year-old Yale graduate as a tireless
reformer unafraid to try new ideas - not limited to those tested in
charter schools - and as a skilled leader able to bring together groups
with differing points of view.
"I think he's practical. He's not really an ideologue," said Paul
Vallas, a former school superintendent in Chicago, Philadelphia and New
Orleans. Pryor worked alongside Vallas as a volunteer in Haiti and
Chile as those nations rebuilt school systems after suffering
devastating earthquakes last year.
"I don't think he comes in as a person who sees one model or one
solution to addressing the deficiencies that exist in the educational
system," said Vallas, one of the nation's leading voices in school
reform. "I think that he's a supporter or charter schools without being
a critic of traditional schools... In all the projects he's worked on
with me, people liked him. He's not divisive...He works with diverse
groups."
That was a mark of Pryor's style in Newark, N.J., too, where he worked
as deputy mayor for the past five years to revitalize the struggling
city.
"One of his great secrets is he just never looks at sides - this side
versus that side," said Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has known Pryor
since the two were classmates at Yale Law School. "He's somebody that
really [says] let's all come together, find out where we can agree...
and make something happen that can benefit us all."
Pryor, whose background includes a major role in rebuilding Lower
Manhattan, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was an unconventional
choice for the education post. Nevertheless, he had been on Malloy's
radar for months, said Timothy Bannon, the governor's chief of staff.
Soon after Malloy's election last year, the governor met Pryor and
began thinking about finding a spot for him in the new administration,
Bannon said. The governor "was quite taken with his intellect and his
grasp of public issues," said Bannon, who described Pryor as a flexible
leader not bound to any single strategy of school reform.
"He is very outcome oriented...The other thing that stands out when you
look at his record is he really is able to form a consensus," he said.
"That's going to be a key to any success in terms of education reform."
In Connecticut, Pryor will confront thorny, divisive issues such as
teacher tenure, pay and evaluation. He must do so in the midst of a
slumping economy that has led to teacher layoffs, school budget
cutbacks, and a shrinking staff at the State Department of Education.
He takes over an agency that has intervened in two struggling school
districts, Windham and Bridgeport, and that has begun reviewing the
state's complicated and often-criticized school aid formula.
Although Pryor's predecessor, former Commissioner Mark McQuillan,
helped win reforms such as more rigorous high school requirements, he
never was able to build a strong alliance with former Gov. M. Jodi Rell
- a factor, some observers say, in Connecticut's failure to win a grant
last year in the Obama administration's $4.3 billion Race to the Top
school reform competition.
Pryor, by contrast, appears to have the strong backing of Malloy, who
has pledged to make education reform a central element of his agenda.
Pryor "has the wind at his back," said state Rep. Andrew Fleischmann,
D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the legislature's Education Committee.
"He is a change agent who arrives with a lot of support for change."
His biggest test will be to shore up lagging academic performance,
particularly in schools with large populations of low-income and
minority students - a key to restoring Connecticut's status as a leader
in education circles.
Pryor is no stranger to big challenges. After heading the agency
charged with rebuilding Lower Manhattan following the attacks on New
York's World Trade Center, he left for Newark, where he worked
alongside Booker and played a central role in promoting business
development, expanding affordable housing and developing innovative
projects such as a mentoring and job training program for former
prisoners.
Newark has more than $700 million in construction projects under way or
in the pipeline, Booker said. Pryor has been influential in attracting
dozens of new businesses, including the first new downtown hotel in
nearly 40 years and the headquarters for Panasonic Corporation of North
America.
"He presided over probably one of the greatest development periods in
our city in the last 60 years, and he did it during the worst economy
when people weren't building, weren't investing," Booker said. "He's a
guy who has achieved great success in everything he's done and really
has become one of the more sought-after leaders in America... He was
always being wooed by other cities, states, communities."
Kathryn S. Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York
City, a nonprofit organization of business leaders where Pryor once
worked on school reform, described him as pragmatic. "I would say
progressive, but not at all confrontational." she said.
"If you were comparing him and Michelle Rhee, they're sort of opposite
ends of the spectrum," Wylde said, referring to the former Washington,
D.C. schools chancellor, whose aggressive, often blunt style rankled
teachers' unions and made her a controversial figure in school reform.
At the partnership, Pryor worked with two troubled school districts in
Brooklyn, focusing heavily on the use of data to monitor student
progress and trying strategies such as performance incentives for
principals and financial incentives for recruiting teachers, Wylde said.
Pryor is known for devoting long hours to his work, rarely taking time
off. "He has total immersion in the work he's doing," Wylde said. "He's
a 24/7 guy."
Booker, who called Pryor one of his closest friends, said, "He's a guy
who has gone at full speed, around-the-clock with the intensity I've
rarely seen matched by others...Stefan is his work. It's what he does.
It's who he is...His hobbies were things like leading missions down to
Haiti to serve after that disaster."
Pryor, who is single, is the son of two public school teachers. He grew
up and attended public schools in New City, N.Y., a suburb of New York
City.
On the day his appointment was announced in Connecticut, Pryor said he
will focus on strategies that work, wherever they exist.
"I think it's important we look at schools not in terms of their
governance model but in terms of their results - whether we're talking
about conventional public schools or magnet schools or charter schools
or vo-ag or tech schools," he said. "The question is not how is a
school structured. The question is: How is a school providing for
outstanding student outcomes?"
The search for effective strategies is something Pryor did along with
other Yale law students and community leaders in founding Amistad
Academy, a successful, high-profile charter school that opened in New
Haven in 1999 and became a national model.
"He's very results focused and people focused," said Dacia Toll, former
Amistad director and now president and CEO of Achievement First, a
network of charter schools that includes Amistad and other schools in
Connecticut and New York.
"In coming up with a model for Amistad," Toll said, "we traveled around
the country, going as far as Calgary, Canada, to look at schools that
were serving kids from low-income backgrounds who have historically
been underachieving - yet in these schools, they were achieving
breakthrough results."
Charter schools are publicly supported schools that are free of the
usual central office restrictions and union rules. In theory, they are
designed to foster experimental approaches that can be expanded to
other schools, but critics, including teachers' union officials in
Connecticut, have been at odds with some charter advocates, accusing
them of bashing public schools and acting as competitors.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,
knows Pryor and believes he has the skill to mend that relationship.
"Part of what he will need to do is reduce that toxicity. That will be
both a challenge and opportunity for him, particularly since he comes
from the charter school side," said Weingarten, who remembers Pryor
from his school reform work in Brooklyn when she was head of United
Federation of Teachers in New York City.
"I think he has seen both the potential of charter schools and the
limits of charter schools," Weingarten said.
She said that Pryor is likely to draw not only on the lessons of
charter schools but on other experimental approaches such as a
reform-minded teachers' contract in New Haven. That contract includes a
rigorous new evaluation process for teachers, linking their performance
to student progress.
The contract has drawn praise from the Obama administration and others,
including Pryor.
"The fact that the collective bargaining unit and municipal
administration and school district administration came together and
grappled with issues and resulted in a contract that everyone felt good
about...that's impressive, and that's a good model," Pryor said.
Weingarten said a key element of the New Haven reform is that it
reaches an entire district, not just a single school.
"The fact that [Pryor] has looked at the New Haven model...and sees
that collaboration as a key lever to school district reform to try to
help all kids - not just some kids - I think is very positive,"
Weingarten said.
When the Partnership for New York City tested various reforms in
Brooklyn schools, Pryor "was pretty honest about what did and didn't
work," she said. Even when some of the reforms did not work as planned,
"the partnership didn't blame the schools for failure to try," she said.
"I found him at the time...to be open-minded and flexible, you know,
pragmatic," she added. "It's about how you help all kids, and the one
thing we've learned is it's not so easy."

From the official CT website

Changes To Education Funding On The
Horizon This Year
CTNEWSJUNKIE
by Christine Stuart | Jan 12, 2012 2:20pm
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s Budget Director Ben Barnes, who co-chairs the
task force in charge of looking at the state’s Education Cost Sharing
formula, tried his best to dodge reporters’ questions about whether
there would be changes to the education funding formula this year.
As the awkward pauses and vague answers continued one reporter jokingly
volunteered to hold him while the rest tickled the information out of
him.
But Barnes defended his cagey behavior explaining that he’s in the
middle of making some of those big policy decisions and wouldn’t want
to say the administration will do something that it ends up scrapping.
But when he was asked if Malloy will be able to accomplish everything
he wants to accomplish this fiscal year without changes to the
education funding formula, Barnes replied “ultimately no.”
The statement was an indication changes to the formula will be
forthcoming.
But Barnes refused to offer any more details or confirm anything
Thursday.
“If I were to say something and then we change our mind,” Barnes said
as his voice trailed off. “There are a lot of trade offs and clearly we
don’t have as much money as we’d like to, to do all the things we‘d
like to get done,” he added.
He admitted there was a certain awkwardness to attending the CT Voices
for Children budget forum at the state Capitol Thursday because of the
proximity of the budget adjustments.
“I don’t bring any paper because I don’t want to say anything,” Barnes
joked.
Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, co-chairwoman of the legislature’s
Education Committee and co-chairwoman of the ECS Task Force, said there
may be some small policy changes to the “framework” of the ECS formula
this year. But like Malloy, she doesn’t want to impact funding to
municipalities.
“To pull the rug out from under our residents and taxpayers would not
be well received,“ Stillman said Thursday in a phone interview.
However, she believes there are some small changes the state can make
to the formula in anticipation that bigger changes are on the horizon.
She said there are parts of the formula that can be looked at and
changed, but was reluctant to say exactly which parts of the formula
will be undergoing those small changes, since the task force has yet to
finalize its draft report.
Stillman said everyone is hoping fiscal conditions improve this year,
so they have an opportunity to make more significant changes to the
formula in fiscal year 2013.
Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the
legislature’s Education Committee, said given all of the variables
involved and the complexity of the formula he didn’t expect to see
changes until 2013. However, he said he has nothing but respect for the
wide range of aims the governor has enunciated on education reform.
It’s possible to set up a system where you can hold all municipalities
harmless, while increasing funding to several school systems,
Fleischmann said. It’s been done in the past, but how exactly how
Malloy plans on funding it was still a mystery to Fleischmann.
During an interview on WNPR Wednesday Malloy told John Dankosky that
his education proposal will be “the most far-reaching in our state’s
history, and probably one of the most far-reaching in the nation.”
He said there are about 29 school districts mostly in urban communities
that need more help than they’re currently getting from the state. His
comments were similar to those made in December at the Council of Small
Towns meeting.
“I’ve already said that I’m going to hold municipalities harmless of
losses that we’re going to stand by our funding commitments. I made
that very publicly about four or five months ago. Believe me if I say
it, you can believe it,” Malloy told Dankosky.
Administration sources said changes to the formula are inevitable and
will be done this year, but how they will be funded is still unclear.
Since the state won’t be increasing taxes this year many school and
town officials are wondering if the state should be taking money from
high performing districts to give to low performing districts. This
would create winners and losers amongst municipalities.
Bart Russell, executive director of the Council of Small Towns, said
Thursday that it would be quite a challenge to imagine significant
changes to the ECS formula during the short session of the legislature.
And “I don’t know if you can automatically assume these changes to the
formula will be robbing Peter to pay Paul either,” Russell added.
He said it would be difficult and challenging to cut municipalities in
the second year of the two-year budget, but the ECS formula is the 800
pound gorilla in the room.
“We’re all waiting with baited breath and hoping we’re going to be held
harmless in the second year of the biennium,” Russell said.
Just 2 in 5 Connecticut high school
grads finish college
Westport News
Linda Conner Lambeck, Staff Writer
Updated 12:21 a.m., Friday, December 30, 2011
HARTFORD -- As the state strives to improve student performance, high
school graduation rates and eventual success in college, a new report
suggests just how far public schools have to go.
For the 35,671 high school students who graduated from Connecticut
public high schools in 2004, just two in five had earned a degree or
certificate from college six years out. Another one-third started
college during this time, but did not finish. One-quarter skipped
post-secondary education altogether.
Locally, the percentage of students successfully completing a college
program six years out of high school ranged from 6 percent at Henry
Abbott Technical High School in Danbury to 73 percent at Ridgefield
High School.
Suburban high school graduates find more success at college than urban
students, the report shows.
The data comes from the National Student Clearinghouse, a central
repository of enrollment and graduation data, and was requested by the
state's Board of Regents for Higher Education, the state Department of
Education and P-20 Council, a collaboration between the state's early
childhood, K-12, higher education and workforce training sectors.
The council, which held a series of college readiness workshops across
the state this fall, is releasing the data to give policymakers and
educators a better idea of what high school graduates in the state do
with their diplomas. The report provides degree completion rates by
high schools in the state, information which has previously not been
available in Connecticut.
Michael Meotti, vice president of the state's Board of Regents, said
the report signals a need to identify ways to help students prepare to
enter the workforce.
"We need to ensure that we're preparing our students for success from
the very moment they set foot in our schools," Meotti said in a
prepared statement. "That means identifying ways in which we can help
them learn and be better able to adapt to the 21st century workforce."
The report calls for a focus on students who enter college but fail to
graduate within six years.
Of the 41 percent of the class of 2004 who completed at least one
degree or certificate program, half -- representing 20 percent of the
class -- went to Connecticut colleges and universities and half
attended colleges or universities out of state.
In Connecticut, according to the U.S. Census, 46 percent of 25- to
34-year-olds have an associate degree or higher. That puts the state
seventh in the nation. The state's level of education attainment is
slipping.
Braden Hosch, director of policy and research for the Board of Regents,
said the results are about what was expected.
The data also shows the college-going rate between 2004 and 2009 has
increased. According to the state Department of Education, 77.8 percent
of the class of 2004 indicated they planned to attend college. In
actuality, 57.4 attended college, according to clearinghouse statistics
that officials say are accurate within 5 percent.
In 2009, 80.5 percent said they were college-bound. The clearinghouse
reports 66.9 percent enrolled the following fall.
"What we are trying to focus attention on is: What matters for
Connecticut's economic competitiveness is not simply that students go
to college, but when they go, they finish," Hosch said. "We know that
in the economy we have today, having some sort of credential after high
school makes you much more competitive in the job market."
The report doesn't get into the reasons why students don't finish.
While some point to the cost of college as for why some students start
but don't finish college, many say not enough students enter college
prepared to do the work or have the motivation to stick with it.
State Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor said there is a need for
better preparation. The higher education report comes out the same day
the Department of Education released a report that shows graduation
rates from public high schools in 2010 showed only a slight
improvement. Nearly one in five students still fail to graduate within
four years. For minority students, one in three fail to graduate with
the class they entered with as freshmen.
Ten districts in the state, including Monroe, had greater than a 95
percent graduation rate in 2010. Six districts, including Bridgeport,
had rates lower than 65 percent.
Former SWRPA
member Dudley Williams on this panel.as is Ted Sergi, former CT
Education Commissioner (coined the phrase "The Two Connecticuts")...
ECS
PANEL HOPES TO MEET IN LOWER FAIRFIELD COUNTY (UNDER "TASK FORCE
ACTIVITIES" NOT TO BE RANKED)
Go directly to the first cut of 49 alternative changes here.
Please note that CT MIRROR forced the hand of Education Committee
Co-Chair. to release this
draft. How many people on the task force and who do they
represent?
Inquiring minds would like to know!
Is there a link here?
First challenge of ECS panel:
Untangling old compromises
Keith M. Phaneuf, CT MIRROR
September 15, 2011
The new state panel charged with ensuring fairness in
Connecticut's education financing system hit its first quandary
Thursday: How do you fix the program when decades of political
compromises and nearly $3.8 billion in under-funding have left
virtually all communities--rich and poor alike--feeling short-changed?
In its first detailed briefing on state education financing, the
Education Cost Sharing task force learned that:
Connecticut's share of local education funding
reached its lowest point in two decades over the last two years.
While poor cities argue they don't receive
sufficient funds through ECS, nearly 50 of the wealthiest communities
effectively receive less per student now than they did just before the
first education equalization formula was drafted, after adjustments for
inflation.
And an artificial capping system has deprived the
ECS program of an average of $760.4 million annually since 2006-07.
The ECS system "has been a series of political compromises over the
years," Brian Mahoney, the state Department of Education's chief
financial officer, told the panel that must recommend options to reform
education financing next February. "The state has never really,
actually funded the pure formula."
With nearly $1.9 billion in grants this fiscal year to Connecticut
school districts, the ECS system is largest component in a $4.2 billion
state funding plan for municipal education that also includes school
construction grants; teachers' pension account contributions; a
vocational-technical high school system; specialized state school
districts serving abused and disabled children; and racial diversity
programs.
While a major state tax hike enabled Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the
legislature to maintain ECS funding despite the loss of federal aid,
the state budget includes significant cuts to spending on construction,
diversity and technical high schools.
And though the ECS spending level was maintained, Mahoney and Office of
Legislative Research analyst John Moran also told the panel that the
grant formula, which takes into account a community's wealth, student
population, numbers of families from households on federal assistance,
and past education spending, still will distribute $724.8 million less
than the formula calls for.
Artificial caps on the ECS program are nothing new. In each of the
prior four fiscal years, under-funding levels have ranged from $731.1
million to $865.9 million.
Part of the controversy over ECS stems from what analysts called "the
myth of the 50-50 funding promise."
The state Supreme Court ruled in the landmark 1977 case of Horton v.
Meskill that Connecticut's flat, $250 per pupil grant to municipal
school districts was unconstitutional because it didn't recognize
disparities in local wealth.
Though a state Board of Education advisory panel recommended a
long-term goal of state assistance covering, on average, half of each
community's local education costs, "no one who controlled the purse
strings, neither legislatures nor governors, came forward and said
50-50 is our goal," Moran said.
Nonetheless, that perception creates a problem: The state's share of
local education spending generally has been in the high-30 percent to
low-40 percent range for much of the past two decades. And the
deviation among communities has been even greater.
Almost immediately after the first equalization formula was enacted,
legislators added "stop-loss" provisions to ensure wealthier
communities didn't experience reductions in state aid--a move that has
long drawn criticism from poorer communities, both urban and rural.
But while more affluent towns may have been protected in the short term
that didn't last. Accordingto Thursday's briefing, the 24 wealthiest
towns receive about $378 per student, and and the 24 in the next wealth
ranking receive about $735. The $250 per student grant issued in 1977,
when adjusted for inflation, would be worth $934 now.
"Which virtually means for the last 35 years they have gotten nothing,"
said former state Education Commissioner Theodore Sergi, a member of
the task force.
ECS funding per student then climbs in the next five wealth tiers to
$1,720, $2,744, $3,125, $4,586, and $6,860 per student for the poorest
communities in Connecticut.
Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, co-chairwoman of the Appropriations
Committee, said it's crucial that this task force not only analyze
funding issues, but also assess the educational results school
districts are achieving.
But Sergi cautioned after the meeting that no school funding
equalization program can--on its own--also equalize education results.
"You can't look at ECS to solve everything," he said, adding that the
effects of poverty and other social problems can't be overcome by
school spending alone.
Meriden School Superintendent Mark Benigni, who also serves on the task
force, said that rather than look for ways to fully fund the current
ECS formula, the panel might be better off trying to determine the
fairest way to distribute the $1.9 billion the program has been
allocated in each of the past three budgets. "I think for this
committee to do its job, that's what has to be shared," he said.
The alternative, he added, is to develop a formula that calls for
more--and then faces the risk of being subverted by state policy makers
unwilling to fund it.
"I don't know who in the legislature is happy with the ECS formula,"
Sen. Andrea L. Stillman, D-Waterford, co-chairwoman of the task force,
said. "I think everything needs to be on the table, ... but I think
there's a good foundation with what we have now and I'm not sure I want
to throw it out."
Charter school founder to be named
education commissioner
Robert A. Frahm, CT MIRROR
September 6, 2011
One of the founders of an acclaimed Connecticut charter school who
later led the redevelopment effort in Lower Manhattan after the attacks
of 9/11 will be named Connecticut's next commissioner of education.
Gov. Dannel Malloy is expected to appoint Stefan Pryor, now the deputy
mayor of Newark, N.J., to succeed Mark McQuillan, who resigned abruptly
in December, citing the stress of the job. Acting Commissioner George
Coleman has held the interim post since then.
State Board of Education Chairman Allan Taylor confirmed the selection
of Pryor but would not comment further. Pryor's selection was first
reported in a story by Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green.
The board, which led a six-month search for the new commissioner, will
issue its recommendation of Pryor at its meeting Wednesday, where the
new commissioner will be introduced. Pryor is one of five finalists
interviewed for the job.
Pryor, 39, a graduate of Yale Law School, was among the founders of the
Amistad Academy in New Haven, a high profile public charter school that
has had a successful track record with children from low-income
families.
The selection of Pryor signals Malloy's intent to focus on reforming
the public education system and is certain to raise eyebrows among the
education establishment, including teacher union officials who have
sometimes clashed with charter school supporters over funding and other
issues.
Pryor's background indicates he is no stranger to big challenges.
In Newark, Pryor oversees economic development, city planning and
housing as part of the administration of Mayor Cory Booker. Before
taking that job, he was president of the Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation in charge of rebuilding the area after the attacks on the
World Trade Center in 2001.
Before 2001, he worked as vice president of the Partnership for New
York City, a leading business organization, where he was involved in
school reform efforts.
In the mid-1990s, Pryor worked as a policy advisor to New Haven Mayor
John DeStefano.
"I'm hearing from folks in New Haven. They think it's a good choice,"
said Sharon Palmer, president of the American Federation of
Teachers-Connecticut. "If he is bringing a vision of what charter
schools are supposed to be--schools of innovation and creativity--then
that's a good thing."
"I'm hoping he doesn't have the ConnCAN vision of charters being
competitors with K-12 [schools]," she said, a reference to the New
Haven-based organization that has pushed aggressively for school
reforms, including more support for charters.
Alex Johnston, ConnCAN's executive director, knew Pryor when the two
men worked for the City of New Haven, Johnston as an official with the
New Haven Housing Authority and Pryor as an advisor to DeStefano.
"I think it's an exciting appointment," Johnston said. "He's really an
experienced public administrator who has taken on turnaround challenges
in New York City and Newark...Think about trying to rebuild Lower
Manhattan after 9/11...
"I think we have a rebuilding challenge of our own with a public school
system that historically has led the nation but in recent years has
fallen behind."
In Connecticut, Pryor will take on a public school system that has
struggled to close one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation,
with low-income and minority students trailing far behind more affluent
and white students in reading and mathematics. Some critics also have
expressed concern that the state failed to win a grant last year in
Race to the Top, the Obama administration's $4.3 billion school reform
competition. The surrounding states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
New York all won grants.
"If you can work in Newark and New York City," you should be able to
handle Connecticut," said Mary Loftus Levine, the recently appointed
executive director of the Connecticut Education Association, the
state's largest teachers' union.
"I never met him...He has a very interesting background," she said. "I
think having an urban background will be a big plus. My hope is he'll
want to work collaboratively with us and listen to the voices of
teachers."
Attempts to reach Pryor Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Pryor, who has been described as a tireless worker, also has done
volunteer work in earthquake-damaged Haiti and Chile alongside one of
the nation's most noted school reformers.
Paul Vallas - former school superintendent in Chicago, Philadelphia and
New Orleans - said Pryor was a valuable voice in building school
systems and other services as those countries recovered from
devastating earthquakes.
"He's a great guy. The governor has made a real smart choice," Vallas
said Wednesday by phone from Haiti, where he has been working for the
past 20 months helping to design a publicly funded school system.
Vallas, a proponent of school choice and charter schools, said Pryor is
highly respected and has a solid grasp of education issues. "He knows
what constitutes good schools - what works and what doesn't work. He's
not a novice when it comes to education."
The report of Pryor's selection also won an enthusiastic response
from Frank Carrano, longtime president of the New Haven Federation of
Teachers before leaving that post in 1999.
"I'm very excited about the appointment. I knew Stefan from his days as
an undergraduate at Yale through his involvement with public schools,"
said Carrano, now chairman of the Board of Education in Branford. "I
found him to be, as a young man, genuinely interested in making
positive changes happen. As a college undergraduate, it's rare to find
those qualities...
"We've kept in touch over the years. I know his involvement in the
Lower Manhattan project is another example of his willingness to step
into a difficult situation. His greatest strengths lie in his ability
to bring people together, to collaborate."
Robert Rader, executive director of the Connecticut Association of
Boards of Education, said of Pryor, "I don't know him personally, but
he has some accomplishments. He has more background in education that
we first thought. My understanding is he was the governor's first
choice, and we'll do what we can to make him successful."
Stefan Pryor named state's next
Commissioner of Education
Linda Conner Lambeck, Staff Writer
Updated 11:33 p.m., Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Before 9/11, education was Stefan Pryor's focus.
The Yale graduate helped found the state's most successful charter
school and led education programs for a business leadership partnership
in New York City. After the terrorist attacks of 10 years ago, he
shifted his energy to rebuilding lower Manhattan, then went to work for
Cory Booker when his college buddy became mayor of Newark, N.J.
Now, Pryor, 39, is poised to return to education as Connecticut's top
school chief, taking on one of the nation's largest achievement gaps
between poor students of color and more affluent white students.
Officials have confirmed that Pryor will be introduced Wednesday by
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy as the state's next commissioner of
education. The announcement will be made at 2 p.m. in the
Legislative Office Building during the monthly state Board of Education
meeting. Pryor did not respond to calls for comment. Board
Chairman Allan Taylor said he was pleased with the selection. Others,
like New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, called it a good day for the young
people of Connecticut.
"I don't think Gov. Malloy would have picked Stefan or Stefan would
have accepted the position if both weren't about the mission of
creating aggressive change in the state Department of Education," said
DeStefano, who pulled Pryor from the city council in 1994 to work with
him on youth and education issues early in his administration.
DeStefano called Pryor a change agent who has the ability to set clear
goals and to be persistent and collaborative.
"I think the state Department of Education is in desperate need of
leadership and change," DeStefano added.
Pryor becomes the state's fourth commissioner of education since 2007,
counting acting Commissioner of Education George Coleman, whose
nine-month stint in the job this year included naming a new Bridgeport
Board of Education after a majority of the existing one asked to be
replaced. Commissioner Mark McQuillan was commissioner prior to Malloy
taking office. Before him, Betty Sternberg spent three years in the job.
This will be the first commissioner appointed under a relatively new
statute that puts the final decision in the hands of the governor and
the Legislature, not the state Board of Education.
Dacia Toll, who co-founded Amistad Academy Charter School in New Haven
with Pryor in 1997, called Pryor's appointment great news for
Connecticut. She thinks Pryor can do for Connecticut what he did for
students at Amistad, who in very short order were scoring at or above
the state average on the Connecticut Mastery Test. The school has since
expanded to include schools in New York, Hartford and Bridgeport under
the Achievement First brand name. Pryor was the first chairman of the
board of Amistad Academy.
Alex Johnston, executive director of Connecticut Coalition for
Achievement Now, or ConnCan, which advocates for education reform and
charter schools, said picking someone like Pryor suggests Malloy is
serious about turning around the state's achievement gap.
"I'm encouraged," Johnston said. "He is someone who helped rebuild
ground zero despite complex political challenges, worked on
redevelopment in Newark and before that education," said Johnston.
Pryor graduated from Yale University and then Yale Law School. After he
helped found Amistad Academy, one of the state's first charter schools,
he went to work for Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of The Partnership
for NYC, where his job was to support public education, reform and
improvement.
"He was responsible for a major initiative called Breakthrough that was
all about bringing data-driven management and accountability to
schools," said Wylde.
She was not surprised when Pryor recently confided in her that he was
considering becoming Connecticut's education chief.
"Education has always been his first passion," said Wylde, who lent him
to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. after 9/11 to help with the
rebuilding effort. "All of our staff went from what we were doing on
9/10 to focusing on emergency response and rebuilding effort. Stefan
lived and worked 10 blocks from the site."
Pryor helped found ReStart Central, which provided donated and
discounted goods and services to 9/11-affected businesses. For
the past five years, he has been deputy mayor for economic development
in the city of Newark.
State tells 11 towns they must
increase education spending
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
August 31, 2011
Officials at the State Department of Education are notifying officials
in 11 cities and towns that they are in violation of state law setting
minimum spending requirements for education and that they must increase
their school appropriations for the current fiscal year."If they don't
comply soon then we will have to figure out what the next step is,"
said Brian Mahoney, the longtime chief financial officer for the SDE.
In order to receive state education funding grants, the law requires
school districts to spend at least as much each year than they did the
previous year. For the first time a significant number of districts
have submitted budget figures to the state that do not comply with the
minimum spending requirement.
"This is unprecedented. This has never happened before," said Mahoney.
He said in the nearly 30 years of the state imposing minimum spending
or appropriations requirements for districts, fewer then 10 incidents
have occurred of districts failing to meet the requirement.
"It must be the recession that's catching up with their budgets," said
Allan B. Taylor, chairman of the State Board of Education.
Taylor and Mahoney said the state will be forced to take action against
the non-complying districts if they don't increase their school
budgets. Possible options include legal action or withholding state
funding.
Mahoney has told districts that they have until Thursday to let the
department know what their plans are. He said he expects there will be
some districts that respond that they cannot resolve the issue locally
and need the state to step in.
One of those districts is likely to be Winchester, where town and
school officials are in a dispute over a $1.4 million gap in the
education budget.
"I must report that I do not expect that the Town will provide funding
at this required level," Superintendent Thomas M. Danehy wrote Mahoney
last week. Danehy accused the board of selectmen are offering
"fictitious savings" to justify not allocating more money for the
schools.
Selectwoman Lisa Smith said the board if not going to budge on the
issue.
"I just don't understand how giving them millions and millions of more
dollars is going to solve the problems facing education," she said. "I
am not willing to go back to the taxpayers and ask for more
money... It's a very frustrating position we are in."
Mayor Candy Perez, a local principal who supports giving the schools
more money, said the dispute is not going to be resolved without some
action by the state.
"When two sides are in a stalemate the state agency needs to
intervene," she said.
This tug-of-war for funding between town councils and school boards has
existed for years, but Bristol Superintendent Philip Streifer says the
recession is the "straw that finally broke the camel's back."
Bristol's school budget is $2.6 million short of the minimum
requirement. Streifer, who is also the head of the Connecticut
Association of Urban School Superintendents, says said he is hopeful
his town council will decided to fill the gap.
"They respect the law. They may not be happy with it, though," he said.
"School districts and towns are at loggerheads everywhere and we are
going to keep having these issues unless something changes."
David Medina, a spokesman for Hartford Public Schools, said the mayor's
office has informed the district that they intend to appropriate more
money for the schools so they are in compliance with the law.
The legislature did attempt to give towns and school districts some
relief this year by passing a law that allows them to cut spending if
enrollment declines under certain conditions. But the change only
applies to districts that have have met federal benchmarks under the
federal No Child Left Behind Law. Districts with high levels of poverty
were also restricted from cutting spending.
Without this change in law, seven of the 11 districts that are set to
spend less than the required amount would have been much further in the
hole. For example, Columbia's school budget is $159,000 short of the
minimum; without the new law, if would have been $275,000 below the
required appropriations.
About one-fifth of the state's school districts are spending the same
as last year. Sixteen of those 30 school districts were able to cut
their budgets below what they spent last year, but elected not to,
according to the SDE figures.
Wetlands remediation work at Weston
schools postponed until next summer
Weston FORUM
Written by Kimberly Donnelly
Wednesday, 24 August 2011 11:20
The town has been given permission to delay wetlands remediation at the
school campus until next summer when school is not in session. Full story here.
The next debt bubble: college loans
NYPOST
By NATHAN HARDEN
Last Updated: 12:11 AM, August 23, 2011
Posted: 10:58 PM, August 22, 2011
In the last few years, excessive borrowing has led to a housing-market
collapse -- and now, to Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the US
credit rating.
But America’s debt-fueled woes haven’t ended: The higher-education
industry may be the next bubble to burst.
Moody’s rating agency recently issued a report that should be a wake-up
call to every student now considering taking out large loans to pay for
college.
Total student debt is at an all-time high -- and may top $1 trillion
this year. Meanwhile, default rates are rising alarmingly. Skyrocketing
tuition, lax lending standards and high rates of unemployment have
created the perfect financial storm.
Some advice to college students: Learn from our government’s mistakes
and avoid borrowing your way into a hole.
Tuition costs have more than doubled since 2000, far outpacing the
inflation rate -- even surpassing the bubble-fueled growth in
real-estate prices.
Tighter lending standards for auto loans and mortgages have vastly
improved loan performance. Yet student-loan-default rates are getting
worse, not better.
For 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, the default
rate was 7 percent, up from 4.6 percent in 2005. Among students who
attend for-profit institutions, the default rate is nearly 12 percent.
Despite high default rates, lenders have had little incentive to
curtail the amount of money they loan to students because the federal
government guarantees most student loans. Yet, for borrowers, the
consequences of default are severe.
Unlike most debt, student loans are almost impossible to dispose of
through bankruptcy. If students fail to repay, their tax refunds can be
withheld and wages and Social Security payments can be garnished.
President Obama’s takeover of the student-loan industry last year means
the government no longer backs private loans, and most students now
borrow directly from the government. But unless the government improves
underwriting standards, we’ll have an ever-growing portfolio of bad
loans on the federal books, and all taxpayers will pay for it.
Financial advisers often refer to educational debt as “good debt”
because college graduates make far more on average than nongraduates.
But not all degrees provide an equal return on investment. A degree in
chemical engineering, for example, produces an average starting salary
of $64,500. Someone with a degree in culinary arts, however, can expect
to start out making less than $30,000 -- a salary they might get
without a degree. Yet despite such differences, the government
subsidizes loans as if all majors were equally valuable.
Another problem is that many students borrow money for college but
never finish, and so don’t reap the financial rewards of a degree. Of
those who enroll in college, more than 40 percent fail to complete
their degree within six years. Among minorities and the poor,
graduation rates are even lower.
Moody’s report expressed concern that many borrowers and lenders have
unrealistic expectations of borrowers’ future earnings. “Unless
students limit their debt burdens, choose fields of study that are in
demand and successfully complete their degrees on time, they will find
themselves in worse financial positions and unable to earn the
projected income that justified taking out their loans in the first
place,” the agency wrote.
Education has an intrinsic value beyond finding a good job and making
more money. But most students enter college expecting it to pay off
economically. Looking at the rising student-loan-default rate, it’s
hard not to conclude that, for many students, college is failing to
produce the returns they expected.
The job market, while tough for all, is even tougher for recent college
grads. A study showed that among 2010 graduates, only 56 percent had
managed to hold at least one job by this past spring. No wonder
defaults are on the rise.
In this troubled economy, students should look for ways to reduce their
borrowing, such as working a part-time job. Some may wish to lower
their costs by attending community colleges for the first two years.
Most should avoid for-profit colleges, where costs and default rates
tend to be higher. Finally, students should carefully assess the
marketability of their chosen course of study and the likelihood that
they’ll be able to finish their degree.
With no lift to the job market in sight, the financial consequences of
mishandling such decisions could be dire.
Malloy tells school superintendents
'We've got to do a better job'
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
August 17, 2011
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told school superintendents from across the state
Wednesday that he will tackle a host of education issues in 2012,
including a flawed school finance system, a seniority system that
protects bad teachers and the failure of many students to learn.
He also said the state Department of Education has to play a larger
role in improving education in the state.
"Education has such an important position on my list of priorities," he
told a roomful of superintendents and other education leaders in East
Hartford. "We got to check our presumptions [and] our assumptions at
the door."
The governor offered few specifics, but school leaders welcomed his
commitment.
"We have long waited for this. It's been a long time coming," said
Manchester Superintendent Kathleen Ouellette, who was recently selected
to become the superintendent of Waterbury Public Schools.
Several measures show the state is failing when it comes to education,
Malloy told the audience. They include the failure of one out of every
four students in several urban districts not graduating from high
school, minority students testing far behind their white classmates and
70 percent of students showing up to community colleges needing to take
remedial courses for things they should have learned in high school.
"I am not convinced we are properly preparing students," Malloy said.
While he spent just over 20 minutes telling the group what is wrong
with the system, what he didn't do was offer specifics on how exactly
he intends to change the status quo or who would be leading the State
Department of Education, which has not had a permanent commissioner
since December.
"I'm not here to be critical. I am here to focus," he said. "We've got
to do a better job."
Malloy said he is still shaping what specific initiatives he intends to
ask the legislature to approve. He also said he expects the next
education commissioner to be named in "a matter of weeks."
The changes he intends to make to how the state finances districts are
sure to be controversial however it plays out. With the likelihood that
the state will not be able to spend more on education anytime soon, his
budget director said Tuesday the state has to more fairly distribute
the $2.7 billion pot of money it does have for education.
"I apologize to you that I can't send a lot more money to your
districts," Malloy told the education leaders at Rentschler Field.
It's the specifics of that new financing formula that leaders are
waiting to see.
"The fact that he's promising to tread in new water and figure this out
once and for all is really refreshing," said Hartford's Superintendent
Christina Kishimoto.
How he intends to identify the bad teachers will also likely be
controversial. Education advocates for years have been calling on state
leaders to develop a teacher evaluation system to begin the process of
helping teachers improve and dismiss those that do not. Mary
Loftus-Levine, the head of the Connecticut Education Association, the
state's largest teachers union, said she agrees with the governor that
something needs to be done.
"We are also looking for a new system to evaluate teachers," she said,
adding she believes it's a small minority of teachers that are so bad
they should be shown the door. "The [districts] needs a rubric to
follow."
"Every teacher in every school in Connecticut can be proud of their
colleagues sitting next to them, or in the hallway next to them or in
the hallway down -- that should be our goal," Malloy said, reiterating
his previous statements that seniority should not be the only thing
looked at when districts lay off teachers.
Kishimoto, whose district has been unsuccessful in getting the State
Board of Education to allow it to circumvent seniority rules in teacher
layoffs, said she's eager for change.
"The current approach is not grounded around quality assessment," she
said. "I hope [Malloy] follows through."
Maryland teachers union balks at
pension cost change
By David Hill, The Washington Times
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Maryland's teachers union is resisting state lawmakers' efforts to trim
an anticipated $1.1 billion budget gap by sharing teacher pension costs
with counties. A state-appointed commission has recommended
Maryland begin splitting the cost of nearly $1 billion in annual
teacher pension benefits with its 23 counties and Baltimore, to help
close the state's structural deficit during next year's legislative
session Yearly pension payouts to Maryland teachers have
essentially tripled in the past 10 years as salaries have increased and
more teachers have retired, and represent nearly two-thirds of the
state's annual $1.5 billion in total pension costs.
Maryland is one of just three states that pay teacher benefits without
help from counties, though hiring and salaries are determined on the
county level. While the commission and many legislators say a
50-50 sharing of costs is long overdue, unions and local governments
argue it could yield disastrous results for many already cash-strapped
school systems.
"Shifting costs to local boards of education is really tantamount to a
huge cut in education funding," said Adam Mendelson, spokesman for the
Maryland State Education Association, which represents more than 71,000
school employees and is the state's largest union. "There would be a
tremendous impact on the quality of education."
Cost sharing has become a hot topic in Annapolis in recent years, as
legislators look to fix an underfunded state pension system that has
been wracked by underperforming investments and salary and benefits
increases. Legislators during this year's General Assembly
considered shifting as much as half the costs of teacher pensions to
counties, but met stiff opposition from state and local teachers unions
that staged several protest rallies and predicted the plan would force
jurisdictions to increase class sizes, cut programs and lay off as many
as 2,800 employees, Mr. Mendelson said.
Counties currently pay retired teachers' Social Security benefits,
which Mr. Mendelson said makes up about one-third of their total
benefits. The unions eventually won out, with the Assembly taking
the less drastic steps of shifting $17 million in administrative costs
to counties, raising the early-retirement age from 55 to 60 and
requiring many employees to pay higher contribution rates. Cost
sharing is sure to come up again in next year's session, and could even
be considered as early this fall, in a special redistricting session,
some legislators say.
The state-appointed Public Employees' and Retirees' Benefit
Sustainability Commission recommended in a July report that legislators
work as soon as possible toward evenly splitting costs with counties —
a move that committee Chairman Casper R. Taylor Jr. characterized as
necessary and inevitable.
"Before the budget deficits became a huge, major issue, it was still
always a concern simply because the body that sets the salary level
hasn't been required to pay the bill," said Mr. Taylor, who was House
speaker from 1994 to 2003 and served in the chamber as an Allegany
Democrat from 1975 to 2003.
"That, on itself, is a mistake," he said, adding that he'd like to see
legislators phase in an even split over two or three years. The
MSEA criticized several of the commission's recommendations, including
that the state look into a hybrid pension plan in which employees would
be partially on the hook if investments underperform.
Senate Majority Leader Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Prince George's
Democrat and vocal cost-sharing supporter, has said he believes cost
sharing has majority support in the Senate but could be in for a tough
battle in the House. He said during last session that
less-tenured legislators could be reluctant to go against the will of
education proponents and a union, ardently supporters of Democrats in a
majority Democratic state.
Delegate Melony G. Griffith, a Prince George's Democrat who serves on
the House Appropriations Committee, downplayed any potential loss of
union support in the next election cycle, saying this year's changes to
the pension system have helped cut costs in the short term and that
discussions about cost sharing are "a little premature."
"What the educators want to ensure is that the commitments that are
made to teachers are lived up to," said Miss Griffith, House chairman
of the Assembly's Special Joint Committee on Pensions. "Clearly, the
conversation will continue, but it is a different conversation than it
was a year ago."
© Copyright 2011 The Washington
Times, LLC.
Arne Duncan’s NCLB Overreach
National Review editorial
August 11, 2011 4:00 A.M.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently announced that he will
offer a waiver to the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to
any state that wants one — so long as the state agrees to enact the
Obama administration’s preferred education reforms.
This is an overreach. No Child Left Behind gives the secretary a broad
authority to grant waivers, but Duncan is essentially using that
authority to create a whole new policy. If the administration wants to
encourage states to adopt specific reforms that are not prescribed in
existing law, it should encourage Congress to pass legislation to that
effect, not just make the decision itself. This move is of a piece with
the administration’s other attempts to legislate by fiat, including the
Environmental Protection Agency’s move to regulate carbon dioxide as a
pollutant.
But the deeper problem here is NCLB itself — the ridiculous assumptions
of which nearly justify Duncan’s actions. The 2001 law mandates that
all American schoolchildren be “proficient” in reading and math by
2014; whenever a school fails to make adequate progress toward that
goal, it runs a risk of losing federal funding. Needless to say, thanks
to a wide variety of factors, not all children are capable of becoming
academically proficient — so the law punishes schools for failing to do
the impossible.
The drafters of the legislation, and President Bush, who signed it,
were perfectly aware that they were making unreasonable demands. We
know this because they built escape routes into the law. In addition to
giving the secretary of education the right to waive the requirements,
NCLB allowed each state to define “proficient” however it wanted. Not
surprisingly, massive fraud resulted: To simulate improvement, states
made their “proficiency” tests progressively easier. In many states,
student scores improved on NCLB tests, but not on other standardized
measures of achievement.
However, there are limits to states’ ability and willingness to fudge
the data, and the 2014 deadline — at which point tests will have to be
so easy that all students pass them — is approaching. It’s clear that a
change is needed, and Congress has thus far failed to pass new
legislation.
If the federal government got out of education entirely, we wouldn’t
face problems such as this one. But at the very least, legislators
should take the reins back from the administration — and base their
funding requirements on plausible assumptions this time.
Duncan scolds Congress, announces
bypass plan
By Ben Wolfgang, The Washington Times
3:01 p.m., Monday, August 8, 2011
Education Secretary Arne Duncan had harsh words for Congress on Monday,
calling it "dysfunctional" and announcing plans to bypass lawmakers and
institute sweeping education reform through a waiver system for states.
Despite repeated calls from President Obama to pass a comprehensive
overhaul to the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act before the next school
year, Congress has been unable to do.
The inaction is especially apparent in the Senate, where Sen. Tom
Harkin, Iowa Democrat and chairman of the committee which oversees
education policy, continues to push back his own timetable for
introducing a reform bill.
"We can't sit here in Washington and turn a deaf ear to what's going on
around the country," Mr. Duncan said during a press conference at the
White House. "Right now Congress is pretty dysfunctional. They're not
getting stuff done."
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has made some
progress, passing the first three bills in a five-step process out of
committee. They await votes on the House floor.
Earlier this year, Mr. Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he'd introduce a bill by
the spring. Two weeks ago during an Appropriations subcommittee
hearing, he said he hopes to introduce the bill "this year."
The lack of progress has clearly frustrated the administration and
education specialists, who criticize NCLB for its high-stakes testing
and what they call its unrealistic expectations.
The Education Department's waiver system — the details of which will be
announced sometime next month — will free states from many NCLB
mandates, including the "failing" school designation, if those states
demonstrate real reform and a high bar for student achievement.
Mr. Duncan said he hopes all 50 states will apply.
© Copyright 2011 The Washington
Times, LLC.


Acting Commissioner of Education George Coleman (l); Mayor Bill Finch (r. second from right)
Bridgeport schools case heads to Conn.
high court
Greenwich TIME
Published 11:20 a.m., Sunday, October 16, 2011
HARTFORD (AP) -- The dispute over whether Connecticut education
officials acted properly when they swept out Bridgeport's elected
school board is heading to the state Supreme Court.
Justices are scheduled to hear arguments Oct. 27 in the case, in which
some parents and former board members challenge the validity of a 2007
state law allowing the takeover.
Connecticut's state Department of Education removed the elected board
members this summer amid budget stalemates and other problems. They
were replaced with appointees under terms of a law that lets state
officials intervene when students' academic performance is in dire need
of improvement.
The takeover provision hadn't been used before.
The parents and other Bridgeport residents argue the sate's actions
deprived them of their right to be represented by people who were
legally elected.
Board
of Education case is continued
CT POST
Daniel Tepfer, Staff writer
Published 03:25 p.m., Tuesday, August 16, 2011
BRIDGEPORT -- There were 19 lawyers and one judge but after two and a
half hours of discussion Tuesday the only thing that apparently was
clear is that the board of education takeover case is a complicated
situation.
Waterbury Superior Court Judge Salvatore Agati continued the hearing to
Friday morning hoping the lawyers would work out a number of
"procedural" matters by then.
There are four separate lawsuits seeking to block the state from taking
over the city's school system; a lawsuit from parents of school
children, a suit from members of the city's board of education who had
opposed the takeover, and lawsuits from Democratic mayoral candidate
Mary-Jane Foster and several people who had intended to run for
positions on the city's board of education.
The Foster slate lawsuit claimed the takeover is a violation of the
U.S. Constitution and that resulted in their suit going to federal
court, a move they are now trying to retract so that their case can be
heard by Agati.
In addition, Norm Pattis, the lawyer for the opposition board members,
wants members of the new state-appointed board of education for the
city added to the case as defendants.
Then there is the Democratic and Republican town committees'
applications to join the case.
There are also claims that at least one of the lawsuits wasn't served
properly.
And Josephine Smalls Miller is waiting to find out whether her lawsuit
on behalf of the parents of Dunbar School children will even make it to
the next stage or be thrown out by the judge for lack of standing.
Outside interests were working behind
the scenes to reconstitute school board
CT POST
Linda Conner Lambeck, Staff Writer
Updated 08:28 a.m., Thursday, August 4, 2011
HARTFORD -- A consultant for a Greenwich billionaire interested
in education reform was advocating behind the scenes for charter
changes that would give the mayor control of the Bridgeport school
board at the same time that local and city officials were also looking
to reconstitute the board, email correspondence released to Hearst
Connecticut Newspapers revealed.
Meghan Lowney, of Fairfield, who works for hedge fund philanthropist
Steve Mandel, tried first to find a way to create a mayor-controlled
school board through a charter change and then to get the board
reconstituted.
Numerous email exchanges between Lowney and State Board of Education
Chairman Allan Taylor detail an ongoing lobbying effort that she
repeatedly asked be kept confidential. Lowney and Taylor were
introduced, via email, by Alex Johnston, director Connecticut Coalition
for Achievement Now, or ConnCan, of New Haven on Jan. 11.
In the emails, Lowney tells Taylor she is part of a small group
strategizing a Bridgeport charter revision campaign that would result
in mayoral control of the schools. They were hoping to turn it around
in time for the November 2011 election. She called the Bridgeport
Partnership for Student Success a new community-based education reform
coalition gaining momentum.
On Wednesday, Lowney said her efforts were not on behalf of the
partnership, or any other group.
"In the last few months I've talked with Mayor (Bill) Finch and others
about the possibilities for private support for the Bridgeport public
schools," she said. "Just as in other challenged urban districts ...
private-public partnerships can fuel innovations and system
transformations."
In emails to Taylor, Lowney tells him that Mandel, founder of Lone Pine
Capital in Greenwich, along with his wife, was interested in making
meaningful school change in Bridgeport. They did not think accelerated
change could take place under the current school board, which by most
counts was deemed dysfunctional.
The emails were released to Hearst Connecticut Newspapers by the state
Department of Education after a Freedom of Information request was
filed. The emails between Taylor, Acting Commissioner of Education
George Coleman, members of the department's legal staff and local
officials chronicle efforts to get a resolution to reconstitute the
school board on a state board agenda for months -- first in February,
then March, before the effort to reconstitute the school board became
public on July 6, when the state board voted 5-4 to allow Coleman to
replace the board following a vote by the school board, 6-3, to
dissolve itself.
Some of Lowney's emails to Taylor list examples of the board
dysfunction. She tells him in April she is working behind the scenes to
support a request for state intervention. When the Bridgeport school
board, faced with a $17-million shortfall, failed to pass a budget on
June 16, Lowney writes Taylor the next day to tell him time is running
out. She asks him how far in advance of a state board meeting must an
item be placed on an agenda. She also tells him she'd like to talk to
him and Coleman about support she's organized in the private sector.
"Should the state (Department of Education) act to intervene, there is
excellent private partnership to be activated," she wrote.
Taylor said Wednesday he had no idea what Lowney's role was in the
Bridgeport situation, but that she contacted him, and he counseled her.
"When people want to know how to do something, if I can tell them, I
do. It doesn't mean I am going to agree with them," said Taylor. He
doesn't think his exchanges in any way compromised his ability to vote
on the matter.
Lowney said Wednesday her efforts to reach out to Taylor were to become
informed about and to support opportunities for meaningful system
change. Lowney, of Fairfield, said for too long Bridgeport children
have been denied the opportunity for an education that prepares them
for success -- despite the efforts of many talented teachers and
leaders, and the advocacy of caring parents.
The emails suggest that as early as January, the Bridgeport situation
was being discussed with local city officials -- both Schools
Superintendent John Ramos and Finch's office.
"My conversations with John Ramos indicate ... the mayor regards the
situation as being near crisis," Coleman writes to Taylor in a Jan. 28
email.
There were discussions between Coleman and his staff about whether the
board had sufficient training as is required by the reconstituted law.
The lack of training is an argument raised in one of the lawsuits filed
against board reconstitution.
Coleman's staff also discussed if there was evidence school board
rancor was hurting student achievement. His staff couldn't establish a
link. Taylor suggests the question perhaps should be if the board is
doing anything to improve student achievement.
On Feb. 22, Coleman emails Taylor to tell him he spoke with Ramos, who
wants to get a reconstitution resolution on the March agenda of the
state board. Coleman tells Ramos it would be beneficial if in the
resolution most board members declare they have availed themselves of
training as required under the law. Until the weekend of July 4, three
members of the school board -- along with the public -- were unaware of
any discussions taking place.
Who will be on the new state appointed board is still under review.
Coleman told the state education board Wednesday he is pleased with
having more than 50 applicants and is encouraged by the talent pool. He
said prospective board members come from as far away as Hartford and
New Haven. He won't say when the selections will be made and indicated
he might be open to picking more than five members. "The quality of
talent leads me to consider more than five if we can get more than that
to commit to doing this difficult work that has to be accomplished. My
mind is open until I have to make the decision," he said.
He said he is looking for the best individuals to do the job and is not
concentrating on groups they are affiliated with. Despite a recent
lawsuit, Coleman said he is continuing to move forward.
City will argue injunction preventing
school board takeover should be thrown out
CT POST
Published 11:08 a.m., Thursday, July 21, 2011
BRIDGEPORT -- A group of city parents rallied outside of Superior Court
Thursday morning in an effort to prevent a restructuring of the city's
Board of Education by the state. The parents, joined at a press
conference by Connecticut Parents Union president Gwen Samuel, pleaded
their case prior to a hearing in front of a judge who the parents hope
will impose an injunction stopping the proposed takeover. The
injunction request was tacked on as an amendment to a previous request
filed by parents in order to prevent the Dunbar School from closing.
But city officials have since said the Dunbar School will not close --
bringing the fate of the injunction into question.
At the hearing, Superior Court judge Barbara Bellis continued the case
until Aug. 15, at which point Associate City Attorney Russell Liskov
will argue the case should be dismissed because the Dunbar School -- at
the center of the initial injunction -- is no longer a target for
closure. Karen Johnson, a parent at Cesar Batella School,
criticized
both city parents for their lack of involvement and Mayor Bill Finch
for comments Finch made earlier this month to the state Board of
Education.
"There's no support," Johnson said. "It's very difficult when the mayor
goes to state Board of Education and tells them that the majority of
parents in Bridgeport can't vote because they have criminal records."
Finch's comments, made at a hearing in Hartford, have generated
criticism from parents and political rivals.
Speaking in support of a schools takeover by the state earlier this
month, Finch told state Board of Education officials concerned about
the disenfranchisement of voters that doing away with the BOE election
wasn't a "great loss" because few people vote in Bridgeport.
He added that many parents can't vote because of their citizenship
status or due to "having done things in a previous life."
"I just do want to remind you that ... many of my parents who either
because of them not being citizens or having done things in their
previous life cannot participate in the Democratic process," the mayor
said at the hearing. "Democracy doesn't work. It doesn't work in all
cases."
Johnson, who is not named in the lawsuit but said she came to the
hearing to support it, also criticized parents for being willfully
ignorant about issues in the city's school system. "The main problem
is, enough parents aren't involved," she said.
Johnson said she hopes the judge will rule that the state and city have
to listen to parents and consider other options of how to deal with the
school system. The parents said they realize there are major
issues
that need to be dealt with, but they said the restructuring of the
school board by the state, and thereby taking away the parent's voice,
is the wrong move. The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Shavonne Davis,
a
mother of five children who attend Dunbar School, said she wanted the
parent's to be heard.
"We have a voice and it will be heard," said Davis in front of cameras
from multiple telvision stations. "It's sad that it had to reach this
point for us to be heard."
Davis said many people in the past died so that there could be the
right to vote in this country and said they would not be happy if they
saw what was happening in Bridgeport.
"We have the right to vote and our votes are being taken away from us,"
Davis said.
Fifty people interesting in serving on
revamped Bridgeport school board
CT POST
Linda Conner Lambeck, Staff Writer
Updated 07:10 a.m., Thursday, July 21, 2011
BRIDGEPORT -- More than 50 people have indicated a desire to sit on the
reconstituted Bridgeport Board of Education, state officials said
Wednesday.
The applicants represent a wide range of ethnic and racial backgrounds
and live both within and outside the city school district, said Mark
Linabury, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.
Linabury said he could not be any more specific about the number of
applicants and who applied. He did say some of the applicants are
individuals whom acting Commissioner of Education George Coleman asked
to apply.
In a cursory initial review, Linabury said, Coleman is impressed by the
range of talents the applicants bring to the table both from within the
city and the surrounding towns. Some of the applications came by email,
others through the U.S. Postal Service.
The list is expected to be paired to about eight to 10 candidates in
the short term. Those individuals will be brought in for interviews.
Coleman was away at a educators conference until Wednesday. Last week,
he indicated that the decision as to who would be on the new
five-member panel would be his and no one else's.
The new panel will replace a nine-member board that voted 6-3 on July 5
to ask the state to replace it. The very next day, the state Board of
Education voted 5-4 to grant the request. The unprecedented step was
made possible by a year-old law that allows for state intervention into
school districts with chronically failing schools.
The state's action is being challenged in court.
At 9 a.m. Thursday, the Bridgeport Superior Court will hear oral
arguments regarding an amended injunction filed against the City of
Bridgeport and the state Department of Education that challenges the
state's authority to replace the elected board with one appointed by
the commissioner. The law requires the board to receive training before
being reconstituted. The injunction, filed on behalf of Shavonne Davis,
a parent, and Laurayne Farrar-James, a community activist, argues that
the required training did not occur.
The injunction asks for a temporary restraining order. It also argues
that the state Department of Education acted beyond its statutory
authority and is depriving city residents of the right to vote for
school board members of their choosing.
Takeover
Is About More Than Bridgeport
Malloy Must Address Real Problem:
Suburban Kids Learn, Poor Kids Fail
The Hartford Courant5
Rick Green
July 7, 2011
Bridgeport's forlorn plea for a state takeover of its schools isn't
about another dysfunctional school board. It's about our abject failure
to deal with the problem that, year in, year out, never fails to go
away.
Suburban kids learn. Poor kids fail. It's a problem we won't, or can't,
fix. Is it any surprise that an inept school board devolves into a
squabbling mess?
One fourth-grader in four in Bridgeport reaches state goals for
reading. The number is about the same — or worse — in Hartford, New
Britain and New London. It's only slightly better in New Haven. All
this has barely changed in decades of hand-wringing, commissions and
studies.
No company or college wants graduates like this. We are talking tens of
thousands of young people.
This is about Gov. Dannel P. Malloy deciding to make our greatest
shame, the failure of city schools, his priority. Whether Malloy takes
the lead here will tell us much about the success of his administration
and the growth of Connecticut's economy. His office, not surprisingly,
has been discussing the proposed takeover with Bridgeport officials for
months.
The future of our state very much depends on whether cities like
Bridgeport and its 20,000 students figure out a way to succeed. Because
if it's not Bridgeport, it's New Britain or East Hartford, New Haven
and Hartford. This is where our future workforce is coming from.
Cynics tell me the real problem is the raw material — poor children
from dysfunctional families arrive in kindergarten years behind their
counterparts. It certainly is. But I'd rather look to the striking
success of the Achievement First schools in Hartford and New Haven and
other public school programs for a glimpse of what can happen.
At least Hartford and New Haven have a clear schools strategy and
strong leadership. Malloy, who showed no reluctance to jump in and pick
a favorite in the Hartford mayoral primary last week, must provide the
muscle to make sure Bridgeport also gets on track.
"He is not afraid to tackle big problems,'' Malloy's adviser, Roy
Occhiogrosso, assured me. "Bridgeport has thrown up its hands and said,
'We can't do this.' "
Unfortunately for Malloy, this sticky mess comes at the wrong time and
long before his promised legislative session devoted to education
reform next year. He doesn't even have a permanent commissioner for the
agency that will assist the Bridgeport schools, the state Department of
Education. That department is facing a 20 percent cut in staff.
At the meeting Tuesday night where the Bridgeport board voted to ask
for state intervention, a lot of folks in the audience of a couple
hundred were slamming Mayor Bill Finch, who has little control over
city schools and nothing to gain through his support of a takeover just
90 days before a tough primary.
"This is a state of the suburbs, by
the suburbs and for the suburbs,'' Finch told me Wednesday before
heading into a State Board of Education meeting where a takeover was
approved by a 5-4 vote. "That leaves mayors to run quarantine zones for
poverty."
Finch wisely thinks Bridgeport ought to be open to a range of
solutions: more public school choice for parents, more charter schools,
hiring better-trained teachers, and even private school vouchers for
children trapped in persistently failing schools.
To make change, Bridgeport will need a strong new leader to replace its
underwhelming superintendent of schools, John Ramos, who didn't even
attend the board meeting this week where members voted 6-3 to ask for
state control. Eventually, the city will probably need an appointed
board of education that gives the mayor real authority.
And Bridgeport, which receives thousands of dollars less per pupil than
Hartford, will also need more money.
At the top of the list to temporarily take charge in Bridgeport is
Steve Adamowski, the highly regarded former superintendent in Hartford.
Adamowski isn't perfect (teacher unions loathe him) but he would bring
strong leadership, direction and immediately restore confidence of
parents and taxpayers.
Just remember, this isn't merely about Bridgeport. It's about whether
there is someone in all of Connecticut's government who can step up and
finally make sure we address the problems of urban education. We're
waiting, governor.
Copyright © 2011, The Hartford
Courant
After
slow start, applications for top
education post begin flowing in
CT MIRROR
Jacqueline Rabe
1 July 2011
After a slow start, State Board of Education Chairman Allan Taylor said
the extended deadline to apply for the state's top education job has
paid off and a wave of people have since applied.
"I kinda lost track of how many people applied," he said Friday. "All I
know is I am very happy with the pool of candidates."
The deadline to apply was Thursday and the State Board of Education
committee responsible for recommending a name to the governor to fill
the vacant job will meet next Wednesday. Taylor said there will not be
another extension and interviews of the finalists will begin shortly
after Wednesday's meeting.
Taylor had originally said the finalists would be revealed to the
media, but has since decided against that after candidates signaled
they did not want their names released if they did win the nomination.
Taylor said he is hopeful a new education commissioner will be in
office before the start of the upcoming school year.

FLOOD PLUS LEAN TIMES = DO IT YOURSELF READING?
Mary had a little lamb, his fleece was white as snow. Everywhere
that Mary went to escape the flood, he
went, too.
Tied to
enrollment
In Lean Times, Schools Squeeze Out
Librarians
NYTIMES
By FERNANDA SANTOS
June 24, 2011
Budget belt-tightening threatens to send school librarians the way of
the card catalog.
The schools superintendent in Lancaster, Pa., said he had to eliminate
15 of the district’s 20 librarians to save full-day kindergarten
classes.
In the Salem-Keizer school district in Oregon, all 48 elementary and
middle school librarians would lose their jobs under a budget proposal
that faces a vote next week.
In Illinois’s School District 90, which spans several rural and
suburban communities in the southern part of the state, parent
volunteers have been running the libraries in the district’s seven
schools since September, in what the schools superintendent, Todd
Koehl, described as “a last-ditch effort” to avoid closing their doors.
And in New York City, half of the secondary schools appear to be in
violation of a state regulation requiring them to have a librarian on
staff, with the city currently employing 365 licensed librarians.
“The dilemma that schools will face is whether to cut a teacher who has
been working with kids all day long in a classroom or cut teachers who
are working in a support capacity, like librarians,” the city’s chief
academic officer, Shael Polakow-Suransky, said in an interview.
In New York, as in districts across the country, many school officials
said they had little choice but to eliminate librarians, having already
reduced administrative staff, frozen wages, shed extracurricular
activities and trimmed spending on supplies. Technological advances are
also changing some officials’ view of librarians: as more classrooms
are equipped with laptops, tablets or e-readers, Mr. Polakow-Suransky
noted, students can often do research from their desks that previously
might have required a library visit.
“It’s the way of the future,” he said.
Nancy Everhart, president of the American Association of School
Librarians, whose membership has fallen to 8,000 from 10,000 in 2006,
said that, on the contrary, the Internet age made trained librarians
more important, to guide students through the basics of searching and
analyzing information they find online.
Libraries, Ms. Everhart said, are “the one place that every kid in the
school can go to to learn the types of skills that will be expected of
them when it’s time to work with an iPad in class.”
Some states, including Arkansas, Indiana and Kentucky, require every
public school to employ a certified librarian; others, like Maine,
leave staffing decisions to districts. New York requires certified
librarians in middle and high schools but not elementary schools, and
also requires a certified library assistant for any school that has
more than 1,000 students.
But an analysis of state and city data shows there is one librarian for
every 2,146 students this year, compared with 1 per 1,447 in 2005. At
least 386 schools serving students from grades 6 through 12 do not have
a librarian on staff, the records show. A spokesman for the Education
Department said some of those schools shared librarians, though he
could not say how many.
Separately, Mr. Polakow-Suransky said that once principals received
their individual school budgets for the coming year, “we will work with
them to ensure compliance with the state’s regulations.” He noted that
schools “need great flexibility to staff them in these tough times.”
Schools around the city have already been flexible: in addition to
sharing librarians, some classroom teachers, particularly in elementary
schools, have been trained to stand in for librarians. But there are
also libraries sitting unused for lack of someone to staff them.
At a squat brick building on Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights,
Brooklyn, parents at the elementary and middle schools that share the
space banded together a few years ago to improve the library, whose
books were so outdated that some still referred to the Soviet Union
without reporting its demise. They convinced the Brooklyn borough
president and the local councilwoman to provide $450,000 for the
project. One parent, an interior designer, helped sketch the plans and
supervised the renovation.
The new library opened on Nov. 17, with nine new computers and 4,200
titles, but has been used only as a reading space, mostly by
kindergarten teachers who bring in their pupils once a week.
“We just put all this money into a project that may never be fully
utilized,” said Kiki Dennis, 43, the designer.
The problem is that shortly after the library’s completion, the city
announced plans to close the building’s Middle School 571 by 2013,
prompting a drop in enrollment that officials expect to worsen in the
fall
Because school budgets are largely tied to enrollment, the principal
decided she could no longer afford to pay half the salary of a
librarian, who earns about $70,000. The principal of the elementary
school, Public School 9, decided she could not pay the salary alone,
and so no librarian was hired.
At the Morris High School campus in the Morrisania section of the
Bronx, where five schools — with a total of 1,900 students — share
space, the central library has been closed all year because it has no
librarian. At the John F. Kennedy High School campus, in the
Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, the lack of a certified librarian was
only part of the problem: the principal of one of the six high schools
that share the building said the books there were too outdated to be
usable.
The principals, with the help of New Visions for Public Schools, which
will run two charter schools scheduled to open on the Kennedy campus
this fall, submitted a request to Councilman G. Oliver Koppell for $1.8
million to create a media center equipped with e-readers, iPads and a
language lab for students not proficient in English. Mr. Koppell sought
$600,000 for the project in the budget, which must be approved by
Thursday. Whether the request will be granted is uncertain.
But Mr. Polakow-Suransky said he understood that in tight times,
principals had to make stark choices — as do their counterparts
elsewhere.
Pedro Rivera, the Lancaster superintendent, said that when he realized
a few months ago that his largely poor and immigrant district faced a
$10 million deficit, he gathered his senior staff members and asked,
“If this budget is an expression of our values, what is it that we
value the most?”
The team decided to limit class sizes. They made sure there would be no
cuts to physical education — “to prevent obesity and promote a healthy
lifestyle,” Mr. Rivera said — or arts or music. And they protected
prekindergarten classes.
Given what was left, he said, “it was either library or kindergarten.”
Robert Gebeloff contributed reporting.

Latest in the
continuing story about the budget...
Ramos urges new path in difficult budget process
CT POST
Linda Conner Lambeck, Staff Writer
Updated 08:29 a.m., Friday, June 17, 2011
BRIDGEPORT -- Dunbar School will not close. More than 400 school
employees will not lose their jobs. Students in city schools won't lose
their guidance counselors, gifted program or social workers. For now.
In a move that even brought his sharpest critics to their feet, Schools
Superintendent John Ramos Thursday convinced the Board of Education to
not pass a $215.8 million budget that he called shameful and simply not
enough to educate children in the state's largest city.
"This whole process has caused me to look at my roots," Ramos said.
He acknowledged the tipping point was a unilateral move by Mayor Bill
Finch on Thursday to announce an agreement with AFSCME Local 1522, a
union made up largely of school aides, clerical staff and special
education bus drivers, to pay more for health insurance in exchange for
job security. The agreement was reached without school board knowledge.
Finch hailed the action as a plus to the city, since he plans to
transfer the benefit cost savings to the school district.
Ramos said the district would force the district $4 million further
into a budget hole, which is already $19 million deep. School and city
officials agree the benefits would save about $600,000, but school
officials say keeping employees they planned to cut as a budget-cutting
move would have meant restoring more than $4.8 million between the
general and grants account.
The board for the past three weeks has been wrestling with fitting $233
million worth of needs into the $215.8 million it has received for the
fourth straight year. After a week of painful public hearings on the
damage the cuts would cause, the board's Finance Committee was prepared
to recommend a reconciliation plan that would have increased class
sizes to 29 students, and cut nearly every area of the school system.
Even with all that, the district was still $1.5 million short -- before
the city created an inability for the district to lay off 110 AFSCME
workers.
Ramos said the deal forced him to reconsider his position on the budget.
"This budget reconciliation plan is simply not good for children,"
Ramos said. "The largest city in Connecticut, the state with the
largest achievement gap in the nation, cannot provide an equitable
education for its children based on this budget. We cannot do it."
He recommended the board authorize him to file a complaint with the
state specifying the district's inability to educate children
equitably, given the reconciliation budget. He proposed to continue
working with the city and union officials to secure more money, and
with parents and the community to have their collective voices heard.
All three proposals passed unanimously.
A fourth proposal, to run the system as is, until at least Oct. 15,
passed on an 8-to-1 vote with board member Thomas Mulligan voting no,
to a large cheer from a packed audience. Ramos said he wasn't
grandstanding but doing what he thinks it's right.
"If we do anything but what I am proposing, we are setting ourselves up
for everyone else to just go away," he said.
Ramos acknowledged that at a certain point, cuts must be made if
additional funds aren't found. Otherwise, he and the board will be
personally liable.
Finch, in a statement released by his office, offered his continued
assistance, including the support of his top labor advisers and budget
experts to help the district address its very serious budget issues.
Ramos welcomed the help.
Board member Sauda Baraka said regardless, the city needs to cough up
the cash for the AFSCME workers that it is dictating remain on staff.
She also wants the board to continue working on the budget.
Ramos agreed and said his thoughts about closing Dunbar changed when he
learned the state authorized $8.8 million be spent to renovate the
school.
Compromise will
allow some towns to cut spending on education
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
May 19, 2011
Legislation that would allow communities in which student populations
have declined markedly to cut school funding appears likely to pass
this year--but some hard-pressed cities and towns won't be eligible.
Rep. Andy Fleischmann, the co-chairman of the Education Committee, said
legislative leaders and the Malloy Administration have agreed on a
measure that would allow municipalities to cut education spending--but
only if they have had "sizable" reductions in the student population,
and only if their schools reach federal education benchmarks.
"We don't want to make massive reductions possible," Fleischmann said.
Towns are currently required to spend at least as much on education as
they spent the previous year in order to qualify for state education
aid. Local officials have complained for years that the requirement is
an unfair burden.
"Town government has no say how much they spend. This disenfranchises
town's democracy," said James Finley, executive director of Connecticut
Council of Municipalities.
The original proposal, backed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, would have
allowed all municipalities to cut education spending when school
enrollment drops. The compromise, Fleischmann said, will only allow
districts that make Adequate Yearly Progress under the federal No Child
Left Behind law to cut their spending.
Last school year 33 school districts did not make AYP, including the
state's largest cities and many inner-ring suburbs.
"If there's a district that has been performing well, I would like to
allow them to reduce their budget. That's rational," said Fleischmann.
Municipal and school officials alike were dissatisfied with the
compromise.
"We are somewhat disappointed by this. We were hoping there would be
more significant relief in the end," Finley said. "It remains to be
seen how effective this will be."
Joseph Cirasuolo, executive director of the Connecticut Association of
Public School Superintendents, said it doesn't make sense to allow
districts that meet AYP requirements to cut spending.
"How much longer do you think they will reach those goals if their
budgets are cut? That's a very questionable public policy," he said.
Abbey Dolliver, the superintendent of Norwich Public Schools, stood to
lose more than $400,000 the upcoming school year under the original
proposal. But her district has did not make AYP last year, so town
officials will not be able to cut her budget.
"I will take it, but what happens when we make that [goal]? It's like
you are being punished for being good," she said. "As soon as you make
progress and get to where you need to be resources can be taken from
us. Any resources being taken away is going to be very detrimental.
Falling
enrollment could cost schools $18M under Malloy plan
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
April 15, 2011 (we just noticed this today - and did the research to
find the number of the bill, etc.)
Proposed legislation allowing cities and towns to cut their school
spending when enrollment drops--part of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's
education funding package--could reduce the collective local school
budgets by more than $18 million, the head of a superintendents' group
says.
"We're talking major teacher layoffs if this is approved," said Joseph
Cirasuolo, head of the Connecticut Association of Public School
Superintendents. "Those dollar amounts are tough to accommodate."
A district-by-district list of potential cuts, circulated by Cirasuolo
to local superintendents, has 20 districts losing more than $300,000 a
year if members of the General Assembly approve Malloy's plan. Those
districts are responsible for teaching almost one-quarter of the
state's public school students.
The bill -- approved unanimously by members of the Education Committee
last month -- would allow municipal leaders to cut the amount they
spend on education when their student enrollment declines.
"We just think this makes sense," said Jim Finley, executive director
of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. "We just think in
these tough times, if there are ways to decrease spending then towns
should be able to see some of those savings."
This proposal could certainly intensify the tug-of-war towns and local
school boards face when determining how much of the budget will go to
pay for education. Almost 70 percent of municipal spending currently
goes to pay for education, according to CCM. And because tows are
forbidden by current state law to cut school allocations, even if fewer
students attend, that percentage is unlikely to dwindle.
"State leaders, in an effort to make themselves feel good for not fully
funding their share of education, have this requirement that towns
spend a certain amount," Finley said.
Malloy, a former mayor of Stamford, wants to change that and give town
the opportunity to cut the amount they spend on education. Stamford
Public Schools would not lose money under his proposal because
enrollment actually has increased, making it one of 42 districts immune
from cuts under his proposal.
But school officials in districts that could lose money are concerned.
Abby Dolliver, the superintendent of Norwich Public Schools, is one of
them.
"We are the poster child," she said. Year after year, her district has
barely met the minimum state budget requirements. "This could be
devastating... I think the city [leaders] would like the ability to
lower funding because in years that they didn't have the money then
they could just cut."
She said the $403,000 her schools would be at risk of losing would mean
she may have to fire eight more teachers. Her district has had laid off
almost 70 teachers and staff over the last two years.
"Right now we have pretty much just what's mandated... We don't have
books to cut anymore. We don't have any more programs to cut. And we
don't have any more federal [stimulus] dollars," she said.
Hartford Public Schools would be vulnerable to losing the most, the
according to the CAPPS report. City schools have lost 589 students,
which means the city council and mayor could cut their budget by $1.8
million.
Ben Barnes, Malloy's budget director, said he expects this change to
have a "minimal impact" on school budgets.
"I don't expect they'll see enormous declines," he said, noting that
only a handful of cities only spend the minimum amount required.
Leaders of those cities -- which include New Britain and Bridgeport --
should be able to reduce funding if enrollment declines, he said.
"We look at it as being reasonable," he said.
Finley also said he doesn't believe many towns will take advantage of
the full amount they are allowed to cut if the bill becomes law, but
Cirasuolo said the proposal leaves too much authority in the hands of
town leaders to do just that.
"They will have the final say in how much is cut," he said.
------------------------------
Substitute Bill No. 6385
January Session, 2011
AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE BUDGET
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE GOVERNOR CONCERNING EDUCATION.
July 1, 2011 this would go into effect:
(e) For the fiscal years ending June 30, 2010, and June 30, 2011, the
budgeted appropriation for education shall be no less than the budgeted
appropriation for education for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009,
minus any reductions made pursuant to section 19 of public act 09-1 of
the June 19 special session, except that for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 2010, those districts with a number of resident students for
the school year commencing July 1, 2009, that is lower than such
district's number of resident students for the school year commencing
July 1, 2008, may reduce such district's budgeted appropriation for
education by the difference in number of resident students for such
school years multiplied by three thousand.
(f) For the fiscal years ending June 30, 2012, and June 30, 2013, the
budgeted appropriation for education shall be no less than the budgeted
appropriation for education for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011,
plus any reductions made pursuant to section 19 of public act 09-1 of
the June 19 special session, except that (1) for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 2012, those districts with a number of resident students for
the school year commencing July 1, 2011, that is lower than such
district's number of resident students for the school year commencing
July 1, 2010, may reduce such district's budgeted appropriation for
education by the difference in number of resident students for such
school years multiplied by three thousand, and (2) for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 2013, those districts with a number of resident
students for the school year commencing July 1, 2012, that is lower
than such district's number of resident students for the school year
commencing July 1, 2011, may reduce such district's budgeted
appropriation for education by the difference in number of resident
students for such school years multiplied by three thousand.
As
teacher layoff notices go out, no change in seniority rules
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
March 29, 2011
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's announced
plans to give school districts the "flexibility they need to retain
new, talented teachers" will not come soon enough for this year's round
of layoffs -- as hundreds of teachers this week are expected to receive
pink slips based on their tenure, not on the quality of their teaching.
The Education Committee last week
rejected a proposal that would restrict districts from only considering
years of service when making layoff decisions, instead opting to wait
for a model teacher evaluation to first be created.
"Given the fact that we know there
are districts that lack a robust evaluation system... it's hard for me
to see how this is the time," Rep. Andy M. Fleischmann, D-West
Hartford, and co-chairman of the Education Committee, said before
voting against the proposal.
In a review of more than half the
school districts in the state, 77 percent used seniority as the sole or
primary factor when making layoff decisions, the state's largest
teachers union told lawmakers last month.
"We should not be allowing
seniority to be the only factor," said Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton and
ranking Republican on the Education Committee. "We have hundreds of
teachers being laid off and we should require a more equitable measure."
A recent survey conducted by the
education reform group ConnCAN shows 89 percent of the participants
felt layoff decisions should not be only decided by the how many years
a teacher has been in the classroom.
Last year, 1,500 teachers were laid
off and education officials are expecting a similar number to be let go
this year.
And while the American Federation of
Teachers, Malloy and the co-chairs of the education committee
acknowledge something needs to change so districts can retain great new
teachers, all say it is too soon to make that shift this year.
As part of its Race to the Top bid
last year, the state committed to creating a model evaluation system
that will include student outcomes, but it will not be complete and
ready for districts to consider using until July 2013.
Lawmakers are considering pushing up
that deadline by a year -- to July 2012 -- and also requiring it
include a 100-day dismissal process for teachers who fail the
evaluation.
"The process can go on for a very
long time and it's very expensive for the boards of education to
dismiss a teacher," said Sharon Palmer, president of American
Federation of Teachers-Connecticut. "If the teacher does not improve in
one school year, then that's it, they will have 100 days' notice."
Malloy is in favor of the 100-day
deadline and bumping up the deadline.
"I support tenure but I think the
AFT recommendations are a good way to go at reforming it. It is taking
into consideration not just how long someone has been teaching but what
they've been teaching with excellence as well," he said. "I think it's
a start. I think it's a very bold and brave move on their part."
But the proposal has its critics,
including the state's other major teachers' union, the Connecticut
Education Assoiation.
John Yrchik, CEA's executive
director, said the proposal "would impose a one-size-fits-all approach
to teacher evaluation. This is not necessary and not productive."
But Patrice McCarthy, general
counsel of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said it
would just be an option for districts to use and not a requirement.
"We need a good evaluation system
out there," she said. "Last in, first out is a major issue as teachers
face layoffs."
Alex Johnston, leader of the New
Haven school-reform group ConnCAN, said even absent a model evaluation
being ready, he is disappointed districts won't have the ability to
retain new teachers.
"Everyday we are seeing more and
more news of more layoffs. The sooner we fix this the better," he said.
Bill to
allow towns to cut school spending advances
Jacqueline Rabe, CT
MIRROR
March 25, 2011
A bill to allow cities and towns to cut school budgets when enrollment
declines--opposed by educators but backed by municipal leaders and Gov.
Dannel P. Malloy--won key approval from the legislature's Education
Committee Friday. Local governments are currently barred by state
law
from cutting the amount they spend on education, even in towns were
enrollment has dropped, such as Meriden, New Britain and Bridgeport,
where numbers have fallen between 6 and 9 percent.
"We'll certainly address this," Sen. Andrea L. Stillman, co-chairwoman
of the Education Committee, said before committee members unanimously
voted in favor of a bill that would allow towns to cut $3,000 for every
one-student drop in enrollment. But education officials say
allowing
towns to cut based on enrollment declines would be disastrous, since
many of the costs are fixed for schools.
"If you lose only one student you will have no savings. We have to hit
that critical mass before savings are achieved," said Patrice McCarthy,
general counsel for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.
"You still have to pay for teachers... for just about everything."
She said a formula must first be developed to accurately
determine
what a district saves as enrollment declines, and then school boards
may be able to back a reduction in spending. State funding does
take
student enrollment figures into account when allocating education aid
to cities and towns, but towns are held to a different standard.
"That doesn't work," said Rep. Timothy J. Ackert, R-Coventry, of the
prohibition towns' cutting spending. He also urged the committee to go
one step further and allow towns to cut the "actual amount" towns
realize in reduced costs, which he expects is more than $3,000 per
student.
Current spending for public education statewide is about $10.4 billion
this year and almost 70 percent of all municipal spending goes to pay
for education, according to the Connecticut Conference of
Municipalities.
"We are requiring towns to pay for students that aren't in their
schools. That is taxpayers paying for that," said Stillman during an
interview. She said last year a handful of towns brought up this
problem, and lawmakers responded by carving out a one-time exception
that allowed towns to reduce the amount they spend on education.
But
lawmakers are considering making it the rule and not the exception, so
towns don't have to plead their case in Hartford when they want to make
cuts.
Malloy -- who proposed the change the committee unanimously approved -
said last month he supports allowing towns to reduce their spending,
but only when towns experience "a sizable reduction" in
enrollment.
This proposal has no qualifying threshold in the amount of students
that a district must shed before cutting $3,000 per student. And
even
then, McCarthy said $3,000 is way too much to allow towns to cut.
Jim Finley, executive director of CCM, acknowledges if state lawmakers
untie town officials hands and allow them to reduce education spending,
tensions between school and town officials will undoubtedly arise.
But he says it's a battle that worth having.
"It's not cutting their budget. It's allowing towns to pay what it is
realistically costing to educate a child," he said. "Why should the
education side of their budget be immune from cuts?"
Bart Russell, executive director Connecticut Council of Small Towns,
said he thinks towns will get through the tension.
"It will create some tensions... But there is an understanding that we
are in it together. I think that conflict is going to be minimal," he
said.
Finley and Russell also said only allowing towns to cut when enrollment
declines doesn't go far enough -- they want towns to be able to cut
whenever they find savings.
"We are blind to the opportunity to get some savings," Finley said.
But McCarthy said the impact of that would be harsh on schools.
"What you'll have is a smaller pool of resources for students," she
said.
Windham Schools: Moving In The
Wrong Direction
Ideas Abound For Turnaround, But
Poverty, Language Barriers And Politics Stand In The Way
The Hartford Courant
By GRACE E. MERRITT, gmerritt@courant.coms
March 20, 2011
WINDHAM —Five years ago Windham had a blue-ribbon school.
The small, blue-collar community in eastern Connecticut, which includes
the city of Willimantic, had a nationally recognized urban elementary
school and Windham schools were considered to be among the best of the
state's urban districts.
But since then poverty has soared there. The number of students who
don't speak English fluently has nearly doubled. Town residents have
balked at education budgets and whittled them down. And alienation has
worsened between town officials and the school district and between the
community's urban and rural taxpayers.
Now, by many measures, Windham schools are headed in the wrong
direction.
Connecticut Mastery Test scores have declined in many areas. The
dropout rate is twice the state average. Only half the students are
proficient in reading. And the school district has the largest academic
achievement gap — the persistent disparity in academic performance
between poor students and their more affluent classmates — in the
state.Teachers
grumble that many students are disrespectful and roam the hallways
during class. Not that many parents are involved with their children's
schools. The number of special education students is unusually high.
The school system's problems became so severe last summer that
then-state Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan stepped in and
threatened to replace the school board, a move that has sparked
resentment in this hilly town of 23,000.
Windham's problems came to a head in August when McQuillan saw the
latest Connecticut Mastery Test scores, which showed that the town's
3,361 students lag far behind statewide averages. Among the trouble
spots: Fifth-graders' scores had dropped, and eighth-graders' reading
and writing scores had plunged. From fourth to fifth grade, academic
growth in reading and math was slowing considerably and, in some cases,
regressing.
McQuillan visited the Windham school board to discuss the "dire
condition of education in Windham" and the need for strong, proven
leadership. The superintendent position was vacant and McQuillan wanted
the board to hire one of his associate commissioners, Marion Martinez.
But the board said the community felt more comfortable with Windham's
assistant superintendent, Ana V. Ortiz, an experienced administrator
who was serving as interim superintendent.
In September, McQuillan ordered a comprehensive audit of the school
system and told the school board to take the Lighthouse Training
Program, a leadership program for school boards that focuses in depth
on student achievement. He also threatened to replace the school
board if the situation didn't improve by April. A school reform law
enacted last May allows the state education commissioner to replace
school board members. This did not sit well in Windham.
"Who the hell is he to tell us what to do?" said Kenneth Folan,
chairman of Windham's school board, recalling the standoff.
"Why us?" Ortiz recalled thinking. "Why is he picking on little Windham
all of a sudden?"
The school board ignored McQuillan's recommended choice for
superintendent and voted in December to make Ortiz the permanent
superintendent. McQuillan, meanwhile, resigned for unrelated reasons,
and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has not yet named a permanent replacement.
In the meantime, the state Department of Education recently conducted
seven audits of the Windham district — which has four elementary
schools, including blue-ribbon winner Windham Center School; a middle
school and a high school — covering everything from student achievement
and governance to finances. State education consultants have begun to
share the findings with school administrators, the school board and
teachers. Next, the state consultants plan to work closely with the
board and administrators to develop a comprehensive set of
recommendations that they hope the community will embrace.
This is not the first time the state has intervened in Windham. In
2008, the state forged a partnership with the school district to raise
student achievement. The state also sent coaches to work with
principals in each of Windham's schools.
McQuillan said in a phone interview after the standoff that he felt an
increasing urgency to pull Windham out of its tailspin after seeing the
test results and the widening academic gaps. Despite working on a
district improvement plan, Windham was still going in the wrong
direction, he said, and demoralized staff and disenfranchised families
seemed to be giving up hope.
Hispanic Population Spikes
A demographic shift in Windham in the past decade has deeply affected
the town's schools. More than 60 percent of the student body now is
Hispanic — up from 50 percent 10 years ago, and from the mid-20 percent
range about 15 years ago.The urban core of Puerto Rican residents has
seen a major influx of Mexican immigrants in recent years. A third of
Windham students now come from homes where English is not the primary
language.
The state audits reveal that Windham's schools have been slow to adapt
to the population change.
"What seems to come out of reports is that the instructional practices
and strategies in schools haven't responded quickly enough to needs of
those kids," said Lol Fearon, a state Department of Education bureau
chief who has been working on the audits and assisting Windham.
"Teachers try to meet the needs, but they just don't have the resources
and the background training," he said. "Also, it's almost impossible to
find teachers for English language learners in the state."
The audits also found a serious paucity of language-based services for
English language learners, particularly as they transitioned into
mainstream classrooms or moved into middle school or high school.
In addition, only about 13 percent of the teachers and administrators
are Latino. "With that kind of shift in population, you would want to
reflect that in the adults available to the kids," Fearon said.
Despite the population shift, most decision-making power in town
remains in the hands of white residents. The state's audits found the
Hispanic population has little or no involvement in local politics and
government.
"There is definitely a feeling of disenfranchisement," Fearon said.
Poverty And Budget Cuts
Poverty, not surprisingly, contributes to Windham's woes. In one
barometer of poverty, 74 percent of students qualified for a free or
reduced-price school lunch last year, a rate that shot up from 57
percent five years earlier.
"Everything that happens here is a struggle because there's never any
money," said Daniel Chace, a member of the high school's Parent
Advisory Committee. "It's always been a struggle here. We're not
Fairfield County."
"There's no doubt that economic background is a factor in academic
achievement," Fearon said. "But it's not something the school district
can control.
Town council President N. Joseph Underwood said the school system has
already made many budget cuts, including middle school sports, and he
is frustrated that the state doesn't send more education funds to
Windham.
"Give us more money so we can put it into education," Underwood said.
"Maybe we can buy more books, buy more computers, put more bilingual
individuals in our school system."
Besides struggling with poverty, the district has an unusually high
percentage of special education students, with 18.6 percent of students
classified as having special needs, compared to the state average of
11.6 percent. State education officials believe that figure may be
inflated because some students who don't speak English as a first
language may have been misdiagnosed.
Caring Teachers
Despite the school district's challenges, observers say Windham schools
have many strong teachers, and most are dedicated and genuinely care
about their students.
"Windham does have caring teachers," Fearon said. "That's a great
start. But do they feel competent that they can reach these kids and
meet the needs they have in front of them? That's where we hope to make
a difference."
The school system also has made some headway in narrowing the
achievement gap, according to recent Connecticut Mastery Test results,
though the gains were smaller than those of similar school systems and
the statewide average, the audits found.
Unruly Students, Uninvolved Parents
Teachers complain that some students at the middle school and high
school are disrespectful and unruly. During a recent visit to both
schools, some students were wandering in the hallways during class and
had be told by their principal to return to class. A couple of students
yelled and cursed loudly as they passed in the hallway.
Teachers also say students stroll into class late or simply disappear
from school for weeks at a time. During class, students often text or
talk on their phones and sometimes swear at teachers.
"They are disrespectful beyond belief," said one teacher, who asked not
to be identified. "It's not the way I was brought up. They'll just turn
away and say 'F-U.' "
Sometimes it gets physical. Two weeks ago a high school student whom
Principal Steve Merlino was escorting to an in-school suspension
knocked him to the ground.
"He was agitated," Merlino said. "I was pushed to the ground, but I
consider that really more a part of my balance."
Four years ago, the town's alternative school closed, which meant those
students entered the high school. Also, the high school lost an
assistant principal position. The state's audits also found
limited parental involvement in the schools. Many Hispanic
parents interviewed by the state for its audit said they are restricted
by job demands and can't leave small children at home to attend school
events. Some also cited the language barrier and said they feel
disconnected to the school system. Fearon said part of the reason could
also be that some of the Mexican immigrants may be undocumented and
trying to keep a low profile.
Chace, of the parents' committee, said he is frustrated that so few
parents attend school plays and other events.
"You'll see kids who are not in school for weeks," Chace said. "That's
a problem. I think the problem is parents have to be involved."
Another parent, Vicente Sanchez, said usually only a handful of people
show up for PTO meetings.
Urban-Rural Frictions
The problems are further compounded by a deep divide between the city
of Willimantic, where most of the Latino population lives, and the more
rural town of Windham, where residents are more predominately white.
"It's the story of the two Connecticuts," Ortiz said. "Willimantic
tends to fall into the same situation: the Hispanic vs. white
population."
Until 1983 Windham and Willimantic were separate communities, and each
still retains its own mill rate. Layered on top of this is friction and
a lack of communication between town officials and the school board,
the audits found.
"Without significant reform on [the communication] issue, the
combination of insufficient public support, declining resources, and
lack of cohesive leadership will inevitably result in the continuing
decline of the school district," one of the audits concluded.
Last year, it took Windham five referendums to pass the school budget.
Taxpayers kept rejecting the budget until the school board finally cut
$1.1 million from it, coming in with a 1.87 percent increase over the
previous year. Part of the resistance came from Windham voters who
opposed plans for a new magnet school, Folan said.
"The community needs to be energized and engaged to support the
schools," an audit concluded. "The overarching problems of school
performance, community capacity and the will to create the conditions
for improvement are of extreme urgency."
This year, Ortiz is trying more of a community-based approach to the
education budget, by sharing and discussing it at a series of
meetings. The audits also concluded that the school board has had
a history of micro-managing the superintendent and other
administrators, which has undermined efforts to move forward with
big-picture goals.
"They have not given responsibility to the superintendent to develop
plans to meet the needs of the kids," Fearon said. At the same time, he
added, school board members feel that the community doesn't support
their needs, a problem compounded by the city's poverty.
Looking Forward
The state Department of Education is now boiling down the findings of
the seven audits into a more managable overview. From there, state
officials plan to share the findings with the school board and teachers
and trim down the 60 recommendations in the audits to a focused action
plan. In the meantime, there is a renewed energy and will to
improve Windham's schools, they said.
"The school board is really attentive. They really want to change the
schools," said Robert Rader, executive director of the Connecticut
Association of Boards of Education, which is running the school board
training program. "It's sort of a paradigm shift, you might call it."
As for the former education commissioner's threat to replace the school
board in April, it is still on the table, but the state seems unlikely
to follow through because the school board training is helping.
"The threat is always present, but it's less likely now," said state
Department of Education spokesman Tom Murphy. "Things have improved."
Ortiz said she understands the sense of urgency to improve the school
system but wants to make sure the change is driven by Windham itself.
"We have got to move forward and we've got to do that collaboratively
because no one is going to take us over," she said.
State Board of Ed concerned about plan
to shift control of vo-tech schools
Jacqueline Rabe, CTMIRROR
March 2, 2011
The Malloy Administration wants to turn the first four of 17 state-run
vocational-technical schools over to local control in the next school
year--a move that has members of the State Board of Education concerned.
"That's insane," board Chairman Allan B. Taylor said Wednesday,
reacting to the timeline.
Benjamin Barnes, budget chief for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, announced last
month that the administration wants to shift responsibility for the
10,600-student system from the state to municipal or regional control,
but didn't disclose a timetable. News that the shift would begin in the
2011-2012 school year surprised many.
"You have a debacle on your hands," said interim Education Commissioner
George A. Coleman, questioning whether the impacted districts could
handle the added responsibility so soon. "We don't know what the local
response will be... what they need to accept this."
The four vocational schools to be turned over during the 2011-12 school
year are A.I. Prince in Hartford, E.C. Goodwin in New Britain, Howell
Cheney in Manchester and Vinal in Middletown. The next school year four
more schools will be turned over: Bullard Havens in Bridgeport, Windham
in Willimantic, Eli Whitney in Hamden and Kaynor in Waterbury. By July
2015 the state will shed all management responsibility for the schools.
The state currently pays $134 million a year to run the schools,
including about $5 million for the 66 full-time state employees in the
central office in Hartford.
Malloy's budget director has said the administration does not intend to
cut financial support from the state in the next two years, but State
Board of Education members and vo-tech system Superintendent Patricia
Ciccone worry that this new restructure will make the schools
vulnerable to cuts down the road.
"Local boards of education are obviously limited just as the state is
limited" Ciccone said. "There is a great potential for underfunding
these schools."
During a town meeting on his proposed budget in Torrington, Malloy said
his proposal is aimed at protecting the vo-tech schools. As mayor of
Stamford, he said, he saw how J.M. Wright Technical High School
declined under state oversight.
"I watched the state literally destroy one of those vocational
schools," Malloy told the audience. "They literally ran it into the
ground. And when they succeeded in running it into the ground they
closed it,"
He said he was frustrated that even as mayor he was unable to do
anything about the decision to close the school.
"I tried to help it," he said. "What I am trying to do is get more
local input in the proper running of a school."
But State Board of Education members, many who were just nominated by
Malloy for their positions last week, questioned the wisdom of such a
change.
Patricia Keavney-Maruca, a newly nominated member who worked at Kaynor
Tech for 33 years, said Malloy's proposal "just defies logic," because
the system "was designed to be a regional school system for a reason.
Joseph J. Vrabely, Jr., who was reappointed by Malloy and is chair of
the state board's Vocational-Technical School Committee, said he
worries the plan sends the wrong message to businesses in the state
reliant on graduates from vo-tech schools, including his small
manufacturing company.
"I know we have to make cuts, I know we have to integrate things but
you're taking away that feeder system from manufacturers," he said.
It's not clear how much of the system's operating costs the state would
continue to pay down the road under Malloy's plan.
"Will the state's share be 20 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent? That has
not been determined," Brian Mahoney, chief financial officer for the
State Department of Education, told the board.
Taylor said Malloy's proposal deserves consideration, but his gut
reaction is, "It's a mistake."
If the goal is to reduce state spending, he added, there are other ways
to accomplish that without destroying the statewide infrastructure.
"It's hard to believe it's anything but the economic implications... on
the face of it, none of us understand this," he said.
Malloy's budget would cut scholarships
for private colleges
By Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor
moleary@nhregister.com
Published: Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Cutting state scholarships to Connecticut students at private colleges
will mean thousands will not get the aid they need, forcing them to
either leave school, take on more debt or shift a greater share of the
burden to their families.
That’s the analysis of the 19 members of the Connecticut Conference of
Independent Colleges that are facing 25 percent cuts next year and 50
percent in fiscal 2013 under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed biennial
budget — cuts they say contradict promises Malloy made on the campaign
trail.
Last year, 6,121 Connecticut students at private colleges received
state-funded scholarships, with the highest amount, $2.85 million,
distributed by the University of Hartford to 549 students; $2.84
million went to 424 students at the University of New Haven; and $2.57
million went to 548 students at Quinnipiac University.
The $23.4 million in scholarships in this year’s budget will be cut by
$5.8 million next year and $11.7 million in fiscal 2013, if lawmakers
agree with Malloy as he tries to close a $3.5 billion deficit.
Ben Barnes, the state’s new budget chief, said enough money was left to
fund students who are already participating in the program, but beyond
that, he questioned some aspects of the program.
“There is little ability for the state to determine how the schools
make those awards, how effective they are with respect to student
success and graduation, or whether they are having the effect of
increasing funds available to Connecticut students overall,” Barnes
said in an e-mail.
Barnes also questioned awarding state-funded scholarships to three
for-profit schools — Briarwood College, Paier College and Post
University — and those with high endowments — Yale University. “We need
to be especially careful in how we ensure public accountability with
these funds,” Barnes said.
Judith Greiman, president of the conference, said all students have to
file a financial statement, and those whose families have a low ability
to contribute get the aid. She said the income data and audits are sent
to the state Department of Higher Education to ensure that only
Connecticut residents benefit. Nick Yoia, financial aid officer
at Quinnipiac, said there are attempts every year to cancel the funds,
and every year the school has to explain to critics that their
questions can be answered with data already filed with the state.
“Why are the private college students selected as the sacrificial lambs
and no one else?” Yoia asked of the lack of cuts to the public programs
in Malloy’s budget. The combination of state cuts and the proposed
elimination of federal scholarships will severely impact students, he
added. As a gubernatorial candidate, Malloy, in a position paper,
spoke of the importance of supporting scholarships.
“Our state budget includes a major commitment to scholarships for
students in public and private Connecticut colleges who cannot afford
full tuition. ... If higher education success is a fundamental plank in
our state’s economic development strategy, we must maintain this
commitment even in difficult budget times or we run the risk of eating
away at our long-term economic and fiscal strength,” Malloy had said.
Greiman said the private colleges enroll and graduate more minority
students than the public colleges, and the investment by the state in
the scholarships “is the best bang for the buck that Connecticut has.”
Yale University, which gave out 16 awards for a total of $128,973 in
state money this year, should not be used as a reason to drastically
cut the scholarship program, Greiman said.
“Most of my schools get their financial aid funds from their operating
budgets and have had to increase this significantly in the past three
academic years as the economy tanked and students came with increased
need,” Greiman said. In 2009-2010, the endowments dropped 28 percent
and financial aid at private colleges jumped 15 percent, with the
institutions awarding more than $558 million annually in private and
institutional aid to undergraduates.
“Providing access is the passion of the people I represent,” Greiman
said.
State panel rejects Hartford's attempt
to skirt teacher seniority
Robert A. Frahm and Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
February 22, 2011
Days after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he wants to provide school
districts with the opportunity to retain new and talented teachers over
more senior staff, an arbitration panel rejected Hartford Public School
officials request to do just that.
Hartford Public Schools, like many districts across the state, is
facing potential layoffs under a deepening budget crisis, but the
district will not be allowed to loosen seniority rules in laying off
teachers, a state arbitration panel has decided.
The panel's ruling touches on an issue that is part of a volatile
debate over school quality across the nation.
In Connecticut, schools have shed 2,700 teaching positions in the last
two years, said Joe Cirasuolo, head of the Connecticut Association of
Public School Superintendents. Most of those who lost their jobs were
teachers who had worked in the system the shortest amount of time, he
said.
Malloy raised the issue in his budget address last week, proposing a
reform of teacher tenure rules "to give local school districts the
flexibility they need to retain new, talented teachers."
However, Malloy's proposal will not come in time to affect potential
layoffs this year. A spokeswoman for Malloy said Tuesday the governor
is not proposing an immediate change in the law but rather hopes his
comments launch the conversation.
"The Governor has a very large, visible role in the dialogue of our
state and he plans to use that role to get people to the table to talk
about ways to close [the] achievement gap. One of the things to discuss
is tenure," said Colleen Flanagan. "Gov. Malloy believes in the concept
of tenure but in tough economic times, he believes schools should have
the ability to retain new, talented teachers who otherwise might lose
their job."
Cirasuolo said he welcomes the governors' comment but is disappointed
to hear it will not be coupled with a legislative proposal to change
the law.
"It's not enough for him to just appeal to their altruism. We need
legislative action to release us from the current reality," he said.
"Something has to change," he said, warning that districts will begin
making their layoff decisions in April, so that a change of heart by
the teachers' unions, or a law requiring it, needs to take place soon.
In Hartford, which has laid off 350 employees in the last two years,
school officials contended that strict system-wide seniority provisions
inhibit the district's ability to staff specialized schools that are at
the heart of the city's school reform efforts. However, a State
Department of Education arbitration panel rejected that argument.
Under existing seniority rules, the least experienced teachers are the
first to be laid off and can be replaced by more experienced teachers
from any school in the district, resulting in a shuffling of teachers
among different schools. School officials, including Superintendent
Steven Adamowski, contend that policy undermines stability at magnet
schools, where special themes such as science, technology or the arts
require teachers to have special qualifications or training.
Many of those schools are part of a school reform program that has been
credited with improving performance across the district.
The district had proposed a system that would allow a principal to
override system-wide seniority rules by rejecting prospective transfers
from other schools if the principal decided the candidates were not a
good fit.
However, the arbitrators ruled in favor of the teachers' union, saying
the district's proposal "is overly broad and may be inconsistently
applied across the district in such a manner as to deprive teachers of
their right to a vacant position or a position held by an untenured
teacher without due process."
Allowing school principals to make decisions on which teachers will be
hired does not comply with state law granting that authority only to
school boards, the panel said.
"Obviously we're thrilled," said Andrea Johnson, president of the
Hartford Federation of Teachers. "Seniority within the district is a
very good thing and has worked very well."
Johnson disputed the district's argument that the specialty schools
required an unusual level of training. "You still have to teach
history...no matter what kind of school you're in," she said. "They'd
like the public to believe somehow you have to have very specialized
training. It doesn't mean you as a teacher, especially an experienced
teacher, can't go in and learn that process."
The three-member panel's ruling was a split decision, with panelist
John M. Romanow dissenting. The last-hired, first-fired approach fails
to take into account teacher quality and "will result in many teachers
being forced into position that are not suitable for them," Romanow
wrote.
The result, he said, "will do irreparable harm to the school system and
clearly make it less likely that the Hartford Board of Education will
be able to continue to make great strides in closing the achievement
gap."
The district last year had sought to change seniority rules by asking
the State Board of Education to override the provisions in the
teachers' union contract, but the board took no action.
After losing the arbitration ruling, Hartford officials said they will
ask the State Board again to rule on the matter.
"A portfolio district such as ours, with a wide variety of schools that
require specialized training, cannot function properly under a
one-size-fits-all, quality-blind approach to seniority," the district
said in a prepared statement.
Connecticut one of many states debating seniority-based layoffs and
tenure, says Kathy Christie, the chief of staff for the Education
Commission of the States.
"The conversation is changing all over the country on whether to look
at the quality of the teacher versus the amount of time spent in the
classroom. That push lately has been much stronger to go back and
revise those laws," she said.
The reaction is different state-by-state. In Oregon, voters rejected in
2008 an initiative that would allow districts to "retain teachers who
are most qualified" regardless of their seniority. In Arizona,
the governor signed in 2009 a law that forbids districts from adopting
policies that provide employment retention priority for teachers based
on tenure or seniority. In California, lawmakers are also considering a
proposal to overhaul these laws.

Ads urging parents to keep children in
Hartford schools anger Sheff lawyer
Robert A. Frahm, CT MIRROR
April 29, 2011
Hartford educators say an ad campaign discouraging parents from sending
their children to suburban schools reflects success of the city's
education reforms, but a lawyer for plaintiffs in the Sheff vs. O'Neill
desegregation case says it threatens to undermine a court-ordered plan
to reduce the racial isolation of city students. Hartford Public
School officials launched the campaign with television, radio and print
advertisements urging parents not to gamble on a lottery for seats in
suburban or regional magnet schools that are key elements of the
desegregation effort.
Instead, the ads advise families to choose among several
career-oriented high schools and various restructured elementary and
middle schools that are part of the city school system's school reform
program.
The ads drew the ire of Martha Stone, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the
long-running Sheff vs. O'Neill school desegregation case.
"It's really, from our perspective, just outrageous," she said.
The ads are airing as parents receive letters this month announcing
results of the annual lottery for seats in suburban or magnet schools.
Although many children were placed on waiting lists for those schools,
Hartford can guarantee parents a spot at one of their top four choices
of city schools, the ad campaign said.
"Why risk [your children's] future on a lottery and then a waiting
list?...They don't need to go anywhere else," the ads say.
Regional magnet schools and suburban schools are the central elements
of the state's effort to comply with a 1996 state Supreme Court order
in the Sheff case seeking to reduce racial segregation among Hartford's
mostly black and Hispanic student population. Since then, the state has
spent hundreds of millions of dollars building and operating racially
integrated magnet schools in the greater Hartford region. In addition,
state officials are encouraging predominantly white suburban schools to
accept more Hartford minority students under a transfer program known
as Open Choice.
In a press release this week, Hartford school officials cited the
city's own school reform efforts, including the redesign of previously
struggling schools to emphasize specialized themes and college-bound
curriculum.
"All of these schools are staffed with dedicated teachers who will
prepare their children for college studies," said Christina M.
Kishimoto, who was recently named to succeed Superintendent Steven J.
Adamowski, when he retires in July. "There is no need to travel outside
of Hartford to get a superior education."
The Sheff plaintiffs take a different view, Stone said.
"It's really disturbing to see the Hartford school system try to
discourage parents and kids from exercising their constitutional right
to an equal educational opportunity," said Stone. "This is about having
parents be able to choose the best possible schools for their children."
Under Adamowski's reform program, Hartford schools have shown
improvement, but the school system still ranks among the state's
lowest-performing districts on statewide achievement tests. Last
year, for example, just 43 percent of the city's elementary and middle
school students reached the proficiency level in reading on the
Connecticut Mastery Test, and 57 percent met the proficiency standard
in mathematics.
Nevertheless, Adamowski said Thursday that parents can find high
quality choices within the system.
"Five years ago, we had 28 schools that were low-performing. Today
we're down to five," he said. "Our Hartford parents will choose for
quality. What they really want is what every parent in America wants,
which is a good school in their own neighborhood."
Adamowski also said that the district's effort to keep families in city
schools is not in conflict with the Sheff goals.
"We support Sheff, but we see a different path to meeting the goals
than the plaintiffs do," he said.
About 28 percent of Hartford's minority schoolchildren now attend
integrated magnet schools, charter schools, regional technical and
agricultural high schools or suburban schools. However, under terms of
a court-approved agreement with the Sheff plaintiffs, the state must
increase that number to 41 percent by the 2012-2013 school year or meet
at least 80 percent of the demand for seats. As more parents
choose city schools, the level of demand for seats in magnet and
suburban schools will decline, making it easier to meet the state's 80
percent threshold, Adamowski said. He predicted that the goal could be
met as early as next year.
George Coleman, acting state commissioner of education, said he does
not view Hartford's ad campaign as a competition with other districts.
"It's ultimately controlled by the families. The evidence of
performance is available to parents to assess and make decisions for
themselves," he said.
Meanwhile, the level of demand for magnet schools remains high. "We had
over 8,000 applications for seats," said Bruce Douglas, executive
director of the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), which runs 15
magnet schools in the Greater Hartford region.
Douglas said he is not surprised by Hartford's advertising campaign.
"It's a sign of the times because of the proliferation of school
choice," he said.
He said CREC doesn't market its schools against other schools but added
that the agency has not felt the impact of Hartford's pitch to attract
more students.
"My attitude is education is so important, I don't care what school
they go to," he said. "If it's a good school, go there."
Malloy
taking another route to reach
desegregation goal
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
February 17, 2011
Up against a looming court-ordered deadline to reduce the racial
isolation of Hartford's largely black and Hispanic school population,
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has opted to take a less expensive--and arguably
more effective--approach to integration.
Since the 1996 state Supreme Court's Scheff v. O'Neill desegregation
order in 1996, the state's emphasis has been on creation of magnet
schools with specialty themes in hopes of attracting a racially-diverse
student population. Nearly $1 billion has been spent to build the
schools in and around Hartford and billions more reimbursing the
schools $13,000 per student a year.
But Malloy seems to be taking the advice of education officials and is
changing course: He's proposing significantly reducing the state's
reimbursement for construction of new magnet schools, and expanding
funding for school choice programs that encourage suburban districts to
accept Hartford students.
Although many suburban districts around Hartford have empty desks, they
have been slow to accept city students in what's called Open Choice,
often blaming the level of state reimbursement--$2,500.
Malloy is proposing that the state's next education commissioner--who
Malloy will select--be allowed to significantly increase reimbursements
to suburban public schools that take Hartford students, and he wants to
allocate another $7.2 million to do it.
"We expect by increasing the reimbursement the commissioner will be
able to find a sweet spot that will be able to get significant
participation in the program and get to the [court-ordered] goal,"
Malloy budget director Ben Barnes said.
To comply with the court order, the state must find an additional 3,500
seats in an integrated magnet, charter, technical, agricultural or
suburban school by October 2012. There are currently 1,300 Hartford
students attending districts other than their own, so reaching the goal
through the choice program is a tall order.
Education leaders and advocates both agree the state will not meet that
deadline if the state's approach remains the same and welcome the
increase reimbursements for the Open Choice program.
"The Open Choice program is by far the most cost-effective option for
us," said Brian Mahoney, the State Department of Education's chief
financial officer.
"This is surely more of an incentive to suburban districts to
participate," said Alex Johnston, leader of the New Haven school-reform
group ConnCAN. "It's certainly a positive step but we are going to need
a system where schools are funded fully and not partially for the
students they have."
Martha Stone, a lawyer for the Sheff plaintiffs, said Wednesday she is
"heartened" by the increase and believes it will help get the state
closer to reaching the required 41 percent of Hartford's 21,713
minority students attending integrated schools by November 2012.
They're at 25 percent now.
Malloy's proposal coincides with a State Board of Education
recommendation made in November that would put more focus and money on
sending students to suburban schools than on magnet schools.
"I imagine a court mandate will look very similar to what I am
proposing," former education commissioner Mark McQuillan said at the
time.
But the SBOE's proposal went one step further than Malloy's in
suggesting the education commissioner have the authority to require
suburban districts enroll a certain number of Hartford students.
There are currently 27,000 students attending magnet schools across the
state and 5,700 attending charter schools. Malloy's budget proposal
does increase state spending for magnet and charter schools for seats
that were already approved long before he became governor.
The legislature's Education Committee will hear public testimony
Wednesday on the governor's proposed changes to education and also on a
separate proposed change in the kindergarten entrance age.
Can a private firm and federal funds
fix this public school?
Robert A. Frahm, CT MIRROR
February 12, 2011
BRIDGEPORT--Long before lunch hour begins, the cafeteria at Harding
High School fills with students sitting idly around tables. Some chat
on cell phones. Others slump in chairs. Not a book in sight.
Most are chronic class-skippers, rounded up by hallway monitors working
for a private New York City-based consulting firm charged with trying
to turn around one of Connecticut's worst high schools.
Whether a private company can do what local officials have failed to do
is uncertain, but the experiment to rescue Harding - backed by $2.2
million in federal stimulus money - will be watched closely by
officials from Hartford to Washington, D.C.
Harding--plagued by high dropout rates, disciplinary problems and
academic failure--is one of 14 struggling Connecticut schools to
receive U.S. Department of Education School Improvement Grants.
It is the only one of the 14 to choose the "restart" method, one of
four models prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education to turn
around failing schools. "Restart" requires the hiring of an outside
contractor to restructure the school. At Harding, officials turned to
Global Partnership Schools, a company run by former New York City
schools Chancellor Rudy Crew and former Rochester, N.Y., school
Superintendent Manny Rivera.
The scene in the lunchroom is a stark reminder of the daunting task
facing Global. Officials estimate about 180 students are rounded up
each morning--more than 10 percent of the student body. If Global is to
succeed, it will have to reach students like 16-year-old Jeffrey
Roscoe, who was ushered to the cafeteria one recent morning while
skipping Spanish class.
"I didn't feel like going," Roscoe said. "It doesn't interest me." He
said he is failing all his classes.
Officials say their first task is to change a culture in which too many
students skip classes, ignore homework, and feel disconnected from
Harding.
"It's had such a long history of failure that it doesn't believe in
itself," said Crew, Global's president. "It believes itself to be what
the papers have said about it, what the culture around it says...
People who don't think of themselves as graduating don't act like
graduates."
Until now, not much has worked at Harding, where principals have come
and gone with alarming frequency, trying various strategies to rescue
the troubled school. Harding has had nine different principals in the
past decade.
"Too many to count," says veteran history teacher Leslie Waller. "We've
seen so many initiatives start and then just stop."
Waller and her colleagues are looking for better results from the
latest initiative, including a shakeup of leadership and a fundamental
restructuring of the school under the federal stimulus project.
The decision to turn to a private firm "was based primarily on the lack
of success over time we've had in trying to turn the school around...
Traditional methods did not work," said Robert Henry, associate
superintendent for the Bridgeport public school system and the former
superintendent of Hartford's schools.
A hulking brick fortress, Warren Harding High School once was the pride
of Bridgeport. Named after the nation's 29th President, the school
opened in 1925 and produced graduates who became mayors, judges and
prominent business and civic leaders. Today, however, it is a victim of
urban decay, part of an impoverished East Side neighborhood of aging
houses and an abandoned industrial complex that once housed bustling
Remington Arms and General Electric plants.
It is exactly the kind of school the Obama administration targeted with
the School Improvement Grants. According to a 2009 study by New York
University, more than half of Harding's students miss 19 days of school
or more each year, and one out of five is absent on an average day,
The five-month study reported more than 2,000 disciplinary offenses
committed by about 40 percent of the school's 1,500 students. Nearly
one-third of the grades in core subjects were Fs, and about two out of
five students were lacking enough credits for their grade level.
Less than 5 percent of students met the goal on reading and math on the
statewide 10th-grade performance test last year.
The $2.2 million that Harding will receive in stimulus funds "is enough
money to really change the school," said Joseph Garcia, a senior vice
president at Global who remains upbeat about the prospects for change.
"There's a lot of talent among the leadership team and in the faculty,"
he said. "There's a real chance here for this to succeed."
The restart is under a tight timeline. Global signed a contract with
Bridgeport in September, and the formal kickoff for the restructuring
took place Jan. 31. Nevertheless, the company has already made some
basic changes, starting with efforts to improve attendance, reduce
tardiness and improve the school climate.
"A lot of this really is just blocking and tackling," said Garcia, who
early in the school year walked the hallways himself with a
walkie-talkie, ushering students to classes. Since then, the company
has hired "climate specialists" to clear the halls of loitering
students. The school, under a new state law, also set up an in-school
suspension program and began seeking alternative placements for overage
students who roamed the hallways, skipped classes and had too few
credits to graduate on time.
Working alongside the school's regular security guards, the school's
new "climate specialists" patrol all corners of the aging building.
"Ladies, do you have gym?" Aaron Stroud said as he found three girls
huddled in a stairwell and ushered them to gym class one recent
morning. The hiring of specialists such as Stroud, who previously
worked with troubled young people at a child care agency in New York
City, is the most visible sign of change so far.
In addition, the company plans to require school uniforms as early as
this semester and is considering acquiring technology to block the use
of cell phones, a frequent distraction among students.
The first major step in Global's effort was the hiring of an
"educational change agent" to oversee the three-year process of change
at Harding. The company picked Eleanor Osborne, a respected former
reading supervisor and associate superintendent for New Haven's public
schools and a professor at Sacred Heart University.
Officials also decided to replace Harding's principal, Carol Birks,
saying in the district's grant application that there was "not enough
cohesiveness in her action plans to improve student achievement." To
replace her, Global recruited Kevin Walston, a promising public school
administrator in nearby Norwalk who had also worked as an assistant
high school principal in the Bronx in New York City.
"In Norwalk, there was that sense of community, sense of belonging.
With the kids, the staff, you felt that connectedness to the school,"
Walston said. "Here, in the majority of the school, you don't get that
sense."
"Our job," he said, "is to create a sense of urgency among the staff."
A key part of Global's strategy is the refinement of a longstanding
plan to break up the school into smaller units or academies, known as
small learning communities. Harding has tried the idea for nearly a
decade, but some of the smaller academies were only loosely defined and
poorly understood by students.
"Some students we asked what small learning community they belonged to,
and they didn't know," said Osborne.
Under the old arrangement, the school had seven academies enrolling
students throughout the building, but the new plan calls for four
academies located in separate parts of the school, each with its own
group of students and teachers. One of the academies, known as "New
Scholars," is reserved exclusively for freshmen while others will focus
on health and environmental science, communications and technology, and
law and international studies. In theory, the small academies will
allow students to form stronger bonds with the same classmates and
teachers.
"Research says the more engaged students are with their school and
school community, the more successful they'll be," said Walston.
Global also altered the school schedule, shortening 100-minute teaching
periods and providing additional advisory time for teachers and
students to meet. The company created a regular testing schedule to
monitor student progress. It hired a reading specialist and began a
significant expansion of professional coaching in reading and
mathematics teaching methods. It also upgraded the school's computers
and acquired other new technology.
"I think it's exciting. We're going to get a new math lab, and we're
getting some new online programs," said Mary Liggins, coordinator of
Harding's math department. Liggins said she is encouraged so far by the
changes, including the hiring of Osborne.
"She advocates for teachers," Liggins said. "She looks through
teachers' eyes."
Much remains to be done, but Osborne is encouraged by the changes she
has seen so far. "It's like a night and day experience," she said.
"There's a whole different feel to the building."
Not everyone is convinced that the latest effort will work. Global has
run into some resistance, including objections from some teachers who
did not want to switch classrooms under the reorganization.
Gary Peluchette, president of the Bridgeport Education Association
teachers' union, said he would prefer a turnaround approach that gives
teachers more of a voice.
"Quite frankly, the suggestions [that GPS officials] are coming up with
are nothing different than what teachers have been suggesting for
years," he said. "You have to empower teachers. It can't be this
top-down approach."
Garcia, the Global senior vice president, said, "The union has been a
good partner" in the effort so far. "The faculty's professionalism has
been high."
Some had hoped for a more aggressive start.
"It's premature for me to say it's not going to work, but the company
that got the contract to take over the school should have hit the
ground running. We should not have had to wait so long to see what's
going to happen," said Linette Jones, president of the school's Parent
Teacher Student Organization.
Jones' oldest daughter graduated from Harding last year. Another
daughter is a sophomore in Harding's International Baccalaureate
program, but Jones remains skeptical about the school. "If I were
independently wealthy, I would take my daughter out," Jones said.
Although much of the reorganization has barely gotten under way, the
most obvious change so far has been the crackdown on hallway loiterers.
Corey Baldwin, a lanky senior, said the problem has eased but was a
serious distraction a year ago.
"Chaos," he said. "During class, everybody was making noise in the
hallway."
Now, a few stragglers still try to evade security workers during
classes, but most are caught and sent to the cafeteria.
Walston, the new principal, said the school is designing alternatives,
including a staggered schedule and online study programs, for those who
skip classes. Still, dozens are rounded up daily. "I was hoping the
numbers would decrease by now," he said. "They have not."
Nevertheless, he remains optimistic that Harding is making progress.
"I certainly understand that change takes time," he said. "When you're
living through it, you'd like it to go faster."
Private companies have had mixed results intervening in public schools.
In Connecticut, the most prominent experiment in privatization was the
hiring of a Minnesota firm, Education Alternatives Inc., to run
Hartford's public schools in the mid-1990s. That experiment collapsed,
leading to a state takeover of schools in the state capital.
In addition to Bridgeport, Global is working under federal School
Improvement Grants with schools in Pueblo, Colorado and Baltimore,
Maryland.
According to Crew, Global's president, one advantage of the private
management model is that "outside organizations sometimes can be more
nimble." An outside firm, he said, can operate "at a faster pace than
going through school board meetings and all the other apparatus common
to big city schools."
Crew, who also works as a professor at the University of Southern
California's Rossier School of Education, gained a reputation as a
reformer running giant public school systems in New York and Miami.
Rivera, the company's CEO, is a former national superintendent of the
year credited with making significant improvements in Rochester's
schools.
"One advantage," said Crew, "is, frankly, that we are all public school
educators who have done this work in successful organizations."
Most experiments with privatization have involved public charter
schools rather than traditional public schools such as Harding.
There is relatively little good research on the track record of private
companies in public schools, says Henry M. Levin, director of the
National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers
College at Columbia University.
"The one thing we've learned over the years is there are no miracles,"
Levin said. "Often these companies come in and promise something that's
never been demonstrated before."
At Harding, computer graphics teacher Irwin "Doc" Coombs, a former
union president, said he is hopeful the latest effort will work, "but
I'm very wary of it right now... I have been forever opposed to public
money going to private organizations."
Educators and others will be watching closely to see the impact of the
federal grants on Harding and the state's other 13 turnaround schools.
The School Improvement Grants, totaling about $23 million in
Connecticut, are only a fraction of the $889 million in stimulus money
received by the state for elementary and secondary education. The bulk
of stimulus funding has been used to fill gaps in the state's education
budget and save jobs, but the improvement grants go to the heart of the
Obama administration's agenda to turn around struggling schools.
Many are taking a wait-and-see approach on the proposed shakeup.
"I haven't seen evidence of it yet," said Michael Brosnan, a history
teacher at Harding. He said the restart plan "is extremely vague" and
hasn't been explained clearly to students or teachers. He also said
teachers were not involved in making the original application for the
federal grant.
But, he added, "If the end result is a more successful school, that's
hard to argue with."
Consultants: Washington's
billions spawn an industry
CT MIRROR
Andrew Brownstein (Hechinger Report/EWA)
February 12, 2011
The flood of federal stimulus money into the nation's public schools
has dramatically increased the demand for education consultants,
leaving some stimulus recipients struggling to find seasoned advisors
and others uneasy about the pitches they are getting.
The frenzy was caused by the unprecedented size and scope of the nearly
$100 billion federal effort, which began two years ago. That has
stirred up great expectations among policymakers and the public. Faced
with nerve-wracking timelines, their own bold promises and a dearth of
in-house expertise, states and school districts have anxiously sought
advice on how to demonstrate progress and avoid missteps. "Some are
calling it 'No Consultant Left Behind,' " says Frederick M. Hess,
director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise
Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
There are consultants who know data, consultants who say they can
revitalize struggling schools and consultants who write grants that
lead winning states and school districts to hire other consultants.
They work at nonprofits, universities and textbook giants like the
British-based Pearson PLC, a huge educational publishing concern. A
good many are former state commissioners or district superintendents
who have parlayed their expertise into lucrative jobs as education
experts.
Many of them were present at a downtown Washington, D.C., hotel
conference room in December to assist state education officials who won
grants in the $4.3 billion Race to the Top competition, or RttT, the
best-known element of the stimulus effort. The officials had come to
learn about state-of-the-art reform strategies for using sophisticated
data-tracking to link teacher evaluations to student achievement. Most
of the recognized experts in the field were there--all half-dozen of
them.
"There's a sense of confusion and anxiety," says Scott Joftus, director
of the Race to the Top Technical Assistance Network, a stimulus-funded
contractor tasked with aiding states and districts in implementing
their bold plans. "There's a general acknowledgement that there are a
handful of people with the expertise to implement assessments related
to teacher evaluation-maybe seven or eight people in the country."
The scramble reflects the scope of the states' ambitions. "There's a
lot of money being thrown into the system at the same time to create
changes that have never been done before," Mr. Joftus says. "States
have promised a ridiculous amount of change."
Many states are just beginning to sign contracts for outside help.
Those that have made consulting deals seldom have guarantees. It is the
rare contract that comes with a promise of increased student
achievement in exchange for services.
And lately some state education officials have grown skeptical of some
of the proposals they are fielding.
Leslie Wilson, assistant state superintendent for assessment in
Maryland, estimates about 38 percent of the $125 million in RttT funds
that her state received will flow through her office, with much of it
going to build a new system for collecting student data. She says
representatives of nonprofits, for-profit companies, colleges and
universities have gone to great lengths to try to talk to her about
related contracts. They have called her, emailed her and approached her
at conferences. Some have enlisted mutual friends to intervene. One
vendor asked the state superintendent of education to persuade Ms.
Wilson to schedule a meeting.
She says she has warned them all to stay away because she believes such
conversations will disqualify consultants from bidding on
stimulus-funded technology contracts. "They understand, but they don't
want to abide by it," adds Ms. Wilson, who describes the parties
involved as "people who you have never heard of and people who should
know better."
The phenomenon may be even more pervasive in the market for turning
around failing schools, which received a $3.5 billion jolt from the
stimulus program known as the School Improvement Grant fund. Just a few
years ago, there were few consultants even marketing themselves as
turnaround experts.
With the stimulus, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan
has said he wants to transform thousands of schools in the bottom five
percent in performance over the next few years. That's a tall order.
Schools in the bottom five percent are places where fewer than one in
three students read at grade level, the dropout rate is over 50 percent
and there are enough disciplinary issues to make them feel like armed
fortresses. In the landscape of school reform, they are like the Middle
East: constantly fought-over, subject to countless "solutions" that
come and go and, in the end, stubbornly resistant to change.
That metaphor is an apt one for the market as well. In the fall of
2009, Mr. Joftus was contacted by a former contractor who was working
for Global Partnership Schools, a new school turnaround venture funded
by GEMS Education, a Dubai-based company founded by entrepreneur Sunny
Varkey. The caller was hoping to obtain copies of Mr. Joftus' contract
for school improvement services in Kansas.
"You know we're in a new era when school turnaround firms in the U.S.
are being funded out of the Middle East," Joftus said. "To me, that
says there's money to be made. I call this period the Wild West in
education."
Mr. Joftus is not questioning the organization's credentials or
quality. By all accounts, Global Partnership has experience on its
side. It is run by Rudy Crew, a former chancellor of the New York City
schools, and Manny Rivera, a former superintendent in Rochester, NY.
Also, it backs its promises with a rare performance guarantee: Its
contract with Pueblo, Colo., states that the partnership will only be
fully paid if it succeeds in significantly boosting student
achievement. Up to 20 percent of its $1.5 million fee is linked to a
series of benchmarks geared at overhauling Pueblo's schools.
"Within 12 to 18 months, there'd better be gains, or if I were a
district I'd raise some serious questions," Mr. Rivera said. "There
traditionally hasn't been that kind of accountability in the field."
The aggressive competition and hoopla behind the big grant competitions
make some in the field uncomfortable. School turnarounds are
notoriously hard to accomplish and harder still to maintain.
Revitalizing schools that have become dropout factories typically means
replacing the principal and a large number of staff, as well as
installing tough discipline and a new curriculum. Such efforts also
require creating a new culture where high expectations are the norm.
"Very few people understand what a turnaround takes," said Josh
Edelman, deputy chief of innovation for the Washington, D.C. schools.
"What people expect is that you're going to see magic. Most of these
schools have been failing for years. They're not going to turn around
on a dime."
Sandra Abrevaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education,
said the department is hopeful that its investment will help build
expertise in turnarounds and other tricky areas, adding she is
"encouraged" that states and districts are beginning to share their
knowledge. "While there is a need for more experts in the field, we're
very optimistic that states will build this capacity and that more
high-quality organizations will emerge to assist them," she said.
The difficultly of the tasks at hand and the relative lack of supply
make education-consulting a lucrative enterprise. Those in the field
say it is typical for an individual expert to make between $1,500 and
$5,000 a day, depending on one's level of expertise. In Ohio, more than
half of the state department of education's $194 million share of RttT
funds will be awarded to "external providers," according to state
documents.
The money has attracted big names and powerful organizations that
typically haven't played in the education sphere. Sir Michael Barber,
education advisor to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, heads
the global education practice of McKinsey & Company, a consulting
giant that helped several states write RttT applications.
In November, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation paid $360 million for a
90 percent share in another company that helped consult for the RttT
competition, Wireless Generation, a Brooklyn-based education technology
firm. Wireless Generation's involvement in the competition was not
without controversy. Despite being paid more than $500,000 by New
Jersey, the company failed to catch an erroneous last-minute change to
the application. That cost New Jersey crucial points in the
competition, leading to an 11th-place finish-just out of the money.
Bret Schundler, New Jersey's state education commissioner at the time,
took responsibility for the error and was fired. Wireless Generation
officials have not commented publicly on the error, which is the
subject of several state investigations. Some legislators have blamed
Wireless Generation for not noticing the error, and have asked the
company to return its fee.
Just how important is a good consultant? Ask Jennifer Vranek, founding
partner of Education First, a Seattle-based consulting firm. Her
company was behind the successful RttT applications for Hawaii,
Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee-one-third of the winners.
"If nothing else, a consultant has the ability to focus exclusively on
the application, unlike the typical state education official, who has
75 other things to focus on," she says. "A good consultant makes a
difference."
She insists the job involves more than spin. In RttT, states were
pushed to make bold promises in their grant applications. Part of the
job of the consultant, she says, is to ensure they deliver. Education
First cajoled the state leadership in Maryland to commit to overhaul
its longitudinal data system, which cannot currently link student test
data to individual teachers or track the learning growth of an
individual student over time.
The federal government's stimulus effort was designed to persuade
states to take on such complex improvements. Convinced they have an
important role to play, many consultants fear that in a time of severe
economic distress, there will be less patience than usual for the
missteps that inevitably accompany innovation.
"If we get 50 percent of this right, I think that's a success," says
Mr. Joftus, the RttT technical assistance director. "My concern is that
the public will see this as a 50 percent failure rate. If that happens,
there's going to be a huge backlash."

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE. (BELOW IS
A SMALL SECTION)
...Funding Search
Connecticut, which has one of the largest achievement gaps in the
country, is on the hook for a $300 million reform agenda, which was
created when state lawmakers passed a sweeping new law.
Now, with the state facing a $3.5 billion budget deficit, school
districts still reeling from painful budget cuts last summer will have
to figure out how to pay for the online and Advanced Placement courses
the law mandates. They will also have to track student data, create new
tests and provide remedial help to struggling students. In addition,
they must hire additional math, science and language teachers-and
possibly build science labs-to implement a more rigorous high school
curriculum set to launch in 2014.
"Talk about unfunded mandates," said Elin Katz, a school board member
in suburban West Hartford. "I don't know how we're going to do
this..." Full article here.
On their way out the door, state ed
board members pass on school financing decision
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
February 9, 2011
At the State Board of Education's last meeting before Gov. Dannel
Malloy makes his appointments, members decided not to vote on a
proposal to overhaul how magnet, charter and public schools in the
state are financed.
"So, we will leave that to the next board," said chairman Allan Taylor,
who was visibly irritated that the proposal was tabled.
The recommendation would have state funding reallocated on the basis of
how much a local school district's costs are actually reduced when a
student leaves the system for an alternative program--a partial "money
follows the child" approach. It was a compromise reached after
months of work by a broad coalition, including the Connecticut
Association of School Superintendents, the Connecticut Conference of
Municipalities, the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education and
the New Haven-based reform group ConnCAN.
But that coalition began to fracture Wednesday at the state education
board meeting.
"I am not sure these recommendations will do anything to improve
education," said Joshua Starr, the superintendent of Stamford Public
Schools and the head of the Connecticut Association of Urban
Superintendents representing 19 school districts.
"Our urban students need more, not less," said Sharon Beloin-Saavedra,
president of the New Britain Board of Education.
The leader of the Connecticut Association of Public School
Superintendents, Joe Cirasuolo, a member of the special committee that
drafter the plan, continued to maintain his support. But James Finley,
head of CCM who also helped draft the recommendations, stepped back
Wednesday.
"CCM does not support money follows the child," he told the board. Last
month when approving the recommendations he voiced support because it
would only have the money that is actually saved by the district follow
the child to their new school.
Speakers also said it would be near impossible to come up with a
formula to identify the actual savings for a district when a student
leaves, if they save at all. But Brian Mahoney, the chief
financial officer for the SDOE, said during an interview he is
confident such a formula could be accurately made. After 90
minutes of testimony from public education leaders from across the
state -- mostly critical of the proposal -- state board members decided
to pass on taking a stand in what will be their last meeting together.
The terms of eight of the 11 board members expire before the next
meeting, and Malloy will get to choose their replacements.
During a 10-minute discussion, board members said they need more
information and more in-depth recommendations on other issues facing
education financing.
"It's very disappointing what's been produced by this committee," said
Janet Finneran of Bethany, the board's vice-chair.
"There needs to be a lot more work," said Beverly Bobrosk, a member
from Bristol. "Let's stop being afraid to talk about it."
But Taylor said after the meeting that by deciding to table proposal,
board members showed they were afraid of it.
"I am sorry to have the discussion dominated by fear. Which is what
just happened," he said.
Alex Johnston of ConnCAN said he doesn't buy the argument board members
didn't have enough information to make an informed decision.
"We went through very vigorous debate and it was a lot of work," said
Johnston, referring to the special committee's weekly meetings. Board
members were invited to attend the meetings, many of which also were
broadcast on the state's public affairs television network, CT-N. "They
found themselves unable to take a position. This underscores why we
need strong leadership to move forward on school finance reform."
Taylor said for 25 years education advocates and leaders have been
calling on reforming how schools are financed, and the state board
opting to pass on taking a stand is detrimental.
"We have to figure out recommendations and move this debate forward,"
he said.
Malloy, who has been highly critical of the way the state finances
schools, said at a press conference Wednesday that the funding formula
does need an overhaul, but said it is not likely that will happen this
year.
Detroit plan would slash schools, cram
classrooms
The Washington Times Online Edition
By Andrea Billups
7:56 p.m., Wednesday, January 26, 2011
DETROIT | Think wrangling one or two teenagers at home is tough?
Some high school teachers in Detroit could end up with as many as 62
students per classroom under a proposal geared at helping balance the
district's budget, which is $327 million in the red.
The class-size increases come along with a recommendation to close
nearly half of the struggling city's schools over the next two years,
from 142 to 72, in a money-saving effort that would shutter empty
buildings, lay off staff, force parents to pay fees for sports and
consolidate some departments.
The plan also calls for cutting vocational and alternative schools,
JROTC, truant officers and busing for students seeking GEDs.
The hard-times proposal was released last week as a part of a monthly
recommendation made to the Michigan Department of Education by Robert
Bobb, a former D.C. school board president and deputy mayor who was
appointed in January 2009 by Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm as the
district's emergency financial manager.
It is the latest of his stark yet determined efforts to get the failing
school system on track after years of financial woes and mismanagement.
Mr. Bobb's efforts, while lauded by some on the national education
reform scene, have not made him a popular figure among some teachers,
school officials and parents, but his path toward overhaul is
necessary, said Michael Petrilli, vice president for national programs
and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington.
"I think it's definitely appropriate … but he's not going to win a
popularity contest," Mr. Petrilli said of Mr. Bobb's massive fixes.
"He's like an emergency-room doctor up there, trying to stop the
bleeding and he's doing some tough work that had to be done — laying
off teachers, cutting costs, trying to find a way for this school
district to be sustainable," Mr. Petrilli added of the tough choices
ahead for the Motor City schools.
Over the past several decades, as the city's population has diminished
along with property tax revenues and state aid, the system has
struggled with its finances and its record of achievement. On the U.S.
Department of Education's National Report card, the district's fourth-
and eighth-graders posted the lowest reading rates of any urban school
district. The district's high school graduation rate was 24.9 percent
in 2008.
The dismal academic outlook in Detroit prompted Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan in 2009 to call it "arguably the worst urban school
district in the country."
School finances have been in a deficit for the past four years, forcing
the Democratic governor, who left office this month, to hire Mr. Bobb
as a turnaround specialist. As he strives to cut the budget deficit and
return the schools to fiscal solvency, he also must now work with a
Republican governor and legislature as he negotiates the return of
academic control back to the Detroit Board of Education, which
eventually will hire a new superintendent.
The city itself is plotting a rebound strategy after the Kwame
Kilpatrick scandal and the ongoing rebirth of General Motors, Chrysler
and Ford, which has energized those invested in the city's fledgling
renaissance.
Mr. Petrilli said it is not the first time that a struggling urban
district has turned to massive overhaul, including shuttering many
schools to make ends meet. He pointed to massive cuts in the Kansas
City, Mo., district, which closed 26 of its 61 schools in August amid a
$50 million budget shortfall. Like Detroit, Kansas City had drastic
reductions in enrollment — from a peak of 79,000 students in 1979 to
fewer than 17,000 today.
"This takes a lot of energy and leadership and stamina. It's not a lot
of fun," Mr. Petrilli said. "But Detroit public schools were in such
dire shape that the only path was dramatic overall. They were not on a
sustainable path — financially and academically. He's trying to get the
house in order up there."
The proposed plan calls for class-size increases in grades four to 12
starting this fall, and then all grades in fiscal year 2012.
Kindergarten through third grade would rise from 17 to 25 now to 31 by
the 2013-14 school year.
Class sizes in fourth and fifth grades would increase from 30 now to 39
in 2013-14. Sixth and eighth grades would increase from 35 to 47 in the
2013-14 school year. High school class sizes would rise the most — from
35 students now to 62 in 2013-14.
Whether the plan comes to fruition is another matter. District
spokesman Steven Wasko said officials are working on but have not
released details of alternative plans to the latest proposal, under
which the large class sizes and school closures were suggested. The
emergency financial manager updates the state education department
monthly of his progress.
Even as ideas are being formulated, the head of Detroit's teachers
union said the proposal on the table will never happen.
"It is the union's contention that the district's deficit can be
resolved without the dismantling of the Detroit Public Schools and our
contract," Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson said
in a statement published last week.
The union's contract with the district said teachers receive more
payments when class sizes exceed a certain benchmark. It filed a charge
of unfair labor practices in July in an attempt to make sure class
sizes were not increased.
© Copyright 2011 The Washington
Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Speakers tell school funding panel the
answer is more money
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, CT MIRROR
October 25, 2011
WATERFORD--Parents, school officials and teacher unions had one message
for the panel responsible for resolving the highly-criticized formula
used for financing schools across the state: Increase funding.
"I'm sure you've heard what I'm going to say from a lot of people.
[State funding] is not hitting anywhere near an actual reflection of
what the actual costs are," Donald Blevins, chairman of the Waterford
Board of Education and president of the state's school board
association, told the panel.
The state's largest teachers union says the poorest districts are
underfunded $5,300 per student and statewide the shortfall is $1.5
billion a year.
But top officials say the reality is the state is strapped financially
and the chances of a wave of additional money being approved for
schools is nil.
"I'm not going to deny that more money is an advantageous goal," said
Benjamin Barnes, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget chief, shocked by the
$1.5 billion shortfall in state funding cited by the Connecticut
Education Association. "I flinched."
A parent of three children at the last public hearing in New Haven
brought an tiny apple pie to convey the same message of state
underfunding education.
"The pie is too small," Ester Santana told the panel, which is
co-chaired by Barnes and Rep. Andrea Stillman, House chair of the
legislature's Education Committee.
Three out of every ten dollars spent on education in Connecticut comes
from the state, which is comparable to other Northeast states,
according to the State Department of Education in its annual report
released earlier this month.
But parents and education officials at Tuesdays meeting said the state
has a more severe achievement gap between low-income students and their
peers than the surrounding states.
"It's simply unacceptable to underfund education," said Erika Haynes, a
parent of four children in Windham, a district that the state recently
intervene in for failing too many children. "We are where we are
because of money."
No one on the financing panel disagreed during the three-hour barrage
of requests for more funding that additional money wouldn't help, but
they aren't expecting to find a pot of money. Rather, the panel intends
to figure out how to more fairly disperse the $1.9 billion the state is
providing.
"We all have the recognition that there is a bottom line... What would
you do if we didn't have another dollar?" asked Sen. Toni N. Harp,
D-New Haven and the co-chair of the legislature's Appropriations
Committee.
That comment solicited whispers from the packed school cafeteria that a
formula with no additional funding would be horrible, but not a
surprise.
"It's a shame. I don't know about formulas. I don't know about
percentages. I know that more money needs to go to education," said
Susy Reyes, a parent with one child in Bridgeport Public Schools,
another district the state recently intervened in and replaced their
board of education.
Rep. J. Brendan Sharkey of Hamden, the House Majority Leader, said
earlier in the day he is expecting the panel to provide lawmakers a
realistic path to better funding schools, which does not include a
request for additional funding.
"I don't envision that we are going to have more funding," he said.
"You can't solve the formula by adding more money, they need to make
sure we have an equitable system."
The task force has set a goal of releasing a proposed overhaul to the
school financing formula by next fall.

There was more to this Pelto
letter. He added a list of other State of CT funding programs "on
the chopping block" as well as another letter to the editor regarding
how little performance improvement CT gets from its highest cost for
public education. NOTE: We do not say any of these "facts"
from letters to the editor are accurate...
State
may change education aid
Connecticut
funding formula may be overhauled
New London DAY
By STEPHANIE REITZ Associated Press
Article published Jan 2, 2011
Hartford - Connecticut's formula to determine state aid for local
schools could be on the verge of a major overhaul after decades of
criticism that it hasn't helped close achievement gaps between poor and
rich towns.
A coalition of lawmakers and education advocates is urging incoming
Gov. Dan Malloy to settle a 2005 lawsuit against the state over alleged
inequities in the state's Education Cost Sharing formula. As
mayor of
Stamford, Malloy was among the original plaintiffs in the lawsuit,
which calls for major changes in the ECS formula.
"It's time now for people of good will to sit down and resolve this
issue. We can't lose another generation of young people to an unequal
and, in some cases, an inadequate education system," said state Rep.
Christopher Caruso, D-Bridgeport.
The ECS formula has been tweaked regularly since it went into effect in
1988, a hybrid of two earlier plans intended to ensure more funding
equity between wealthy and poor communities. It uses a complicated
equation that considers the number of students, a town's wealth or
poverty and other factors. Its intention is to split school costs
50-50 between the state and municipalities, a goal that's never been
reached. The closest the state got was 45 percent in 1989, and it's
around 42 percent now.
It's also spawned a few lawsuits, including a 1998 case in which
9-year-old Jedidiah Roesler of Meriden and his mother, Karen, were
among more than a dozen plaintiffs on behalf of municipalities that
believed they were shortchanged. Jedidiah, now a 22-year-old
college
student, is among thousands of youths whose school careers mostly or
completely coincided with the ECS formula's life span. Karen
Roesler
said she joined the lawsuit hoping it could help students whose
families did not have the time and educational background to be as
involved as her family was, and who might lose out on the best possible
education of the funding issue.
"It's been so many years now and yet here we are in Connecticut, still
struggling with the same issues of equity in education," Karen Roesler
said.
"What I did learn from being involved in that suit with Jed was how
complicated that (ECS) formula was and that in the end, it wasn't
really followed anyway."
That lawsuit eventually was dropped, with many of its claims over the
ECS formula absorbed into larger cases, including the 2005 one that's
currently pending. The plaintiffs, the Connecticut Coalition for
Justice in Education Funding, are a group of officials and parents from
more than a dozen cities and towns, including Hartford, New Haven and
Bridgeport. Their lawsuit says the vast differences in test
results,
graduation rates and other factors between many rich and poor towns
show that some of Connecticut's nearly 500,000 students are not
receiving an adequate education.
The coalition says the way to close that gap is to overhaul the ECS
formula. Dianne Kaplan deVries, the coalition's project director, said
members are confident that Malloy understands their concerns and the
complexity of the case.
"The primary backbone of the ECS formula is fine, but so many of its
elements were not based on reality," deVries said.
A Superior Court judge had dismissed part of the coalition's case
regarding funding in 2007. The Connecticut Supreme Court revived the
case last spring, saying the constitution promises an education that is
good enough to prepare students for a job or college. It's tentatively
set for trial in 2014. The push to fix the ECS formula comes as
Connecticut faces a $270 million shortfall in that school funding
budget starting July 1. That's because federal stimulus money, used to
cover an ECS gap last year, will run out.
The $270 million is part of a $3.67 billion budget shortfall that
Malloy will be forced to address in the 2011 budget year. Malloy
said
this week that although resolving problems with the ECS formula is a
high priority during his administration, his most immediate concern is
ensuring the budget shortfall is covered and public schools don't face
major cuts this fall.
The formula is being closely watched in Connecticut municipalities,
where local officials would have to raise taxes or slash spending if
the ECS money shrinks.
"At least in the short term, our focus is going to be on seeing that
ECS is stable," said Robert Rader, executive director of the
Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. "We have felt for years
that if (ECS) was fully funded, it would do what people wanted. But
people are finding the more they delve into it, the more complicated it
seems."
State colleges and
universities bracing for budget storm
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIROR
December 29, 2010
Officials at Connecticut's public colleges and universities are bracing
for another tough budget year as the legislature and new governor
grapple with next year's $3.67 billion deficit.
"Public universities are definitely on the firing line," said Higher
Education Commissioner Michael Meotti. "The next several years are
going to be the toughest budget years higher education has faced in the
last 50 or 60 years."
"We all know cuts are coming. It's just a matter of how much,"
Connecticut State University System Chancellor David G. Carter told a
student member of the Board of Trustees at a recent meeting.
And legislators are not trying to allay those concerns.
"Public universities are preparing for what they expect to come, and
that's cuts from the state," said Rep. Roberta B. Willis, co-chairwoman
of the legislature's Higher Education Committee and a Democrat from
Salisbury. "Universities have to control their costs and find savings."
Gov.-elect Dan Malloy also has warned that state institutions will have
to tighten their budgets. Even at the upbeat announcement of a new
president for the University of Connecticut last week, he would only
commit to funding the school "at a level that is appropriate," without
promising there would be no cuts.
The dire budget predictions come against the backdrop of a new report
by the legislature's research office saying that the growth in higher
education budgets has far outstripped the level of state General Fund
support for the institutions.
While combined spending by the state's three higher education systems
-- UConn, CSUS and the Connecticut Community Colleges -- grew by nearly
230 percent over two decades, to $1.94 billion in fiscal 2009, the
General Fund contribution increased by less than 83 percent, to $556
million, according to the Office of Legislative Research.
Meanwhile, in-state tuition and fees increased by 239 percent at the
community colleges, 284 percent at UConn and nearly 353 percent at CSUS.
The rising cost of higher education has caused concern and prompted
several reviews, including one by the legislature's bipartisan Program
Review and Investigations Committee into how colleges and universities
are governed.
"The public in general has expressed discontent with the rises in
higher education costs and spending," says a staff report approved
unanimously by the committee. "UConn and CSUS have been consistently
ranked among the most expensive public university systems in the nation
(numbers 9 and 11, respectively, in 2009 among peer institutions)."
But higher education officials warn cuts in state support would likely
lead to even higher tuitions.
"We are left with no choice but to increase tuition so we can provide
the same level of education... We are beginning to price people out of
education," said Mary Anne Cox, assistant chancellor for Connecticut's
dozen community colleges.
Last week, the board of the community colleges approved increasing
tuition by almost 3 percent -- to almost $3,500 a semester for in-state
students. And if state funding is cut in the coming months to help
close the state's deficit, Cox said the board would surely have to
revisit tuition levels.
"There aren't very many options" for cutting costs, she said, saying
most spending increases are for personnel. The college system's
contract with unionized employees provides for 5 percent raises in the
coming year, she said.
UConn will likely determine how much tuition will be for next school
year in February.
"We've known for some time that (the upcoming year) is going to be a
very difficult budget year. Just how rough it will be for UConn depends
on what our state appropriation looks like," UConn's budget director
Richard Gray wrote in a statement.
But things could have been worse for Connecticut's public colleges over
the last few years, said Bruce Vandal, director of postsecondary
education for Education Commission of the States.
"There are states that are abandoning or retrenching their expenditures
for universities... Connecticut has not begun to do that, so that's
good," he said.
Six states -- including Rhode Island, South Carolina and California --
have reduced the actual amount they spend on higher education by five
percent or more in recent years, reports the National Conference of
State Legislators.
But with the recent signals from Connecticut lawmakers, university
leaders are beginning to worry their state funding levels are in
jeopardy.
School Board Considers Social Media
Rules for Employees
WestportNow
By James Lomuscio
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
With the popularity of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and
MySpace, Westport Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon asked the Board
of Education Monday night to consider a policy regulating employees’
use of social media, even for personal use.
The board, which only had four of its seven members present, will vote
on the action at its Jan. 4 meeting.
Landon said that the proposed policy is an extension of the Acceptable
Computer Network Use policy requiring all faculty, staff and school
board employees to use the school network for emails so that all
communication is archived.
He said the policy is designed to protect employees against claims of
inappropriate conversations.
“We’ve asked teachers not to use Facebook because there is no way to
archive this,” said Landon.
Donald O’Day, school board chairman, questioned whether the policy
should be extended to school volunteers who use social media to
communicate about school functions. Landon said he would seek legal
opinions.
The policy states that while the school board recognizes the importance
of social media and acknowledges employees’ First Amendment rights, the
board will regulate social media use, even personal use, under certain
circumstances.
They include: it interfering with the school district’s work; being
used to harass co-workers and others in the school community; creating
a hostile work environment; breaching confidentiality obligations;
disrupting work of the school district; if it “harms the goodwill and
reputation of the school district;” and if it “violates the law, board
policies and/or other school rules and regulations.”
Regarding personal use, employees were asked to refrain from
inappropriate speech and postings that could reflect poorly on the
school district and to maintain “appropriate professional boundaries
with students parents and colleagues.”
For example, the proposed policy states that it is inappropriate for a
teacher “to friend” a student or his or her parent to establish a
special relationship.
It also states it is not appropriate for an employee to give students
or parents access to personal postings unrelated to school.
Posted 12/21 at 09:03 AM
Weston's new school buses are
safer in more ways than one
Weston FORUM
Written by Kimberly Donnelly
Thursday, 16 December 2010 00:00
Over the past several weeks, many Westonites noticed an overabundance
of school buses filling the parking lot of the bus depot on the corner
of Weston Road and School Road — and spilling over onto the lawn, the
side lot, and even in the elementary school parking lot.
This week, passersby should notice that the bus depot looks back to
normal. But, actually, a big change has taken place.
Not only are Weston’s 20 school buses (plus two spare ones), provided
by First Student, brand new, but they are also now all equipped with
active audio and video recording devices.
When the school district renewed its contract with First Student last
year, the bus company agreed to replace the district’s buses with brand
new ones for the same cost per bus it had charged the previous year,
said David Lustberg, the district’s transportation coordinator.
For an additional $1.20 per bus per day, the school board decided to
authorize the installation and use of cameras on the buses.
The new buses with cameras began to roll out at the beginning of the
month. Each bus had to go through an inspection, however, and so, Mr.
Lustberg said, there were several weeks when both the old and new buses
were parked at the bus depot.
This week, the last of the old buses were scheduled to be replaced with
the newer ones.
According to school board member Dick Bochinski, who was among the
board members to take a “test ride” recently, “They’re quieter, more
fuel efficient, safer with higher padded seats, and the recording
devices will help deter any potential misconduct.”
With winter knocking on the door, Mr. Lustberg pointed out that another
advantage is all the buses have new batteries, heaters, and engine
systems, making cold mornings much less problematic.
“We had our first good test a few days ago when it was 10 degrees at
start-up time, and all the buses started immediately and the heat
kicked right on,” Mr. Lustberg said. “We’re looking forward to less bus
trouble and having to use fewer spares, and having fewer breakdowns.”
It’s the cameras that have been the focus of most of the attention
given to the new buses, though.
At its September meeting, the school board adopted a new policy to
address the use of the cameras and recording devices on the buses “as
an aid in monitoring student and adult behavior. The recordings from
these cameras will be used to assist school administrators in deciding
upon appropriate disciplinary action.”
Mr. Lustberg said he has not heard any negative response about the
cameras and audio recorders. Drivers like having them, he said, because
it means they can concentrate on driving; parents like it because it’s
a way of seeing what’s going on; and administrators like it because it
should be a deterrent that helps to maintain appropriate conduct on
buses.
“Everyone thinks it will lead to better behavior by the kids,” Mr.
Lustberg said.
First Selectman Gayle Weinstein agreed. “Given the number of bullying
incidents we’ve had, at least the cameras provide another set of eyes.
I’m all for it. And as a parent, I think it’s a great idea,” she said.
Staff and students, including contracted drivers, are prohibited from
tampering with the recording devices for any reason.
Mr. Lustberg said the video, recorded from both the front and the back
of the buses during the morning and afternoon trips, runs on a 30-day
loop. After 30 days, the recordings “drop off,” so any incidents need
to be reviewed within the 30-day window. However, when an incident is
reviewed, it may be downloaded to a computer and saved indefinitely if
needed, Mr. Lustberg said.
According to the school board’s policy, “Recordings considered for
retention as a part of a student’s behavioral record will be maintained
in accordance with established procedures governing access, review and
release of student records.”
Recordings also may become a part of employee records. “This provision
applies to all employees of the district as well as all contractors,
agents and their employees,” the policy states.
The policy, which is available in its entirety on the school district’s
Web site, www.westonK12-ct.org, spells out who may request to review
recordings and how those requests are to be made and considered.
There is a relatively small window of time to request viewing: Requests
must be made in writing to the appropriate school principal within
seven school days of the date of recording one wishes to review.
Cromwell
Must Give $1.3 Million Back To State For Woodside School
By MELISSA PIONZIO, mpionzio@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
5:00 PM EST, December 10, 2010
CROMWELL —
Enrollment at Woodside Intermediate School is lower than projected, a
state audit has found, prompting the state to ask the town to return of
$1.3 million used to build the school.
There are 494 students enrolled at the school, 105 fewer than predicted
by the school building committee when the school was in the planning
stages in 2001.
"We have a formula that authorizes payments per square foot per
student," said Tom Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of
Education. "With this school, there is a square footage allotment per
pupil that the state will reimburse or cost share. But if you build a
school that is too large, then the state will only pay up to the
authorized square footages."
The state initially sought $1.6 million from the town, but reduced the
amount by $377,000 by decreasing the square footage used in the grant
calculation, Murphy said. The 84,000-square-foot school was completed
in 2006 at a cost of $27.4 million.
Superintendent Matthew Bisceglia said the town got the data to support
its enrollment projections through studies conducted by a state
education consultant and an educational consulting agency. Bisceglia,
who was not superintendent when the school was built, said he questions
the validity of such projections, pointing out that the consultant's
study projected that Cromwell's overall student enrollment for
2010-2011 would be lower than it actually is.
"They projected for the 2010-2011 school year we'd have 1,717 students
for the district; we have 2,040," he said. "Additionally, they said
we'd have 485 students at the high school; we actually have 603."
Bisceglia said Mark Cohan, who was the superintendant at the time,
hired Education Leadership Services LLC to help plan the type of
intermediate school the town would need. That information was provided
to the state, he said.
"Based on data they reviewed, such as enrollment dynamics and building
permits, the company suggested that Cromwell plan for 600 students at
the intermediate level by the end of the decade," said Bisceglia.
Although Woodside's enrollment is lower than projected, Bisceglia said
he is confident that the school will serve 600 students by 2020.
"You have the enrollment projection done by the state and the
educational leadership services coming up with a very strong projection
and you have the unique characteristics of Cromwell, which included an
incredible amount of open space," he said. "Even today as you drive by
Woodside Intermediate School, there are two new housing developments
going up. Had the economic downturn not taken place, we would see many
more of those homes being purchased, being built and many of the
building permits that were projected not being scrapped."
Murphy said the state will work with Cromwell to determine how it can
repay the $1.3 million. The town can also ask the General Assembly to
review the matter, or try to increase enrollment at Woodside.
Murphy said ways to do that include encouraging "public school choice,
students coming from other districts. If they do have that in place and
those students do attend that school, it does offer some opportunities
for discussion and those numbers would need to be looked at. We want to
work with the school district to resolve these issues, but these are
significant dollars and there is a school with 100 open seats."
Bisceglia, who has requested a meeting with state Department of
Education officials, said 73 students from other districts attend
Cromwell schools through the Open Choice program. He asked why state
officials accepted the town's application in the first place, since the
state audit also found that the town didn't supply sufficient data with
its application.
"Because this is an independent committee, why didn't the state write
to them and tell them they need more documentation?" Bisceglia. asked
"Why didn't they give them some guidance as to what they were really
looking for?"
Education panel rejects proposal to
change school funding rules
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
December 6, 2010
A panel of municipal, education and business leaders Monday failed to
reach agreement on a proposal to require that state funds for education
follow students who leave their local public schools for alternative
institutions.
The business and education reform leaders on the panel backed the
proposal, but representatives of towns, local schools and unions
defeated their efforts. Alex Johnston, head of the New
Haven-based school reform group ConnCAN, called the proposal a "policy
answer" to improving public education in the state.
"We are not funding school choice in a way that makes sense right now,"
he said.
About 27,000 students in the state attend magnet schools and another
1,300 students attend public schools outside their home districts
through a choice program. Although the state provides some funding for
the alternative schools, it also continues to fund the local school
after the student is gone.
"The way we fund magnets and school choice programs is not fair. When a
student leaves a school, so should the money. The school responsible
for that student deserves that money," said Dudley Williams, an
executive at GE Asset Management who was named co-chair of Gov.-elect
Dan Malloy's education policy advisory group Monday.
"money follow the child"
CCM's Jim Finley (r): 'This would cause a lot of pain for schools'
But local officials and union leaders said Monday it would be unfair to
take money from an already cash-strapped school and send it to another.
"We are concerned about the impact on the individual districts," said
John Yrchik, head of the Connecticut Education Association, the state's
largest teachers' union. "You would be making it more difficult for
districts to function."
Jim Finley, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of
Municipalities, agreed.
"This would cause a lot of pain for schools," he said after the
meeting. "Maybe we can consider this when schools begin to be
adequately funded by the state. Right now they are not."
The panel, which was created by the State Board of Education to make
recommendations on school finance issues, did forward other proposals
to the board, including:
* Allowing parents to enroll their children in any
charter, magnet or school choice program
* Having the state fully fund its 50 percent share
of education
* Reorganizing the funding formula for schools
because it is not functioning effectively
Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan said he hopes whatever changes
are made to how schools are funded, it is fixed once and for all.
"There needs to be dependability and stability of school funding," he
said. "We cannot continue with this uncertainty."
Freund answers questions on
'stay-the-course budget'
MJ Mercanti-Anthony, Special To Greenwich Time
Published: 10:43 p.m., Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Superintendent of Schools Sidney Freund had a lot to answer for at
Tuesday night's public hearing on his proposed budget.
After soliciting input on his initial 2011-12 budget proposal presented
in early November, 144 questions came into the board office, including
ones from school board and PTA members and the public, as well as town
agencies like the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Representative
Town Meeting. In front of the school board and a crowded audience
Tuesday night at Cos Cob School, Freund applauded the board and the
public for its analysis of the budget.
Coming in the second year of the district's strategic plan, he stated
this was a "stay-the-course budget, but not a business-as-usual
budget." As such, he argued the budget reflects the ongoing effort to
clarify and increase the focus on improving classroom instruction
through data-driven decision making. Most questions and comments
at the hearing from both board members and the public centered on
staffing concerns. Eighty-five percent of the budget consists of
staffing costs, while staffing additions account for 75 percent of the
increase in the proposed $135.6 million budget over the 2010-11
spending package. The overall year-to-year increase is 3.4 percent.
Freund clarified his initial proposal, saying that the budget calls for
an increase of 10.75 positions, not the 14.1 originally projected. The
error stemmed from a failure to account for building-based
administrators who teach part of the day. The new figure allows the
budget to meet the BET-set staffing guidelines of 10.2 students per
staff member. In total, the budget calls for the creation of
seven new elementary classes to maintain class-size guidelines enacted
by the board.
On the issue of resources, Freund explained that due to the diffuse
nature of schooling, precisely attributing student gains to specific
resource allocations was not possible. Long term, he argued the best
allocations are those that build the capacity of the instructional
staff. Board member Leslie Moriarty, conscious of the lack of
student-performance growth in some areas, worried if the current
staffing guidelines, particularly in regards to class size, were
appropriate for furthering the board's initiatives.
In response, Freund argued that class-size research is inconclusive.
"The strongest predicator of student success is not class size, but
quality of instruction," he said.
If given the option, Freund said he would rather increase the number of
instructional coaches to train teachers in new instructional
strategies. However, he reiterated that the current proposal follows
board guidelines on class size. Board member Peter Sherr
challenged the superintendent, arguing that anyone could Google class
size and see that is does make a difference, particularly in grades 3
and below. "Part of the reason our scores are declining are because
bright kids are leaving the district," Sherr said.
He continued, "I've heard from lots of groups of parents that we want a
hard cap (on class size). It sounds like we are not committed to that
issue."
Freund reiterated that the proposal meets current guidelines as
stipulated by the board. A 72-page booklet answering all of the
collected questions is available on the district's website at
greenwichschools.org. Anyone with questions not covered on the website
is asked to submit them to board President Steven Anderson by noon
Thursday. The board will hold another public hearing on Dec. 9
before voting on the budget at its Dec. 16 meeting.
"At that point it becomes the board's budget and we further it along to
other groups by statute," Anderson said. The board would submit
the spending plan to the town by Dec. 30. The BET will take up the
proposal before the Representative Town Meeting adopts the budget in
May.
Lady
Trojan swimmers splash their way to Class S title
Westport NEWS
By Eliot Schickler, eschickler@bcnnew.com
Published: 06:08 a.m., Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Miracles happen in sports from time to time and underdogs go on to win
championships. In the fashion of David slaying Goliath with a
slingshot, the underdog prevailed in the Class S swimming championships
at Southern Connecticut State University on Tuesday when the Weston
girls swimming team dethroned three-time defending Class S champion
East Catholic, 568.5-561.5 points in the 26-team field.
Weston's slingshot struck the bullseye square in the face because of
its depth. Although the Lady Trojans won only one event, taking the
200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:42.80 behind freshman Dacia
Gross, junior Catie Ledwick, senior co-captain Karen Bottger and
freshman Katie Johnson, they won because they had many other All-State
performances.
Bottger took second in the 200-yarrd freestyle (1:55.84) and third in
the 500-yard freestyle (5:17.95). Sophomore Olivia Clark almost made
All-State in the 500-free but settled for fourth (5:19.43) and was an
All-Stater in the 100-yard breatstroke (1:09.09). Johnson was an
All-Stater in the 100-yard freestyle (55.58) by placing third and
sophomore Alex Edgar earned All-State in the 50-yard freestyle (25.75)
by taking third place. Bottger, Edgar, Clark and Johnson earned
All-State in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:43.02) by placing second.
School's out for Klein
NYPOST
By SALLY GOLDENBERG and YOAV GONEN
Last Updated: 5:50 AM, November 10, 2010
Posted: 2:45 AM, November 10, 2010
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, a hard-charging innovator who brought
unprecedented national attention to the city as a model for urban
public-school reform, shocked the education world yesterday by
announcing his resignation. He will be replaced by Cathie Black,
a publishing-world powerhouse who has headed Hearst Magazines for the
past 15 years and who Mayor Bloomberg said was selected largely for her
managerial skills.
Like Klein when he was appointed to run the country's largest schools
system back in 2002, Black will take the helm of an operation with a
$23 billion budget, 1.1 million students and 135,000 employees having
had almost no experience in education. She will become the city's
first female schools chancellor when she takes over sometime around the
new year. Klein, who has been heralded as an educational
reformer, said he is taking a position as an executive vice president
at News Corp., the parent company of The Post.
"Thank you for giving me the best job I've ever had," Klein told
Bloomberg at a press conference at City Hall yesterday.
To the city's public-school parents, Klein added, "Being responsible
for educating your children has been both daunting and humbling. I want
you to know, I gave it my all."
Klein, 64, took over a schools system that was by all accounts
dysfunctional and that had seen a revolving door of chancellors
attempt, and for the most part fail, to make lasting
improvements. Hand-in-hand with Bloomberg -- the first mayor to
have direct control over the city's public schools -- Klein set about
restructuring not just the chaotic organization of the system but also
its defeatist culture. Among the initiatives with which he
targeted his so-called three pillars of school reform -- leadership,
empowerment and accountability -- Klein:
* Assigned schools A through F letter grades and closed schools that
had consistently received poor grades.
* Created a hospitable environment in which more than 125 charter
schools could flourish, including by providing them with free public
building space.
* Battled to eradicate longstanding teachers-union protections, such as
tenure, seniority rights and lockstep pay, which he believed benefited
educators, but not students.
* Handed much of the budget and educational decision-making power to
schools, rather than ruling from a central bureaucracy.
During his tenure, Klein oversaw a 15-percentage-point increase in
graduation rates, according to the city's calculations. It now stands
at 63 percent, according to a new methodology. Klein also oversaw
steady gains in elementary- and middle-school math and reading test
scores.
"He really was and is a transformative leader," said Sy Fliegel, a
former educator and current director of the Center for Educational
Innovation-Public Education Association.
"His reorganization and what he's doing now is a major innovative
change, because I always thought schools were the center of change --
and that's where he's putting the power."
But Klein also took his fair share of punches throughout his tenure --
often after alienating parents and when butting heads with the leaders
of the powerful teachers union. Many parents and teachers have
been fuming for years over what they see as Klein's reliance on test
scores -- which are used to decide which students to hold back, which
teachers to give tenure to, and which schools to close.
"Chancellor Klein's tenure has been controversial, and even divisive,
in part because he never figured out how to work effectively with
parents," said Zakiyah Ansari, a parent organizer for the Alliance for
Quality Education.
But others say that Klein brought a tidal wave of positive change to
the city -- and that he was particularly effective at recruiting
talented teachers and principals.
"Joel Klein built an incredible base in his term, and now it is up to
the rest of us to build on that base and continue the push to save
public education from itself," said Joe Williams, director of Democrats
for Education Reform.
Education officials propose a plan to
expand school choice--at a cost
CT MIRROR
Jacqueline Rabe
November 8, 2010
State education officials are proposing a series of measures to expand
opportunities for Hartford schoolchildren to attend suburban
schools--but the multi-million-dollar plan will be a tough sell with
the state facing a massive budget deficit.
The plan would provide money to reopen suburban schools that have been
closed, with the requirement that 25 percent of their enrollment be
Hartford students. It also would more than double current
reimbursements for districts that enroll a certain threshold of
Hartford students, increase transportation grants to get students to
alternative schools and give the state education commissioner authority
to require suburban districts to enroll Hartford students.
The state is under court order in the Sheff vs. O'Neill school
desegregation case to reduce the racial isolation of Hartford's largely
black and Hispanic school population. In an interview last week,
Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan said the alternative to the
state's taking action on its own is to face another court mandate.
"We have to do more. We can make the investment now, or we can go back
to court and they can make us meet our objectives," he said. "I imagine
a court mandate will look very similar to what I am proposing."
The plan would cost $2 million a year for a pilot program to reopen
four closed schools; $5.9 million a year to increase the reimbursement
to suburban districts for enrolling Hartford students; and an
additional $7 million a year to increase transportation grants.
McQuillan said the costs could prove to be a major problem, considering
the state is facing a $3.3 billion deficit the coming year.
"We need to get people to make this commitment," he told State Board of
Education members during a meeting Thursday.
McQuillan said reopening closed schools is less expensive that building
new magnet schools, which has been the principal strategy for complying
with Sheff so far.
The state has spend more than $1 billon on magnet schools since the
1996 order; they currently enroll about 5,200 students.
State Department of Education officials say a less expensive
alternative is to increase enrollment in the state's Open Choice
Program, which has about 1,300 student attending public schools in a
district outside their own, well short of the SDE goal of 3,000
students.
Martha Stone, a lawyer for the Sheff plaintiffs, said the state is
still falling "significantly short" of its obligation to provide
alternative schools -- whether it's charter, magnet or enrollment in a
suburban schools.
"There's a huge demand of students wanting to leave their current
school. The problem is there are not thousands of seats at suburban
schools. The suburban districts aren't offering the spots," she said.
McQuillan said part of the problem is that there are not adequate
incentives for suburban districts to accept Hartford students.
James Caradonio, who heads the Greater Hartford Regional School Choice
Office, said some superintendents and principals tell him they would
loose money by taking students from the city.
"It's absolutely not enough money. It's common sense why we still have
a shortage of spots," he said.
Districts are currently reimbursed $2,500 for each student they enroll.
McQuillan plans to ask state lawmakers to increase that to $6,000 for
districts that offer 3 percent of their seats to Hartford students.
The proposal to reopen closed schools would start as a pilot program
and would provide $250,000 a year for each participating school for
renovations, computers, lab equipment or other instructional materials
if 25 percent of the school's students are from Hartford.
McQuillan is also proposing that he be allow to require suburban
schools accept more Hartford students, a proposal he admits is a long
shot and will face a lot of resistance if the appropriate funding does
not accompany such a mandate.
Stone said requiring suburban districts accept Hartford students,
increasing the funding for each student they enroll and reopening
closed schools to provide more options are good steps toward the
state's meeting its obligations.
"We would support this," she said. "The goal is to offer more seats in
schools for Hartford students."
Education commissioner proposes
increasing kindergarten enrollment age
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
November 4, 2010
Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan is proposing an increase in the
minimum age for students to enter kindergarten--a move that could delay
the start of public school for 10,000 students a year. McQuillan
told members of the State Board of Education Wednesday the proposal
will narrow the age range for students in kindergarten, which now
includes children from 4 to almost 7 years old. Such a wide
developmental range makes it difficult to meet the needs of all the
children in the class, he said.
Connecticut currently allows students to be enrolled in kindergarten if
they will turn 5 by Jan. 1 of that school year. Most states have
cut-off dates sometime between Aug. 31 and Oct. 16, according to the
State Department of Education. McQuillan's proposal would push
the cut-off date back a month at a time, until by the 2014-15 school
year, children would have to turn 5 by Sept. 1 in order to enroll in
kindergarten. Ultimately, the change would affect about a quarter of
some 40,000 kindergarten students in the state.
"No one would be disadvantaged," McQuillan said.
But not everyone agrees, including State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann,
D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the legislature's education committee.
McQuillan's proposal would likely need to be approved by his committee.
"It's sounds to me a bit divorced from reality. Having access to
kindergarten or education for everyone is important," he said.
Sherry Linton-Massiah, an early-education advocate for the Connecticut
Association of Human Services, said it's true that not all children are
ready for kindergarten before age 5, noting that she chose to pay "a
small fortune" to send her son to preschool for an extra year. But not
everyone can afford that.
"Do some children start kindergarten too early? Yes, absolutely," she
said. "But we can't leave these children with no learning environment."
Fleischmann agreed. "It just sounds problematic to stop providing
kindergarten to some families in the middle of a fiscal crisis."
McQuillan's proposal also includes state funding of preschool for an
estimated 4,700 children from low-income families. Officials at the SDE
estimate that would cost almost $37 million every year, some of which
would be offset by the state not having to pay for a portion of
kindergarten for those students.
"This is not about the costs. This is an education matter and providing
education in a more effective way," said Brian Mahoney, the chief
financial officer at the SDE.
Fleischmann said picking up the cost of preschool for only some of the
10,000 children affected by the age change would be unfair to families
who don't get the benefit.
"Those parents would be screaming," he said.
Linton said she could support the commissioner's proposal if preschool
was paid for all 10,000 students that would now be deemed too young for
kindergarten. But with the state facing multi-billion dollar deficits,
that's unlikely to happen. Shifting all these students from
kindergarten to preschool programs worries Mary Loftus Levine,
Connecticut Education Association's director of public policy.
"We prefer teachers who are certified working with these children. Some
preschools pay so poorly and their requirements are not as strict; it's
hard to attract good teachers. You need more than just a babysitter,"
she said.
Current law
does require by 2015 every preschool classroom funded by the state be
staffed with a teacher with a degree or certificate in early childhood
education, child development or related field.
Rising enrollment strains community
colleges
Jacqueline Rabe, CT MIRROR
October 5, 2010
The state's community colleges are once again experiencing record
enrollment growth, an expansion that college officials say could force
them to stop accepting all applicants.
"We can't continue at this pace," said Anita T. Gliniecki, president of
Housatonic Community College, adding the almost 50 percent enrollment
increase in the last five years has her campus at capacity. "We cannot
continue to grow without additional staff and additional funds."
This is the twelfth consecutive year the state's dozen community
colleges experienced a surge in enrollment, from about 39,000 during
the 1998 fall semester to a preliminary count of more than 58,000 this
semester, the Connecticut State Department of Education reported Monday.
"We have lived with this philosophy of open enrollment at these
colleges for decades. We can't afford to fund this open enrollment
model indefinitely," said State Higher Education Commissioner Michael
P. Meotti. "Enrollment is outstripping capacity. People can't get into
classes and programs."
Vanessa Morest, dean of institutional effectiveness at Norwalk
Community College, said 90 percent of the classes at NCC had more
students trying to enroll than spaces available at the start of this
semester. A few years ago, she estimates students were shut out of just
over half the classes.
"We're an open admission college. But that doesn't mean people will be
able to get into their classes. That's a major problem," said Kim
Ebert, director of enrollment at NCC.
Community college leaders say this enrollment increase comes at the
worst possible time, since it is unlikely state lawmakers, facing huge
budget deficits, will find more money for community colleges.
"Increased costs are inevitable when you have this big of an increase
in the number of students. We are looking at a very, very grim
picture," said Mary Anne Cox, assistant chancellor of Connecticut
Community Colleges
Community colleges have been level-funded at about $158 million since
the 2008-09 school year. In that time, enrollment increased 14
percent. But Rep. Roberta B. Willis, co-chairwoman of the
legislature's Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee and
graduate of Northwestern Community College, said she is not ready to
consider requiring that the state's community colleges start turning
people away.
"I will not consider that until it's the last resort," she said. "You
would be closing the door on a lot of people that are asking for an
education. ... I don't want to leave people behind."
With or without legislative action, Cox said the record enrollment
growth already has community colleges headed down this path.
"We'll soon have to turn students away, there is no question about it,"
Cox said. "This comes at the worst possible time. There may be no where
else for these students to go."
Community colleges have long served as an inexpensive alternative for
those to whom other higher education choices are a financial or
academic stretch. Katherine Monsalve, a 21-year-old single mother
from Fairfield, said she couldn't afford to go anywhere but Housantonic
Community College.
"When I heard Sacred Heart was in the $30,000 a year price range,
that's when I looked at this school. That's a lot of money," she said.
"This school is a lot cheaper. That helps."
Meotti calls community colleges a "bargain" for students, as tuition
and fees are just $3,400 for a full-time in-state student this
semester. Tuition and fees at the University of Connecticut this fall
is $10,416.
"People see going to these colleges as a smart investment," he said,
noting that more students go to the state's community colleges than
Connecticut State University System or UConn. "The limited amount of
space [at community colleges] is something we must talk about."
He said it makes no sense to accept someone into a class that there is
no chance they are going to pass, while shutting out another student
that has a good chance of passing the class.
"It's not really doing you any favors to let you in a class that you
are doomed to fail," he said.
Willis does not see the 80 percent of students needing remedial classes
as a problem for the community colleges, rather an opportunity to get
them academically where they should be.
"Yes, that's a huge, huge burden on community colleges. But where else
are they going to learn?" she asked. "In order to turn this economy
around, they have to be able to work. ... This would be closing the
door on a lot of people before they even have a shot."
But Meotti is focusing on the likelihood being that state funding will
decrease, so community colleges will soon only be able to afford a
limited number of students. "You have to be a realist. ... We are going
to accept the budgetary reality that the odds are funding is going to
decrease."
And with that decrease, he believes the decade-old policy of accepting
everyone that applies to community colleges needs to be reconsidered.

Does performance on SAT 2010 relate to per pupil
cost?
Town-By-Town SAT Scores
By GRACE E. MERRITT, gmerritt@courant.com
2:08 PM EDT, September 27, 2010
HARTFORD —
Students in Connecticut's wealthy southwestern towns, particularly
Weston, had the best scores overall on the 2010 SAT test while some of
the state's larger cities fared the worst, according to town-by-town
results released by the state Department of Education.
Weston High School had two of the highest mean scores in the state, 587
on the reading portion of the test and 610 on the writing portion.
Darien High School had a mean score of 611 on the mathematics test. A
perfect score on the individual subject tests is 800.
Closer to the Hartford region, Avon, Farmington, Glastonbury, Simsbury
and EO. Smith High School in Regional District 19 in Mansfield did well
on the college entrance exam, Department of Education spokesman Tom
Murphy said Monday. Simsbury ranked fifth best in the state for reading
with a school of 575.
Statewide, the average math score was 510, reading was 505 and writing
was 510. Though the scores were up slightly overall, they really just
regained ground lost over the past five years. State education
officials said they were not satisfied with student progress and intend
to take steps to improve student performance overall.
Murphy said the trend underscores the correlation between wealthy
school systems and student achievement.
"It's clear that students in the towns with high scores, parents do
have resources for SAT prep courses, additional tutoring and
exploration of the PSAT and the ability to take the SAT multiple
times," Murphy said.
"In addition to that, these students are more likely to have the
highest percentage of parents with dual college degrees and an
appreciation for the educational enterprise. So there's a lot of
support for each student to succeed."
Some urban districts did not fare well, with schools such as Bulkeley
High School in Hartford and Bassick High School in Bridgeport and James
Hillhouse High School in New Haven scoring in the upper 300s all three
subject areas.
The Hartford Culinary Arts Academy, a school within Weaver High School,
had the worst reading score and second worst math score in the state.
Stamford Academy, an alternative high school for students who have not
succeeded in a traditional high school setting, posted the worst math
and second worst reading scores. Eli Whitney Technical High School, a
state-run technical school in Hamden, also fared poorly across the
board and posted the worst writing scores in Connecticut.
Besides struggling with poverty at home, some students in urban schools
are not native English speakers and many of the high schools do not
offer rigorous college prep courses, Murphy said. New legislation
passed this May should help address the coursework disparity because it
requires all students to take more rigorous courses and requires high
schools to offer Advanced Placement courses, Murphy said.



Links to Gallis Report and
METROPATERNS...
From "Casablanca" - I'm
shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money] :Guess
what - they discovered...The
Two Connecticuts
Conn. has worst achievement gap
between low-income, nonlow-income students
New London DAY
Article published Aug 31, 2010
Hartford - A Connecticut education group says the state has the worst
performance gap between low-income and non-low-income students in the
country. The Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement
announced Monday that it has found 4th- and 8th-grade low-income
students are on average about three grade levels behind their peers in
reading and math. It also said 60 percent of low-income students
graduated from high school in 2009 compared with 86 percent of more
affluent students.
The group says it plans to release a report Oct. 20 with suggestions on
how to close the gap.
Connecticut was not a finalist in the Obama administration's Race to
the Top education grant program.
The state was seeking $175 million in federal funding to help
jump-start a series of education reforms passed by the legislature this
year.

Andre Agassi College
Preparatory Academy: 4th grade class in Las Vegas, Nevada
- not in Weston, CT!
At one school, new technology means
blackboard is a relic
LAS VEGAS SUN
By Rick Lax
Monday, Aug. 30, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
The old classroom blackboard is dust.
Every classroom in the K-12 Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy is
equipped with a SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard. The boards are also
being used in other Clark County schools.
The SMART Whiteboard is a multitasking every-tool that functions as a
traditional blackboard, an overhead projector, a video player and
tablet computer.
You can write on the SMART Whiteboard with your finger and erase it
with your palm, or you can use a digital pen and eraser.
Teachers can make printouts of material that appears on the SMART
Whiteboard, and then distribute the printouts to students who missed
class or have trouble taking notes because of learning disabilities.
The SMART Whiteboard is equipped with an audio recorder, so teachers
can upload the whole day’s lesson onto the Web. Students can then
access the lessons from home. No more excuses for forgetting who got
what in the Louisiana Purchase.

COST REDUCTION PROGRAM (Heating-Cooling), WESTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS, NOV.
9, 2009 - JULY 10, 2010

JONES: Lawsuit taxes go public
They're not hidden
anymore - they're on your tax bill
The Washington Times
By Bob Dorigo Jones
6:08 p.m., Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The "hidden" lawsuit tax that all Americans pay because we live in the
most lawsuit-happy society on earth isn't hiding in Detroit anymore.
Beware - it may come out of hiding soon in your city, too.
Because of mounting lawsuits against public schools in the Motor City,
taxpayers there have been forced to pay a new special levy over and
above the other taxes. It's an alarming development and should be a
warning sign to residents of other cities across the nation of what
will happen if courts and policymakers fail to address the growing
problem of excessive litigation in our country.
In July, the Detroit Free Press reported that property owners there are
getting socked with a new markup on their summer property tax bills to
pay off lawsuits against the schools. Like most school districts and
cities in the United States, the Detroit Public School District is
facing a financial emergency brought on by, among other things, the
struggling national economy.
Rather than roll the costs of the lawsuits into the general-fund budget
as they try to pay other bills, officials chose to use a little-known
law that allows them to charge a "judgment tax levy." Worse yet, this
lawsuit tax doesn't require voter approval.
For years, consumer advocates like myself have been sounding an alarm
about the hidden lawsuit tax built into everything we buy. All of the
lawsuits against doctors, job providers and even charities add a
staggering amount to the cost of the things we buy every day - not to
mention the quality of life in our communities.
According to the most thorough analysis of the total legal costs in
America conducted to date, an American family of four pays an
"excessive tort tax" of about $7,800 a year in higher prices, fewer new
products and reduced access to health care. This study was conducted by
the Pacific Research Institute and is the most realistic look at how
much we pay for excessive litigation.
Although the lawsuit tax hasn't appeared on the receipts we get when we
buy a car or go to the doctor, the costs are there nonetheless. Now,
with Detroit's schools adding a special levy for the lawsuits, one
portion of the tax is out in the open.
With other cities and school districts facing financial crises of their
own, how much longer will you be able to avoid a special levy on your
tax bill? Just this week, an advocacy group in California called
Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse released a study revealing that 12
school districts in the Golden State have had to pay $98.7 million in
litigation costs over the past three fiscal years. That's troubling,
for sure, but it's only a fraction of the total cost of lawsuits
because there are nearly 1,000 school districts in California.
School districts aren't the only governmental units being crippled by
the cost of litigation. In 2008, it cost New York City $554 million to
pay off lawsuits. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was quoted as saying,
"Court settlements are killing us," and one major newspaper said the
city should be known as "Sue York."
Taxpayers should wake up to the hidden - and not-so-hidden-anymore -
tax that's piling up because of the proliferation of lawsuits. Because
we're in election season, voters should ask candidates where they stand
on this issue. It's time for policymakers to tackle the problem of
lawsuit abuse because the true costs are coming out of hiding. Your
city might be next.
-----
Bob Dorigo Jones is senior fellow at Foundation for Fair Civil
Justice.
Applications, enrollment up at private
schools
Stamford ADVOCATE
Maggie Gordon, Staff Writer
Published: 09:52 p.m., Sunday, August 22, 2010
STAMFORD -- Many local private schools are experiencing increased
enrollment for the new academic year after struggling in recent years.
King, a private school on Newfield Avenue, is seeing record high
enrollment for the upcoming school year, according to Director of
Admissions Carrie Salvatore. King recently raised its enrollment cap to
685 students, and each available seat will be filled in September,
Salvatore said. The school, which costs $32,500 annually for high
school students, also received an increased number of applications this
year -- both for admission and financial assistance, she said.
"There was a slight increase in applications for financial assistance
this year, and an uptick in current families who had never required
assistance in previous years needing it for a one- or two-year help
with tuition," Salvatore said.
But the majority of requests for assistance occurred two years ago, she
said.
"This year, I think we saw a lot of that start to settle," she said.
The unemployment rate in Fairfield County was 8 percent in June,
according to the Connecticut Department of Labor. It was 5.1 percent in
June 2008 before jumping to 8.1 percent in June 2009. About 12
percent of families who send students to King receive financial aid,
according to Salvatore. The packages range from $3,000 to $32,000, and
the average grant hovers near $15,000, she said. King's
ninth-grade class will have 88 members this fall, making it the upper
school's largest incoming class yet, she said. In total, the school
system, which serves students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade,
will host 130 new students this year.
"I think we've been really lucky. We really weathered the financial
storm last year quite well. Even though we saw slightly higher
attrition, we had more applications coming in," she said.
King was not the only independent school to experience higher rates of
attrition in recent years.
"It has happened that families have not come back because of financial
reasons -- we've felt it as other schools have," said Nancy Hayes,
director of admissions at New Canaan Country School, which serves about
615 students in pre-kindergarten through ninth grades. The school's
annual price tag ranges from $23,500 to $30,000 plus fees, increasing
as children grow older.
"I think the impact was greater last year in the 2009-10 admission
season," she said. "There's always a normal amount of attrition anyway.
I would say our attrition has been less this year than it was last
year, and retention was stronger."
In fact, retention rates for students entering ninth grade increased 20
percent over last year, she said. The eighth-to-ninth-grade
transition typically comes with attrition as families make decisions
about a student's high school years, said Sam Gaudet, director of
admissions at St. Luke's School, also located in New Canaan, which
serves students in fifth through 12th grade.
"Our retention for eighth to ninth has been pretty good," Gaudet said.
The preparatory school, which costs about $32,000 a year, has received
20 percent more applications for the upcoming year than last year, he
said.
"Certainly last year, you saw more families applying for financial aid,
but when we compare this year to last year, it's been pretty flat," he
said.
Last year, some of the area's Catholic schools, run by the Diocese of
Bridgeport, took on new students who had previously attended more
expensive private schools, according to Joann Borchetta, principal of
St. Cecilia Elementary School, located on Newfield Avenue.
"This year, we're seeing less of the kids coming from other private
schools," she said. "Last year, I wouldn't call it significant, but it
certainly let us know that something was different."
The number of Stamford children attending St. Cecilia's in the 2010
academic year increased by 5 percent over the 2008 academic year, while
the percentage of Stamford children attending King decreased by 6
percent, according to data from the state Department of Education.
The diocese's schools charge $5,500 per "certified" pupil, and an
additional $2,000 if the students are not certified. Students are
certified by a pastor based on attendance at church and whether they
are "living the faith," Borchetta said.
Administrators at the elementary school projected they would teach 276
students in the 2010 academic year, but they ended up hosting 302
students, she said. The projection for this year was 275 students;
administrators are now expecting about 300 students again, according to
Borchetta.
"Tough times make people make honest decisions, and we're seeing
parents who are totally committed to the education and the future of
their children," Borchetta said. But while several local administrators
say parents are choosing to invest in their children's future by
choosing private schools, Borchetta noted that the choice and the
sacrifices involved aren't always easy.
"We do offer a very minimal amount of tuition assistance," she said.
"Earlier, I was on the phone with a mother, and she said that if she
could just get some financial aid instead of working her day job and
six nights a week, she would work her day job and three nights a week
to keep her kids in Catholic schools."
Weston schools have applications
for free/reduced lunches
Weston FORUM
Written by Kimberly Donnelly
Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:00
Weston Public Schools has adopted the United States Department of
Agriculture’s (USDA) Income Eligibility Guidelines for determining
eligibility of children who may receive free or reduced price meals
served under the National School Lunch Program. The income
guidelines
that will be used from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011 (or until new
income guidelines are issued by USDA) are avialable on the school’s Web
site, www.westonK12.org.
Application forms may be obtained by calling the Weston Public Schools
Business Office at 203-291-1407 or by accessing the form at
www.westonk12-ct.org. Click on the “Free & Reduced Priced Lunch”
link on the homepage. Copies are also available at the
principal’s
office at each school. Questions should be directed to the appropriate
principal’s office: Hurlbutt Elementary School (203-291-1444), Weston
Intermediate School (203-291-2700), Weston Middle School
(203-291-1500), or Weston High School (203-291-1600).
The information provided on the application is confidential and will be
used only for the purposes of determining eligibility, and may be
verified at any time during the school year by school or other program
officials. Applications may be submitted at any time during the year.
Application forms for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP) —formerly known as Food Stamps — or Temporary Family Assistance
(TFA) households require the child’s name, the child’s SNAP/TFA case
number and the signature of an adult household member. Households
receiving assistance under the SNAP/TFA programs will be notified of
their eligibility and their children will be provided free benefits
unless the household notifies the school that it chooses to decline
benefits. Households receiving SNAP benefits or TFA for their children
should only submit an application if they are not notified of their
eligibility by Sept. 2, 2010.
Households receiving SNAP benefits or TFA for their children may
receive a direct certification letter from the Department of Social
Services. These letters will automatically qualify a child for free
meals or milk and may be submitted instead of an application to the
school. Application forms for all other households require a
statement
of total household income, household size and names of all household
members.
Under the provisions of the policy for determining eligibility for free
and reduced price meals, the principals will review applications and
determine eligibility. If a parent is dissatisfied with the ruling of
the determining official, he/she may wish to discuss the decision with
the determining official on an informal basis. If he/she wishes
to
make a formal appeal, a request either orally or in writing may be made
to Dr. Jo-Ann Keating, Director of Finance and Operations, Weston
Public Schools, 24 School Road, Weston, CT 06883; 203-291-1407.
If a household member becomes unemployed or if household size changes
at any time, the family should contact the school to file a new
application.
Video cameras a fixture on many school
buses in the region
Greenwwich TIME
Amanda Cuda, Staff Writer
Published: 09:21 p.m., Saturday, August 21, 2010
When a child shoves a classmate, they see it. If a bus driver isn't
following the rules, they're there. They're witnesses to unruly
behavior, vandalism, traffic violations and countless other, less
exciting instances taking place on school buses throughout the region.
They're video cameras, and many school buses are equipped with them as
a security measure.
About half the school districts in the state have the equipment on at
least some of their buses, said Jim Salter, president of the
Connecticut School Transportation Association, a nonprofit organization
that represents nearly all the public and private owners of school
buses in the state. There are a variety of reasons a district might
choose to equip its buses with cameras, but Salter said the devices are
mainly seen by school officials as a way to help protect students, even
when they're not in the school building. "Most of these districts
consider the school bus an extension of the classroom," Salter said. "I
think the cameras are just another tool."
Shocking Behavior
Most school districts that employ the cameras mainly use them to
identify and prevent relatively routine problems, such as fights among
kids or other disorderly behavior. But, sometimes, what the cameras see
is shocking.
That was the case earlier this year in Trumbull, when the parents of a
9-year-old autistic girl asked to review video footage from their
daughter's bus. The child, who doesn't speak, had come home from school
several times with bruises and sprained fingers. Upon reviewing the
footage from the bus, the parents -- and later police -- reportedly saw
evidence that school bus monitor Jennifer Davila, 24, repeatedly hurt
the child while the girl was a passenger on the bus, driven by Davila's
mother. Davila was arrested Aug. 10 and charged with three counts of
risk of injury to a child and three counts of third-degree assault on a
disabled person. The videos also allegedly revealed that the bus driver
was text-messaging while operating the vehicle. That incident is under
investigation by police.
Trumbull has had cameras on its school buses for about 10 years, said
Dawn Perkins, transportation coordinator for the Trumbull Public School
system. She said the cameras are intended to catch, and prevent, a
variety of problems, including conflicts among students and vandalism.
About 90 buses serve the district, all of which have four cameras
aboard. The cameras are owned by First Student, the bus company the
school district contracts with to provide transportation. However, the
footage is owned by the district, meaning all requests to view the
footage must go through school officials.
Typically, Perkins said, footage is only reviewed if there is a request
from a parent, administrator or someone else, though she does do
periodic random checks of the footage. The hard drive with the footage
on it is reset after about 30 days. Prior to the incident with Davila,
Perkins said the district has been asked to review the video footage on
occasion, including at least one request that involved a bullying
incident. "We've had some people come to us with concerns," she said.
An eye on Safety
Aside from Trumbull, districts in the region that have cameras on at
least some of their buses include Fairfield, Bridgeport, Stratford and
Milford. Most school officials from districts that employ cameras said
they, like Perkins, typically just review footage when there's some
sort of complaint. In Bridgeport, Raul Laffitte, director of
transportation for the school system, said there were about a dozen
such complaints last year, mostly regarding behavior issues among
students.
Laffitte said the Long Island, N.Y.-based bus company We Transport
provides the majority of the district's buses -- 114 large buses and 59
smaller ones -- and all those vehicles are equipped with cameras.
However, the city owns and operates 18 buses, which are used by special
education students, and only three of those have cameras. Laffitte said
the absence of cameras on those vehicles is mainly due to budgetary
concerns, and the district is trying to find the funds to add the
equipment.
Salter said, depending on type and number of cameras, outfitting a bus
with the equipment can cost from $800 to $4,000 a bus. There can be as
many as four cameras on a bus "depending on what the district is
looking for," said Salter, also vice president of the Simsbury-based
school bus company Salter's Express.
Fairfield's 31 buses that serve special education students don't have
cameras, though the other 95 buses do. Fairfield transportation
supervisor John Ficke said that in the negotiating stages of the bus
contracts there were confidentiality concerns about having cameras on
the special education buses. Meanwhile, Stratford Superintendent of
Schools Irene Cornish said four vans used by the district for
transportation of special needs students are without cameras, but all
the vehicles owned and operated by the district transportation
provider, Durham School Services, have cameras aboard. Durham provides
39 buses and 26 vans to the district.
The cameras do offer an extra level of security, school officials said.
Cornish said she used to work in a district in Massachusetts, and "we
insisted on having monitors on the buses" to watch the children. But
finding, and paying for, monitors for all the buses was difficult.
Cameras are a viable alternative.
Like Laffitte, Cornish said most of the requests her district gets to
review footage involve issues among students, though she does recall at
least one complaint about a driver. "There was one instance where there
was an accusation that bus driver had grabbed a student's arm," Cornish
said. Upon reviewing the tapes, officials found no evidence of the
alleged incident.
Despite that incident and the one in Trumbull, most officials said the
cameras mainly serve to keep students from acting out. As a confined
space in which a variety of kids are in close contact, buses can be a
tense place, Cornish said. That's particularly true of the rides home
in the afternoon, when the students are energized by the freedom that
comes with the end of the school day.
"They're excited," she said. "They're wide awake and there's potential
for things to get out of hand."
But, Salter said, the cameras can serve to keep them in line. "The kids
know they're there, so that should be a deterrent to some bad
behavior," he said.


RACE TO THE
TOP OF THE NOVEMBER 2, 2010 ELECTION?
The only winner
NOT on or near the East Coast was Ohio - that's where people from
Weston moved when the economy tanked in the earlier part of this
country's history. Oh - and Hawaii.
Governor:
Connecticut denied grant in federal 'Race to the Top' program
DAY
By STEPHANIE REITZ Associated Press
Article
published Dec 16, 2011
Hartford - The U.S. Department of Education has denied Connecticut's
application for up to $50 million in grants to boost its early
childhood education programs, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Thursday.
Connecticut officials were notified that the state is not among the
winners in the latest round of federal "Race to the Top" grants, Malloy
said. A formal announcement is expected today. It was the second
year in a row Connecticut was rejected by the highly competitive grant
program, which calls on states to coordinate and improve education for
children in the critical time before kindergarten. It places
special focus on reaching poor children who need the services the most,
but whose families can least afford them.
Connecticut was competing with 34 other states, the District of
Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Connecticut's application promised to cut in half the percentage of its
students who enter kindergarten unprepared, and also said the state
will add 1,000 new state-funded preschool seats for needy children
starting in July 2013 - whether or not it won the federal grant.
It's also making a push to reach more young children whose caregivers
are family members and friends, and who might otherwise not get the
benefit of early learning programs in more formal settings.
"High-quality education for all of Connecticut's children is a top
priority for my administration, and we should be pleased with the
strong application that we submitted; it will serve as a roadmap as we
move forward on education reform," Malloy said in a statement.
"However, we were aware going in that we were at a disadvantage - a
lack of investment over the past decade meant that we did not have the
infrastructure in place, or have a well-developed or coordinated early
learning system."
'Determined to move forward'
"That will change," Malloy said. "This federal funding would have
accelerated our efforts, but we are determined to move forward to
improve early learning in Connecticut and keep our commitment that all
of Connecticut's students receive a high-quality education."
Officials who worked on Connecticut's application and its supporters
said boosting early learning programs and preparing more students for
kindergarten was within the state's grasp if it won the money to
coordinate current programs, fill gaps where others are needed, and get
the best teachers in place. State officials said that what set
Connecticut's application apart from other states was its push to reach
more children whose caretakers are neighbors, relatives and family
friends, and who might otherwise have little exposure to education
programs before kindergarten.
Officials estimate at least 40,000 of Connecticut's most high-need
young children are in that situation. Several programs are already in
place to train those caregivers to prepare the children before
kindergarten, but state and local officials say they know thousands of
other children could be helped if they could reach them.
The state hopes to identify the youngsters through their families'
participation in other state and federal programs, such as HUSKY health
care; the Care 4 Kids childcare credit program; welfare and food stamp
assistance; Birth to Three early intervention services and other
programs.
At least 80,000 of Connecticut's 210,500 children ages 5 and younger
are considered to have "high needs."
That means they are living in poverty, have a learning or developmental
disability, come from homes in which English is not the primary
language, or a combination. Many are in the state's poorest
cities. Although the state's investment in early learning
programs has been climbing steadily over the last four years, the wide
achievement gap between its wealthy and poor children is obvious, even
in kindergarten - something the Race to the Top grant application was
intended to address.
State-mandated assessments of young children show that in wealthy
communities, about 95 percent of children are well-prepared when they
enter kindergarten. In poor communities, it's 70 percent. Malloy
has said that the next legislative session will be focused on education.
"Over the past 11 months we've been aggressive about bring federal
dollars back to Connecticut," Malloy said, noting that the state has
received hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation projects.
"We will go back to Washington for education funding at every
opportunity," he said.
State's teacher evaluation plans too weak, federal reviewers say
Robert A. Frahm, CT MIRROR
August 25, 2010
The weakness of a plan to link teacher evaluations to student
performance was a key factor in Connecticut's failure to qualify for
millions of dollars in federal school aid, according to a government
report released Wednesday.
The proposed evaluation system lacks detail, won't be ready for years,
and fails to include adequate provisions for rewarding successful
teachers or removing ineffective ones, said reviewers for the U.S.
Department of Education's Race to the Top school reform competition.
"They were not satisfied [the plan] was aggressive enough," said state
Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan.
Race to the Top
The plan for revamping teacher and principal evaluations was one of
several areas where McQuillan believes Connecticut's approach differed
sharply from the strategies espoused by Race to the Top, the Obama
administration's $4.3 billion effort to spur school reform.
Those differences, including a divergence of views on how to turn
around low-performing schools, hurt Connecticut's chances in the
high-stakes competition, McQuillan said.
While neighboring states of Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island
were among 10 winners named this week in the competition, Connecticut's
application had already been eliminated, failing to qualify as a
finalist last month.
Connecticut won praise from reviewers in some areas, including its
emphasis on math and science education, but lost ground for failing to
turn around low-performing schools and for making only slow progress on
data systems to measure student performance.
A major shortcoming, according to reviewers, was the weakness of the
state's proposal to link teacher evaluations with student progress - a
central goal in the Obama administration's education strategy.
One reviewer described Connecticut's plan as "very weak," saying it
contains "no real commitments . . . to using the new evaluation system
data for making compensation, tenure or removal decisions." Another
said the proposal to create "a collaborative framework" for designing
pay and evaluation systems through union bargaining had little
substance. "This is a very weak statement of commitment for recognizing
the successes of highly effective teachers," the reviewer wrote.
McQuillan said, "You have this push by the federal government to create
measures of teacher effectiveness that are very aggressive." However,
he said the matter is complicated, with experts disagreeing on
strategies such as using student test scores in reading and mathematics
as a factor in evaluations.
"That sounds very seductive," McQuillan said, "but when you think about
it, how many teachers do we have that don't teach reading and math, per
se?"
Under legislation passed earlier this year, the state will help schools
develop an evaluation system that links teacher performance more
directly with student progress but also takes into account a range of
other factors, including class size and student characteristics such as
socioeconomic status and English language proficiency.
"We felt we needed to take a very careful approach, field test it, and
come forward with a plan," McQuillan said.
Connecticut failed to qualify for up to $175 million in Race to the Top
funds despite a sweeping school reform package passed by the state
legislature in May. It was the second time Connecticut failed to make
the cut. An earlier application also was rejected in March.
Connecticut's latest application received a score of 379 points of a
possible 500 - an improvement of 34 points over the score on its
earlier application. Nevertheless, out of 36 applicants, Connecticut
ranked 25th - the same rank it held in the first round of competition.
The teacher evaluation plan was "probably the single greatest area [of
weakness] the reviewers singled out," said Alex Johnston, CEO of the
New Haven-based school reform group ConnCAN.
States such as New York and Rhode Island made student performance a
substantial element of teacher evaluations and pledged to use those
evaluations in making decisions on staffing, including removal of
ineffective teachers, Johnston said.
"They did create consequences based on the evaluations," he said.
"Clearly, that's an area where Connecticut didn't go."
One leading teachers' union official questioned whether some of the
systems in other states go too far in imposing consequences.
"That may have won them points. It may have won them money, but I don't
think it's a good way to go," said Sharon Palmer, president of the
American Federation of Teachers - Connecticut.
"I think we have significant work to do in that area, but honestly I'm
glad Connecticut didn't rush to some draconian system," she said.
"Before we jump to a punitive plan, we have to have development of a
system that works well. . . . What we've always advocated as a union is
more mentoring and professional development for teachers so they are
getting a chance for success."
Another factor that may have hurt Connecticut's application is that its
key strategy for improving low-performing schools - known as the
Connecticut Accountability for Learning Initiative (CALI) - does not
match up directly with the school turnaround models outlined in the
Race to the Top guidelines, according to McQuillan.
Those models include replacing most or all of the teaching staff at
low-performing schools, converting schools to a charter model or even
closing failing schools, but McQuillan said there is little scientific
research to support those strategies.
The state's CALI model requires schools to revise classroom strategies,
create new tests and adjust curriculum based on a thorough review of
student performance data.
In the Race to the Top report, one reviewer said Connecticut's
application provided little evidence to suggest that CALI has helped to
improve learning or close the achievement gap that finds many
low-income and minority students lagging behind white and more affluent
students.
McQuillan, however, said the most recent results of statewide testing
show encouraging progress at schools using the CALI program, but those
results were not available until July - long after the Race to the Top
application was filed.
Connecticut
Out of
Running for Key Education Grant
Deirdre Shesgreen, CT MIRROR
July 27, 2010
WASHINGTON-Connecticut is out of the running for a coveted federal
education grant that state officials had said was vital to implementing
the sweeping new school reforms passed in May.
At the end of the legislative session, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a
landmark education reform package into law that was aimed at bolstering
Connecticut's efforts to win $175 million in federal funding under
President Obama's Race to the Top education initiative.
To make the state more competitive, the legislature created a new
teacher evaluation system, increased high school graduation
requirements, and strengthened charter schools, among other steps. That
law, state officials said, would give the state a stronger hand as it
applied for a share of $4.3 billion pot of federal Race to the Top
funds.
Education advocates and state leaders hailed the new law but said
federal funding would be necessary to help put these new measures into
place...Sorry about that
Read
exerpt here.
Money's an old issue in state's schools, new book says
Robert A. Frahm, CT MIRROR
July 26, 2010
Throughout its history, public education in Connecticut has enjoyed a
flattering - though often misleading - reputation among citizens who
wanted excellent schools but were reluctant to pay for them.
That blunt assessment comes from a new book by one of the state's most
noted authorities on education, former state historian Christopher
Collier.
The ongoing struggle over school finance, from the 18th century School
Fund to the 20th century legal battles over school equality, is one of
many topics in Collier's ambitious, meticulously researched history of
public elementary and secondary schools.
From the description of crowded, ramshackle 19th century rural
schoolhouses to the weighty battles over education finance, academic
standards and school desegregation, Collier traces the development of
public education in Connecticut from the Colonial era to modern times.
"I knew that we needed a history of the public schools," said Collier,
80, who wrote the 893-page book after retiring as a University of
Connecticut professor in 2000 and as state historian in 2004. "I
think of it as a gift to the public. . . . It was a retirement project
that was fun to do."
The product of six years of research, "Connecticut's Public Schools: A
History, 1650-2000," is designed chiefly as a reference work for
libraries and schools, but casual readers, too, can glean insights
about how the state's schools took shape. How did kindergartens start
in Connecticut? When did graded schools develop? Which of two rival
statewide teachers' organizations opposed the right to strike?
"The book . . . has a lot of emphasis on pedagogy, how were things
taught," said Collier, a former junior high and high school teacher and
longtime professor at the University of Bridgeport and UConn.
Collier explores matters such as the development of curriculum, the
rise of the common school, the creation of comprehensive high schools,
the origin of town control of schools, the focus on citizenship
education, and the changes in teaching methods.
"It's just an encyclopedic work. . . .It's just amazing," said Wesley
Horton, the Hartford lawyer who is featured in the book at the center
of two of the state's most significant education lawsuits dealing with
school finance and school desegregation.
The book, said, Horton, "points out a lot of the warts in Connecticut.
I've always thought of Connecticut as being way ahead of the rest of
the country . . . I didn't know how cheap our Yankee forefathers were."
Readers will find that today's battles over matters such as school
finance, curriculum reform and teacher pay are echoes of earlier
struggles.
For example, the book describes Connecticut's initial school law, the
Code of 1650, as "an unfunded mandate," a phrase often heard today in
complaints by town officials about state-ordered school expenses. In
1795, the creation of a state fund earmarked for schools was envied
elsewhere in the United States, but the fund failed to provide even
minimal support. "Connecticut taxpayers were profoundly reluctant to
actually give up any money to support the public schools, particularly
when they had no children of school age of their own," Collier writes.
The book profiles prominent figures in Connecticut education such as
Henry Barnard, the 19th century legislator and educator who campaigned
tirelessly, though not always successfully, to reform education in an
era when many schools suffered from neglect and poor teaching.
Collier also features more obscure figures, people he refers to as
"unsung heroes," including Charles D. Hine, secretary of education in
the late 19th and early 20th century. Hine brought Connecticut's
educational system into the modern era with reforms such as state
teacher certification, compulsory attendance laws and a system of
state-operated trade schools.
Hine was "a giant in the history of Connecticut education . . . [yet]
nobody had ever heard of him," Collier said in a recent interview.
Collier, a veteran of nearly a half century of teaching experience,
said he wrote the book from his perspective as a teacher, providing
detailed descriptions of how teachers of different eras taught subjects
such as reading, spelling, penmanship and arithmetic.
"Throughout the book, one of the themes is what really counts is the
teacher in the classroom," he said.
From elsewhere in CT...
For region's school systems, time may
be money
Towns consider adopting single calendar with shared vacations for
budget savings
By Claire Bessette, New London Day Staff Writer
Article published Jul 23, 2010
A regional calendar, where schools from town to town have the same
vacations, could save local school districts significant dollars.
The Southeastern Connecticut Association of School Superintendents met
at the LEARN regional office in East Lyme last week to iron out a
proposed school calendar for the 2011-12 school year with uniform
vacations, start dates and some shared professional development days.
The proposed calendar will be presented to boards of education in the
hopes that all - or at least most - adopt it in the coming months.
Superintendents also were asked to calculate savings for their specific
towns.
"I'm very pleased with the superintendents who really tried to craft a
calendar that makes sense," said Montville Superintendent Pamela Aubin,
association chairwoman. "Part of the idea of regionalizing is giving up
local control."
The proposed calendar would have students starting school the Wednesday
before Labor Day. Each town would decide when teachers would return for
preparation. Two uniform professional development days are scheduled -
the day after Columbus Day and on Veterans Day. The idea is to bring
teachers from different towns together for specified professional
training on those days.
The calendar calls for a four-day February break - a possible point of
contention for towns that still have a full week of February vacation -
and an April vacation starting on Good Friday and running through the
following week.
The calendar has 180 school days, the state minimum, ending June 8.
Towns could tack on extra days or snow days at the end and set their
own graduation dates, Aubin said.
Savings could be high
School districts provide bus transportation to students who go
to school in other towns. Eight towns send buses to Norwich Free
Academy, and most local towns send some students to Norwich Technical
School, Ella T. Grasso Southeastern Technical School, Ledyard High
School vocational-agricultural program and various magnet and charter
schools.
A lack of a regional calendar means some districts are busing students
to out-of-town schools even on days when the district's schools are
closed.
Norwich Board of Education Chairman Charles Jaskiewicz said the city
would save $330 per bus per day by not running buses on days when
Norwich schools are closed.
Preston Superintendent John Welch said conservatively Preston could
save about $50,000 per year with the uniform calendar.
Shared professional development would also produce some savings. The
state requires continued training for teachers, and it can be expensive
for small towns to bring in experts for a few staff members, such as
physical education, music or art teachers, Aubin said.
Aubin said superintendents also would reach out to the parochial
schools, including St. Bernard High School in Montville.
Thomas Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said
the technical high schools would be limited in their participation. The
17 state technical schools must work together on professional
development because of their specialized fields, for example. Tech
schools have 183 school days, rather than 180. Tech school teachers
also have to take state employee furlough days.
"The tech schools are willing to work to work with them, but there are
some limitations," Murphy said.
New London Superintendent Nicholas A. Fischer said his board probably
would review the proposed uniform calendar in September. New London is
one of the towns that still have a full-week February vacation, so the
board would have to weigh the benefits of having a regional calendar
against that tradition. Fischer has not yet calculated potential
savings from the proposed uniform calendar.
Norwich Free Academy representative Kristin Peckrul, who works on the
school calendar, said the proposed calendar appears to present no major
conflicts for NFA, the region's largest high school. NFA does have
school on Election Day, but Peckrul said school officials would
consider the proposal to make that a professional development day.
The start date and the proposed four-day February vacation could cause
the most debate. At the meeting, shoreline town representatives in
particular like starting after Labor Day to avoid summer tourism
season, Aubin said. About one-third of the towns still have a full-week
February vacation.
"We're never going to please everyone," Aubin said. "It's going to
depend on how committed the various boards are to the regional
calendar."
Malloy outlines education plans--but
where's the money?
Robert A. Frahm, CT MIRROR
June 29, 2010
If Dan Malloy is to win support for his ambitious plan to revitalize
Connecticut's education system, he will have to persuade some doubters.
The Democratic candidate for governor outlined ideas such as expanding
preschool classes, promoting innovation and increasing college
graduation rates, but the 15-page education plan released Monday is
likely to face steep challenges.
The biggest challenge is how to pay for it.
Despite the ambitious education plan, Malloy did not win the
endorsement of the Connecticut Education Association, the state's
largest teachers' union. The 40,000-member CEA endorsed Ned Lamont,
Malloy's opponent in the Democratic primary election Aug. 10.
Nevertheless, Malloy said Monday, "What I believe is, if you showed our
plan to most teachers, most administrators . . . they would be
supportive of it."
Subprime goes to college
NYPOST
By STEVE EISMAN
Last Updated: 4:54 AM, June 6, 2010
Posted: 12:28 AM, June 6, 2010
Until recently, I thought that there would never again be an
opportunity to be involved with an industry as socially destructive and
morally bankrupt as the subprime mortgage industry. I was wrong. The
for-profit education industry has proven equal to the task.
The for-profit industry has grown at an extreme and unusual rate,
driven by easy access to government sponsored debt in the form of Title
IV student loans, where the credit is guaranteed by the government.
Thus, the government, the students and the taxpayer bear all the risk,
and the for-profit industry reaps all the rewards. This is similar to
the subprime mortgage sector in that the subprime originators bore far
less risk than the investors in their mortgage paper.
In the past 10 years, the for-profit education industry has grown 5-10
times the historical rate of traditional post secondary education. As
of 2009, the industry had almost 10% of enrolled students but claimed
nearly 25% of the $89 billion of federal Title IV student loans and
grant disbursements. At the current pace of growth, for-profit schools
will draw 40% of all Title IV aid in 10 years.
How has this been allowed to happen?
The simple answer is that they’ve hired every lobbyist in Washington,
DC. There has been a revolving door between the people who work for
this industry and the halls of government. One example is Sally Stroup.
In 2001-2002, she was the head lobbyist for the Apollo Group — the
company behind the University of Phoenix and the largest for-profit
educator. But from 2002-2006 she became assistant secretary of
post-secondary education for the Department of Education under
President Bush. In other words, she was directly in charge of
regulating the industry she had previously lobbied for.
From 1987 through 2000, the amount of total Title IV dollars received
by students of for-profit schools fluctuated between $2 billion and $4
billion per annum. But when the Bush administration took over, the DOE
gutted many of the rules that governed the conduct of this industry.
Once the floodgates were opened, the industry embarked on 10 years of
unrestricted massive growth. Federal dollars flowing to the industry
exploded to over $21 billion, a 450% increase.
At many major-for profit institutions, federal Title IV loan and grant
dollars now comprise close to 90% of total revenues. And this growth
has resulted in spectacular profits and executive salaries. For
example, ITT Educational Services, or ESI, has a roughly 40% operating
margin vs. the 7%-12% margins of other companies that receive major
government contracts. ESI is more profitable on a margin basis than
even Apple.
This growth is purely a function of government largesse, as Title IV
has accounted for more than 100% of revenue growth.
Here is one of the more upsetting statistics. In fiscal 2009, Apollo
increased total revenues by $833 million. Of that amount, $1.1 billion
came from Title IV federally funded student loans and grants. More than
100% of the revenue growth came from the federal government. But of
this incremental $1.1 billion in federal loan and grant dollars, the
company only spent an incremental $99 million on faculty compensation
and instructional costs — that’s 9 cents on every dollar received from
the government going toward actual education. The rest went to
marketing and paying executives.
Leaving politics aside for a moment, the other major reason why the
industry has taken an ever increasing share of government dollars is
that it has turned the typical education model on its head. And here is
where the subprime analogy becomes very clear.
There is a traditional relationship between matching means and cost in
education. Typically, families of lesser financial means seek lower
cost colleges in order to maximize the available Title IV loans and
grants — thereby getting the most out of every dollar and minimizing
debt burdens.
The for-profit model seeks to recruit those with the greatest financial
need and put them in high cost institutions. This formula maximizes the
amount of Title IV loans and grants that these students receive.
With billboards lining the poorest neighborhoods in America and
recruiters trolling casinos and homeless shelters (and I mean that
literally), the for-profits have become increasingly adept at pitching
the dream of a better life and higher earnings to the most vulnerable
of society.
If the industry in fact educated its students and got them good jobs
that enabled them to receive higher incomes and to pay off their
student loans, everything I’ve just said would be irrelevant.
So the key question to ask is — what do these students get for their
education? In many cases, NOT much, not much at all.
At one Corinthian Colleges-owned Everest College campus in California,
students paid $16,000 for an eight-month course in medical assisting.
Upon nearing completion, the students learned that not only would their
credits not transfer to any community or four-year college, but also
that their degree is not recognized by the American Association for
Medical Assistants. Hospitals refuse to even interview graduates.
And look at drop-out rates. Companies don’t fully disclose graduation
rates, but using both DOE data and company-provided information, I
calculate drop out rates of most schools are 50%-plus per year.
Default rates on student loans are already starting to skyrocket. It’s
just like subprime — which grew at any cost and kept weakening its
underwriting standards to grow.
The bottom line is that as long as the government continues to flood
the for-profit education industry with loan dollars and the risk for
these loans is borne solely by the students and the government, then
the industry has every incentive to grow at all costs, compensate
employees based on enrollment, influence key regulatory bodies and
manipulate reported statistics — all to maintain access to the
government’s money.
In a sense, these companies are marketing machines masquerading as
universities. Let me quote a bit from a former employee of Bridgepoint
Education, operators of Ashford University:
“Ashford is a for-profit school and makes a majority of its money on
federal loans students take out. They conveniently price tuition at the
exact amount that a student can qualify for in federal loan money.
There is no regard to whether a student really belongs in school, the
goal is to enroll as many as possible. They also go after GI Bill money
and currently have separate teams set up to specifically target
military students. If a person has money available for school Ashford
finds a way to go after them. Ashford is just the middle man, profiting
off this money, like milking a cow and working the system within the
limits of what’s technically legal, and paying huge salaries while the
student suffers with debt that can’t even be forgiven by bankruptcy. We
mention tuition prices as little as possible . . . this may cause the
student to change their mind.
“It’s a boiler room — selling education to people who really don’t want
it.”
How do such schools stay in business? The answer is to control the
accreditation process. The scandal here is exactly akin to the rating
agency role in subprime securitizations.
In order to be eligible for Title IV programs, the universities must be
accredited. But accreditation bodies are non-governmental, non-profit
peer-reviewing groups. In many instances, the for-profit institutions
sit on the boards of the accrediting body. The inmates run the asylum.
The latest trend of for-profit institutions, meanwhile, is to acquire
accreditation through the outright purchase of small, financially
distressed non-profit institutions. In March 2005, Bridgepoint acquired
the regionally accredited Franciscan University of the Prairies and
renamed it Ashford University. On the date of purchase, Franciscan (now
Ashford) had 312 students. Bridgepoint took that school online and at
the end of 2009 it had 54,000 students.
So what is the government going to do?
Most importantly, the DOE has proposed a rule known as “Gainful
Employment.” The idea behind the rule is to limit student debt to a
certain level. Specifically, the suggested rule is that the debt
service-to-income-ratio not exceed 8%. The industry has gotten
hysterical over this rule because it knows that to comply, it will
probably have to reduce tuition.
I cannot emphasize enough that gainful employment changes the business
model. Gainful employment will cause enrollment levels to grow less
quickly. And the days of raising tuition would be over; in many cases,
tuition will go down.
By late 2004, it was clear to me and my partners that the mortgage
industry had lost its mind and a society-wide calamity was going to
occur. It was like watching a train wreck with no ability to stop it.
Who could you complain to? The rating agencies? They were part of the
machine. Alan Greenspan? He was busy making speeches that every
American should take out an ARM mortgage loan.
Are we going to do this all over again? We just loaded up one
generation of Americans with mortgage debt they can’t afford to pay
back. Are we going to load up a new generation with student loan debt
they can never afford to pay back?
If nothing is done, then we are on the cusp of a new social disaster.
If present trends continue, over the next 10 years almost $500 billion
of Title IV loans will have been funneled to this industry. We estimate
total defaults of $275 billion, and because of fees associated with
defaults, for-profit students will owe $330 billion on defaulted loans
over the next 10 years.
Steven Eisman is the portfolio manager of the FrontPoint Financial
Services Fund, and one of the first people to predict the subprime
mortgage crisis. Adapted from a speech he gave to the Ira Sohn
Investment Conference.
BIG BUSINESS OF COLLEGE
In 2002, the government changed regulations banning colleges from
providing “any commission, bonus or other incentive payment based
directly or indirectly on success in securing enrollments or financial
aid.” Since then, there has been an explosion of advertising for ITT,
DeVry, Phoenix University and other for-profit universities, which
aggressively recruit students and help guide them to federal student
aid. Investing expert Steve Eisman estimates that for-profit students
will default on $275 billion in taxpayer-backed, federal student loans.
* Tuition and fees at private for-profit institutions averages $14,174,
$859 (6.5%) higher than in 2008-09. Though average federal aid isn’t
available, 80%-90% of funding for many for-profit companies comes from
federal aid.
* At for-profit institutions, 96% of bachelor’s degree recipients had
student loans in 2008, and their average debt was $33,050. At public
and non-profit colleges, 65% of bachelor’s degree recipients had loans,
and their average debt was $22,750.
* Nearly one in four Pell Grant dollars went to students attending
for-profit schools in 2008-09 (24%, or $4.3 billion), almost double the
share a decade earlier, according to the National Consumer Law Center.
* Though for-profit students account for 10% of all college students,
they represent 44% of all loan defaults, according to the Department of
Education.
Major for-profit educators include . . .
Apollo
Schools include.................... The University of Phoenix
Enrollment............................. 320,000-plus
Revenue................................ $2.7 billion
Profit margin........................... 28%
ITT Educational Services
Schools include....................... ITT Technical Institute
Enrollment................................ 70,000-plus
Revenue....................................$1.32 billion
Profit margin............................. 37%
Strayer Education, Inc.
Schools include......................... Strayer University
Enrollment................................. 55,000-plus
Revenue.................................... $512 million
Profit margin.............................. 34%
*Profit margins based on an UBS analysis
What the Obama administration is considering . . .
* The Department of Education is mulling a “Gainful Employment” rule
that would limit student debt. A proposed limit would be a debt
service-to-income ratio of no more than 8%. This would force
universities to lower their tuition, or face declining enrollment
because fewer students could afford school. After a discussion period,
the rules will be issued in November and go into effect summer 2011.

JOINT MEETING SELECTMEN, FINANCE AND EDUCATION 6-14-10
One idea for educational change...think it would
have legs in Weston?
4-day school weeks gain popularity
across US
YAHOO
By DORIE TURNER, Associated Press Writer
4 June 2010
FORT VALLEY, Ga. – During the school year, Mondays in this rural
Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma's house and
hanging out at the neighborhood community center.
Don't bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights
are off.
Peach County is one of more than 120 school districts across the
country where students attend school just four days a week, a
cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts
struggling to make ends meet. The 4,000-student district started
shaving a day off its weekly school calendar last year to help fill a
$1 million budget shortfall.
It was that or lay off 39 teachers the week before school started, said
Superintendent Susan Clark.
"We're treading water," Clark said as she stood outside the
headquarters of her seven-school district. "There was nothing else for
us to do."
The results? Test scores went up.
So did attendance — for both students and teachers. The district is
spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers, Clark
said.
And the graduation rate likely will be more than 80 percent for the
first time in years, Clark said.
The four days that students are in school are slightly longer and more
crowded with classes and activities. After school, students can get
tutoring in subjects where they're struggling.
On their off day, students who don't have other options attend "Monday
care" at area churches and the local Boys & Girls Club, where
tutors are also available to help with homework. The programs generally
cost a few dollars a day per student.
Experts say research is scant on the effect of a four-day school week
on student performance. In fact, there is mostly just anecdotal
evidence in reports on the trend with little scientific data to back up
what many districts say, said University of Southern Maine researcher
Christine Donis-Keller.
"The broadest conclusion you can draw is that it doesn't hurt
academics," said Donis-Keller, who is with the university's Center for
Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation.
Many districts that have the shortened schedule say they've seen
students who are less tired and more focused, which has helped raise
test scores and attendance. But others say that not only did they not
save a substantial amount of money by being off an extra day, they also
saw students struggle because they weren't in class enough and didn't
have enough contact with teachers.
The school district in Marlow, Okla., is switching back to a five-day
week after administrators decided students were not being served well
by attending school only four days. The 440-student district tried the
shorter week the spring semester this year to save $25,000 in operation
costs.
"It was harder on the teachers. We were asking the kids to move at a
quicker pace," said district Superintendent Bennie Newton. "We're
hoping the four-day week won't come into play next year."
The move by Peach County in Georgia gets mixed reviews.
Parents like Heather Bradshaw worry that their children are getting
shortchanged on time with teachers.
"I don't feel like they're having the necessary time in the classroom,"
said Bradshaw, a single mother with a fourth-grade son at one of the
county's three elementary schools. "The schedule has slowed him down."
Other parents prefer the shorter schedule and don't mind the hassle of
finding a babysitter one day a week.
"It makes the children's weekend a little better, so they get more
rest," said LaKeisha Johnson, who sends her fourth-grade daughter to
the Boys & Girls Club on Mondays.
The trend of four-day school weeks started in New Mexico during the oil
crisis of the 1970s and has been popular in rural states where students
have to commute a long way. Other districts have used it as a way to
try to fix schools with a long history of poor student performance by
shaking up the schedule and giving children more time to study outside
of school.
Georgia, Oklahoma and Maine have changed their laws in the last couple
of years to allow districts to count their school year by hours rather
than days, allowing for a four-day week if needed. Hawaii schools were
off every other Friday this year for schools to save money, giving them
the state with the shortest school year in the country.
From California to Minnesota to New York, districts — mostly small,
rural ones with less than 5,000 students — are following the trend,
hoping to rescue their bleeding budgets.
For Peach County, the four-day week was enough of a success that the
school district is trying it again next year, Clark said. The move
saves $400,000 annually and is popular among teachers and students
because they get extra rest, she said
"Teachers tell me they are much more focused because they've had time
to prepare. They don't have kids sleeping in class on Tuesday," she
said. "Everything has taken on a laser-light focus."
Judge:
Connecticut town can't
hold graduations in church
The Associated Press
Article published May 31, 2010
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) _ A federal court judge has ruled two
Connecticut public high schools can't hold their graduations inside a
local church, saying it's an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall made the ruling Monday in the case
of Enfield High School and Enrico Fermi High School, also in Enfield.
The Enfield school board said they voted to hold services at The First
Cathedral in Bloomfield because it had enough space at the right
price. But two students and three of their parents sued.
Hall said Enfield had unconstitutionally entangled itself with religion
by agreeing to cover up much of the church's religious imagery.
She
also said the town had coerced the plaintiffs to support religion by
forcing them to enter the church for graduation.

19 States Named as
Finalists for Race to the Top
Duncan Salutes State and Local
Leaders for Leading "Quiet Revolution" for School Reform
U.S. Department of Education Dept. Press Release
July 27, 2010
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that 19 states
are the finalists for more than $3 billion available in the second
round of funding in the Race to the Top program.
"Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia submitted bold
blueprints for reform that bear the signatures of many key players at
the state and local level who drive change in our schools," Duncan said.
"Peer reviewers identified these 19 finalists as having the boldest
plans, but every state that applied will benefit from this process of
collaboratively creating a comprehensive education reform agenda,"
Duncan added. "Much of the federal dollars we distribute though other
channels can support their plan to raise standards, improve teaching,
use data more effectively to support student learning, and turn around
underperforming schools."
Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia applied for the second
round of Race to the Top. Including the 36 applications for the second
round of Race to the Top, a total of 46 states and the District of
Columbia applied for either the first or second rounds – or both.
The 19 finalists are: Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of
Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.
Duncan named the finalists at the end of a major speech at the National
Press Club. In the speech, Duncan saluted educators, elected officials,
and private sector leaders for leading a "quiet revolution" of the
education reform across the country.
"From educators to parents and political leaders to journalists --
there is a growing sense that a quiet revolution is underway in our
homes and schools, classrooms, and communities," Duncan said. "This
quiet revolution is driven by motivated parents who want better
educational options for their children. It's being driven by great
educators and administrators who are challenging the defeatism and
inertia that has trapped generations of children in second-rate
schools."
He highlighted the momentum for adopting rigorous standards, elevating
the teaching profession to reward excellence, turning around
low-performing schools, and building better data systems to inform
reform.
While the work is being done by governors, superintendents, and
teachers at the state and local levels, the federal government is
supporting their work through Race to the Top and other reform
programs, including the Investing in Innovation Fund, the Teacher
Incentive Fund, the School Improvement Grants under Title I, and the
federal charter school program.
Through all of these programs, the Department of Education will be
distributing almost $10 billion to support reform in states and local
communities.
"As we look at the last 18 months, it is absolutely stunning to see how
much change has happened at the state and local levels, unleashed in
part by these incentive programs," Duncan said.
Race to the Top's Next Steps
Race to the Top is an historic federal investment in education reform,
with $4.35 billion available to support states in their comprehensive
reforms. The Department is reserving $350 million for a separate
competition to support consortia of states that are creating the next
generation of assessments that will support reform.
In the first round of competition supporting state-based reforms,
Delaware and Tennessee won grants based on their comprehensive plans to
reform their schools and the statewide support for those plans. Almost
$3.4 billion remains to award grants to winners in the second round.
The finalists chosen today will travel to Washington during the week of
Aug. 9 to present their plans to the peer reviewers who scored their
applications. After the state's presentations and an extended
question-and-answer period, the peer reviewers will finalize their
scores and comments.
The Department intends to announce the winners of the competition in
September.
"Just as in the first round, we're going to set a very high bar because
we know that real and meaningful change will only come from doing hard
work and setting high expectations," Duncan said.
Duncan acknowledged that not all of the finalists would be awarded
grants from the almost $3.4 billion remaining in Race to the Top.
President Obama has requested $1.35 billion for the program in the
administration's fiscal 2011 budget.

Will towns get stuck with the school
reform bill?
CT MIRROR
James J. Finley Jr.
June 1, 2010
Governor Rell has signed the highly touted 'school reform' bill, a bill
that passed both chambers of the General Assembly overwhelmingly,
garnering 31 votes in the Senate and 106 in the House. The Mirror
describes the bill as the product of an "unlikely coalition" and the
Governor's press statement says "all of the interested parties -
educators, unions, parents, students, legislators and others - [were]
together at the table".
Nobody questions the need for school reform - the Connecticut
Conference of Municipalities has been in the forefront calling for an
increased state role in closing the "achievement gap." But one group
was not invited to the table when it was being discussed: Chief elected
municipal officials - those with the ultimate responsibility for paying
for any new unfunded state mandate - were left out of the discussion.
The siren call of $195 million over four years in new, temporary
federal funds for new programs is alluring, but let's look at the
abysmal job the state is doing in meeting its existing education
finance responsibilities.
In each year of the current biennium, Connecticut's Education Cost
Sharing program was kept level-funded to FY 08-09 only by use of $271
million in federal budget stabilization funds -- money that will likely
be gone in FY 11-12. Further, the reform legislation imposes new costs
estimated to be between $21 and $28 million. Adding together the loss
of ECS funds and the new costs, and subtracting the Race To The Top
grants, it is possible that by the time the new law takes effect,
property taxpayers could be hit with almost $250 million per year in
new education costs.
The state's history of fulfilling financial commitments to towns and
cities is sketchy at best. The state's share of K-12 public education
costs next year will be 32.7%, the lowest in over a quarter-century.
For example, special education "excess cost" grants were funded at $120
million, but applications for reimbursements will be about $145 million
- so municipalities and property taxpayers will be forced to eat the
$25 million difference. Altogether, towns and cities have suffered cuts
in state aid in this biennium of over $100 million.
On top of that, the state's ability to fulfill its commitment is
questionable - it faces a structural deficit of about $3.5 billion for
FY 11-12. Is it any wonder local officials wonder whether sufficient
state funding will be forthcoming and, if not, who will pay for the
reform bill's new costs?
Few dispute the potential benefits from the school reform legislation.
It's no fun being the wet blanket who has to talk about its price tag.
But today's school closings, teacher layoffs and program cuts are just
the beginning. Is the state going to be willing to "increase" ECS
funding by $271 million in FY 11-12 to keep it "level-funded" to FY
08-09 and appropriate additional funding for unreimbursed school-reform
mandates on local school districts?
It's an old story in Connecticut - the state buys into new programs
with high-sounding rhetoric and then refuses to fund them, forcing
municipalities and property taxpayers to pick up the tab.
Let's not let that happen - again. Improving school performance is
important to Connecticut's future. CCM urges every citizen - local
officials, homeowners and business leaders - to press state candidates
for a commitment to adequately fund K-12 public education, including
newly mandated costs for school reform.
James J. Finley Jr. is executive
director & CEO of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. CCM
is the statewide association of towns and cities.
Hoping
for federal aid, Rell signs
sweeping education reform bill
CT MIRROR
Jacqueline Rabe and Robert A. Frahm
May 26, 2010
Hoping for a second chance at millions of dollars in federal stimulus
money for school reform, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed into law today a
massive education bill...full
story here.
Stacy A. Lore/Spectrum Kids: Amount to
‘counselor’ may exceed $300,000
Weston FORUM
Written by Patricia Gay
Thursday, 15 April 2010 00:00
The dollar amount the Weston school district paid to an ex-autism
counselor who allegedly faked her credentials may be higher than
initially anticipated.
According to Weston Police Detective Carl Filsinger, Stacy Lore and her
company, Spectrum Kids, LLC, may have racked up more than $300,000 for
services provided to Weston special needs students from 2005 to 2007.
“Our investigation is still ongoing, but it looks like the numbers will
be up in the $300,000 range,” he said.
The initial estimate was between $100,000 and $200,000, but is being
adjusted as bills and tax forms are reviewed and tallied.
Ms. Lore was arrested by Norwalk Police on Sunday, March 28, and
charged with first-degree larceny, second-degree forgery, and criminal
impersonation for allegedly providing services to children with autism
in the Norwalk school district, while claiming to possess
certifications and degrees she didn’t have.
Although Norwalk is the only department to file charges against Ms.
Lore so far, the department issued a statement saying she provided
services to other towns in Westchester and Fairfield counties.
Weston police were notified last summer about the investigation into
Ms. Lore. At that time, Superintendent Jerry Belair contacted the
families involved, and turned over to police all information the school
had on Ms. Lore.
“The schools and their attorney acted quickly and have fully cooperated
with our investigation,” Det. Filsinger said.
In 2005, when Ms. Lore was retained as an independent contractor to
provide special education services, Janet Rosenbaum was director of
pupil personnel services for Weston schools and would have had the
responsibility of checking Ms. Lore’s credentials, Mr. Belair said. Ms.
Rosenbaum retired from the district in 2007.
Mr. Belair said it is the schools’ intent to recover any monies if the
allegations aganst Ms. Lore are true.
An economist offers ideas for tracking
academic achievement

Robert A. Frahm
April 6, 2010
Despite the reams of test scores, enrollment figures, attendance
records and other data it collects on public schools, Connecticut falls
woefully short in trying to make sense of it all, a noted state
economist says.
Lawmakers are writing legislation to design a new statewide data
collection system to meet requirements of the federal Race to the Top
school reform program, but Fred Carstensen said they are overlooking a
solution that already exists.
"It's on a state computer" at the Department of Labor, the University
of Connecticut professor said.
Carstensen, head of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, was
referring to a research model developed as part of a groundbreaking
study published by the center two years ago.
The study, "Next Steps: Preparing a Quality Workforce," tracked about
170,000 high school sophomores from Connecticut for more than eight
years as they entered college and the workforce. The study, which
focused on students who took a statewide 10th-grade test between 1996
and 2000, could easily be adapted to build a system to analyze the
long-term performance of students, teachers and schools, according to
Carstensen.
"Simply a remarkable study of immense potential," he said.
Connecticut officials are revamping the state's education data system
as they gear up to compete for a second round of awards in Race to the
Top, the Obama administration's $4.3 billion incentive program to spur
innovation in America's schools. Only two states - Tennessee and
Delaware - were named last week as winners of the first round.
Connecticut began building a new education data system five years ago,
assigning each student a unique identifying number, making it easier to
track student progress from year to year. However, the system still
lacks several crucial elements, according to federal reviewers who
examined the state's initial Race to the Top application. The
state,
for example, has not yet completed procedures for matching student data
to individual teachers or for linking data from elementary and
secondary schools to higher education, reviewers said.
The reviewers gave Connecticut only 10 of a possible 24 points on a
rating of its data system. Tennessee and Delaware each received the
maximum 24 points.
Carstensen singled out Tennessee as a model, saying the state has
gathered nearly two decades of detailed information to monitor
long-term student progress and other factors related to school
performance.
"The gap between Tennessee and Connecticut is just enormous," he said.
One of the most difficult problems confronting educators is the
challenge of linking student progress to teacher and principal
evaluations - a key goal of the Race to the Top guidelines.
Although lawmakers continue to revise the proposed legislation,
Carstensen said the initial bill under consideration in Connecticut
failed to take into account the complexity of the issue.
"There are an awful lot of things about school organization and the
context in which teachers function to know you can't just look at
student progress and say the teacher is at fault or the teacher
deserves credit," he said. "That's just ridiculous."
He added, "How do you measure a teacher when 50 percent of the students
change during the year?"
He said a meaningful system ought to include a wide array of data,
"beginning with the [student's] earliest contact with the educational
system," including pre-kindergarten programs, and continuing through
college. He said it should cover factors such as class size,
absenteeism, disciplinary issues, family characteristics, turnover of
teachers and students, physical facilities, access to computers, school
size, graduation rates and the presence of support personnel such as
social workers.
Some local teacher unions have refused to support Connecticut's Race to
the Top application because they object to the effort to link teacher
evaluation to student performance.
"I have a huge problem with that," said Gary Peluchette, president of
the Bridgeport Education Association, the local teachers' union in
Bridgeport, one of the state's poorest cities. "Our kids come to school
with a lot more issues than suburban kids do," he said. "Now you want
to evaluate us based on test scores when the playing field is not
level?"
Developing an evaluation system based on student data is tricky, but
possible, said Stephen Coelen, author of the Next Steps study and
senior research fellow at the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis.
Coelen, who once worked at Tennessee's Center for Business and Economic
Research, said Connecticut should build partnerships with universities
and other research institutions to develop its data system. A strong
system should collect data even when students move across state lines,
he said. "States that take it seriously and have multiple [data]
measures are going to be performing better in the long run," he said.
In New Haven, a recently approved teachers' contract won praise from
the Obama administration because it provides for development of a
system to link student and teacher performance.
Alex Johnston, head of the New Haven-based school reform group ConnCAN,
has lobbied aggressively for legislation to bolster the state's data
system. He disagrees with critics who say the proposed legislation is
unfair to teachers or too simplistic.
"It's nobody's intention that the only pieces of data we'd be using
[for teacher evaluation] are the [state] test scores," he said.
The
proposed legislation "leaves a lot of room for districts to define
student achievement growth," he said.
Johnston is a member of a working group of educators and others that is
advising lawmakers on legislation related to the state's Race to the
Top application, including the data collection proposal. The group was
convened by Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, and Rep. Andrew Fleischmann,
D-West Hartford, the co-chairmen of the legislature's Education
Committee.
Gaffey has not talked to Carstensen about the legislation but said the
working group shares the belief that the new data and evaluation system
should not be oversimplified. "It sounds like we're on the same track,"
he said. "There has to be context beyond just what the numbers say."
Education
falls into a judicial rabbit hole
DAY editorial
Paul Choiniere
Article published Mar 28, 2010
This is what the Connecticut
Constitution has to say about the state's obligation to provide its
children an education.
"There shall always be free
public elementary and secondary schools in the state. The General
Assembly shall implement this principle by appropriate legislation."
This week the Connecticut
Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, determined that simple phrase
requires "that the public schools provide their students with an
education suitable to give them the opportunity to be responsible
citizens able to participate fully in democratic institutions, such as
jury service and voting, and to prepare them to progress to
institutions of higher education, or to obtain productive employment
and otherwise contribute to the state's economy."
So states the plurality
opinion written by Justice Flemming L. Norcott Jr.
A few observations:
If the framers of the
constitution intended that to be the required standard, they could have
said it. The
court's majority ignored the plain fact that the constitution quite
explicitly states that implementing the "principle" of a free education
is the job of the elected General Assembly. Finally,
I would contend that the state's public schools already meet the
standard cited by the court. Even in Connecticut's poorest schools a
student who studies hard and does his or her homework should graduate
with the ability to participate in our democracy, to serve on a jury or
vote, and to obtain a trade or go to college.
Is the majority instead
suggesting there is a constitutional requirement to assure that every
student graduate with these abilities? Nice goal perhaps, but it is
unrealistic, because achievement is ultimately up to the will of the
individual student and the family commitment to education.
Is the court saying that
every student, no matter where they live, should have the same
opportunity to obtain an education that prepares them for a productive
life? That is certainly a more valid goal, but there is no way of
magically mandating it. The quality of teachers, of equipment,
buildings and textbooks, and the ability to pay for all that, are
significant factors in educational outcomes. But so too is the economic
standing of a community, the level of education of the parents, and the
level of poverty or affluence.
Connecticut has a serious
problem with educational disparity between its urban centers and its
affluent suburbs, its rural towns and its toady communities. In 2009
high school graduation rates for Hispanic students were 58 percent, 66
percent for blacks and 87 percent for whites, and not coincidentally
these minority groups populate its distressed cities, while suburbia
remains predominately white.
Addressing this problem,
creating an environment in which all students have the best opportunity
to succeed, must be a product of the political, not judicial process.
It involves ending the overreliance on the property tax to fund
education, increasing access to early childhood education and replacing
or repairing crumbling inner city schools. But it also involves
reviving the economic vitality of the state's cities, reversing the
flight to the suburbs and rebuilding pride in education.
In 2007 Hartford Superior
Court Judge Joseph Shortall recognized the court's limitations, ruling,
quite correctly, that the state constitution does not guarantee an
educational standard and it was not the role of the judiciary to supply
one.
Filed in 2005, the lawsuit
that Shortall dismissed argued that Connecticut's failure to maintain a
suitable and substantially equal education system was a constitutional
violation. The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is the Connecticut
Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, a group of municipal and
educational organizations. Parents of students in New London,
Plainfield, Windham, Hartford, East Hartford, New Britain, New Haven,
Bridgeport and Danbury joined in the lawsuit.
It is Shortall's decision the
Supreme Court has overruled. So back to Superior Court goes the case.
But what does a judge do to correct the alleged constitutional
violation? Does he or she order more education spending, with no
responsibility for figuring out where it will come from? When filing
the lawsuit, the coalition issued a study projecting $2 billion more a
year is necessary to assure all schoolchildren get a good education.
But is more money really the
solution? Hartford and New Haven have among the highest per pupil
expenditure rates in the state, surpassed only by the most affluent
towns, yet educational outcomes remain deplorable.
Does the judge become an
education czar, outlining what classroom sizes, early childhood
opportunities and classroom laboratories pass constitutional muster? Or
does the judge simply make note that there is a problem - something
lawmakers already recognize - and order it corrected without saying how?
In his dissent, Justice Peter
T. Zarella issued a warning the majority should have listened to.
"Judges will become
legislators because the courts will now be allowed, and very likely
required, to define minimum educational 'inputs' and 'outputs' in order
to determine whether the state has satisfied its purported
constitutional mandate to provide Connecticut schoolchildren with a
'suitable' education," wrote Zarella.
The result, he said, will be
"decades of confusion (that) produce a trail of wasteful litigation."
It is hard to imagine how
that will benefit Connecticut's students.
UPDATED:
Conn. high court sets minimum education standard
DAY
Associated Press
Article published Mar 22, 2010
HARTFORD (AP) - Connecticut's Supreme Court on Monday revived a lawsuit
that challenges the state's method of funding public schools, saying
the state constitution promises an education that is good enough to
prepare students for a job or college.The 4-3 ruling means the lawsuit,
brought against the state by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in
Education Funding in 2005, may go back to the Superior Court. The
coalition argues that achievement gaps between rich and poor towns show
some students are not receiving an adequate education.
The group, made up of officials and parents from several
municipalities, says the way to close that gap is to overhaul the
22-year-old funding formula that determines how much state money the
schools receive.
"The decision means that the state can no longer pay lip service to the
notion of putting up a building and putting in a teacher and saying
that's a meaningful education," said Robert Solomon, a Yale professor
and attorney who supervised law students who argued the case for the
coalition.
A spokesman for Attorney General Richard Blumenthal did not immediately
return a phone call seeking comment.
A Superior Court judge had dismissed that portion of the coalition's
case in 2007, agreeing with the state's argument that the constitution
guaranteed access to education, but did not guarantee a standard of
quality.
The current state education funding formula created in 1988, the
Education Cost Sharing grant, distributes state education funds to
municipalities using a complicated equation that takes into account
poverty, tax bases and other factors.
Some local officials, particularly in struggling large cities, have
said the system has failed and arbitrarily allocates funds for regular
and special education.
Many of those officials involved in the case said they would like to
scrap the formula and start over. Some suggested requiring the state to
pay all education costs.
The coalition said schools across Connecticut are underfunded by $1
billion to $2 billion a year, and that legislators and Gov. M. Jodi
Rell haven't done enough to address the inequities.
Community group scoffs at fees for
community room
By Colin Gustafson, Greenwich TIME STAFF WRITER
Published: 09:50 p.m., Sunday, February 28, 2010 (we only saw this
today, March 1)
If it was built as a community room, it should be open to the
community.
That's the sentiment of members of a western Greenwich neighborhood
group who say they have been unfairly denied free access to a
"community room" at the rebuilt Hamilton Avenue School since it
reopened a year ago.
District officials have asked the group to pay fees associated with
custodial work and liability insurance to use the space.
Sylvester Pecora, co-chairman of the Chickahominy Neighborhood
Association, is outraged by the idea of having to pay to use a room
that he believes was built for groups like his in the first place. His
group has not held any meetings in the room since it opened.
"This is a slap in the face," Pecora said. "It aggravates the hell out
of me that they built this room primarily for the community, and now
they tell us we can't use it without (paying)." The cost of using the
room is unclear.
The schools chief recently said he's sympathetic to these concerns and
would be willing to take another look at the practice of charging
outside groups to use the space.
Closed in 2005 because of mold and structural issues, Hamilton Avenue
School was supposed to have been rebuilt in 18 months. Instead the
project took more than three years to complete, causing overall costs
to swell by $2.2 million.
A former member of the building committee that oversaw the
reconstruction, Pecora said he had always been under the impression
during the planning and rebuilding of the school that access to its
community room would be free for neighborhood groups.
Back when the reconstruction was first being planned more than five
years ago, he said then-schools chief Larry Leverett billed the new
Hamilton Avenue School as a "community school" that would serve as a
center for education and, secondarily, for community activity as well.
Pecora said he was shocked to learn after the school reopened last
February that his group would have to pay to use the room.
As recently as December, former Assistant Superintendent Sue
Wallerstein told Pecora that the district could not make an exception
to its facility-use policies by waiving the fees for his neighborhood
association.
Pecora believes community members, after investing so much into pushing
the delay-plagued project forward, have already paid for the school
with their blood, sweat and tears -- not to mention their taxpayer
dollars.
"I have been a taxpayer for more than 40 years. My children and wife
went to the school," he said. "I don't like it when somebody ... tells
me I cannot use it."
Not only that, but many have continued to invest their time and energy
into improving the school environment, Pecora said. He pointed to his
neighborhood association's recent efforts to ease vehicle congestion
near the parking lot and reduce truck traffic on nearby roadways.
The school's PTA currently uses the space, free of charge for a certain
number of hours, to hold some of its meetings. And just recently, the
District 3 delegation to the Representative Town Meeting began holding
meetings there at no cost, after seeking access from the town clerk.
The Chickahominy Neighborhood Association continues to hold its
meetings in the basement of St. Roch's Church, just across the street
from the rebuilt school.
Thomas Conelias, the neighborhood association's other co-chairman and a
member of the local RTM delegation, bemoaned the district's decision to
charge some groups for access to the community room.
"It's a shame that we cannot use our own building without paying for
it," said Conelias, who serves on the District 3 RTM delegation.
Terry Moore, a mother of two Hamilton Avenue School students and a
member of both the PTA and the neighborhood association, feels likewise.
"I think the administration should be working with the community to
make sure that there are not too many hoops to go through, given the
understanding that there was a commitment," Moore said.
Superintendent of Schools Sidney Freund on Friday said that he would be
willing to reconsider the practice of charging groups to use the space.
"I do understand their perspective and why they are upset," he said.
"I'm not making any promises, but I am certainly willing to take a look
and see what can be done."
Wallerstein, who retired at the end of last year, could not be reached
for comment.
Page last updated at 12:18 GMT, Friday,
19 February 2010

The school district says the laptops had a
"security device" - US reaction by education establishment to counter
effects of fine film at right above?
US school accused
of web spying
|
By Angela Harrison, BBC News education reporter
|

Parents in the US have accused a school of
spying on children by remotely activating webcams on laptops.
A couple from Pennsylvania have filed a lawsuit against a
school district which gave laptops to its high school pupils.
They say their son was told off by teachers for "engaging in
improper behaviour in his home" and that the evidence was an image from
his webcam.
Lower Merion School District says it has now deactivated a
tracking device installed on the laptops.
It says the security feature was only used to track lost,
stolen and missing laptops.
But it was deactivated on Thursday and would not be
re-instated without informing students and families, the district said.
'Stages of undress'
The Lower Merion School District gave the laptops to all
1,800 students at its two high schools with the aim of giving them
access to school resources around the clock, according to its website.
Michael and Holly Robbins are suing the district on behalf of
their child and all the children in the district issued with the
laptops.
They allege the school district invaded their privacy and are
guilty of "wiretapping" by putting children under covert surveillance.
 |
Images captured may
consist of minors and their parents or friends in compromising or
embarrassing positions, including in various stages of dress or undress

|
In their lawsuit, they claim the webcams were activated
remotely and images were taken which could have included anything going
on in a room where the laptop was placed.
The legal papers say: "As the laptops were routinely used by
students and family members at home, it is believed that many of the
images captured and intercepted may consist of images of minors and
their parents or friends in compromising or embarrassing positions,
including in various stages of dress or undress".
On Thursday, the Lower Merion School District posted a letter
to parents on its website saying it had always "gone to great lengths"
to protect the privacy of its students.
In it, the Schools Superintendent Christopher McGinley gives
details of the security feature, which he said was activated only if a
laptop was reported lost, stolen or missing.
"The security feature's capabilities were limited to taking a
still image of the operator and the operator's screen," he wrote.
"This feature was only used for the narrow purpose of
locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District never activated
the security feature for any other purpose or in any other manner
whatsoever."
However, the district had carried out a preliminary review of
security procedures and had disabled the security-tracking program, he
added.
The district would now conduct a thorough review of the
existing policies for student laptop use and look at any other
"technology areas in which the intersection of privacy and security may
come into play".
"We regret if this situation has caused any concern or
inconvenience among our students and families, " he said.
Connecticut part of project to
reinvent high school
Robert A. Frahm, CT MIRROR
February 18, 2010
Just 16, and off to college?
That could become an option for high school sophomores in Connecticut,
one of eight states named Wednesday to pilot test a rigorous new
system, including board examinations, that would mark a dramatic shift
in the traditional notion of high school education.
By fall of 2011, those states will begin testing a system of coursework
and tests that has been widely used in other nations to bolster
academic standards and prepare students for college, the National
Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) announced.
The Board Examination system has been used in places such as Australia,
Denmark, England, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland,
Singapore, and parts of Canada and Germany but has been missing from
U.S. schools, the NCEE said.
"This is about implementing the best the world has to offer," said Marc
Tucker, president of NCEE, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that
has pushed for higher academic standards.
Under the proposed system, students who volunteer to take the exam and
pass it at the end of 10th grade would be eligible to enroll at any
open admissions two-year or four-year college in their state. In
Connecticut, that would be the two-year Community College System.
"It would be a significant change. As a culture, we're geared toward
thinking of four years of high school," said Everett Lyons, principal
of Bristol Eastern High School and one of several educators who
attended a recent briefing on the proposal. He said some students are
ready for college or employment early while others are tempted to slack
off, especially during their senior year.
If they are ready, he said, "Why hold them for two more years in this
holding pattern? I think it has a great deal of merit."
Those who do not pass the lower division high school exams will be
offered a customized program designed to help them succeed on their
next attempt. Students who pass the exams also could choose to
remain in school and take an advanced upper division program preparing
them for admission to selective colleges.
Tucker said NCEE hopes to sharply increase the number of students ready
to succeed in college without having to take remedial courses.
Nationwide, many high school graduates are unprepared for college work.
In Connecticut, officials at the state's two-year community colleges
estimate 60 to 70 percent of students signing up for degree programs
are in need of remedial work.
At the Connecticut State University System, more than half of new
students are enrolled in developmental or remedial math courses,
according to the State Department of Higher Education.
The NCEE first proposed the Board Examination system in 2006, as part
of a package of school reforms aimed at improving workforce
competitiveness. The reform package has since been endorsed by the
National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union,
and by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of
Manufacturers.
The proposed Board Examination system includes a core program of
courses, teaching materials matched to a well-designed syllabus,
high-quality exams and professional training for teachers.
The system most likely would require states to pass legislation
allowing a new path to a diploma, Tucker said. It is designed to
encourage students to take tougher courses and work harder in order to
be ready for college or the workforce, he said.
"For the first time in the United States, kids will know what they have
to do, whether they want to be a carpenter, a plumber or a brain
surgeon," he said.
Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island and Vermont will work with NCEE through a $1.5 million
grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to pilot test the new
curriculum, teacher training and exams.
Each state will select between 10 and 20 schools to pilot test the
system beginning with the 2011-12 school year.
The board exams and curriculum will be aligned with a series of new
voluntary national standards under development by the National
Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Participating states will approve up to five Board Examination programs
and invite high schools to pilot one or more of those programs for
freshmen and sophomores and one or more for juniors and seniors.
The performance-based approach marks a shift from the traditional
system requiring students to put in their time and accumulate credits.
"It is consistent with what we've wanted to do with secondary school
reform," said Connecticut Education Commissioner Mark McQullan. For
some students, the new tests could be an alternative to the Connecticut
Academic Performance Test now required of all 10th-graders, he said.
McQuillan has been an advocate for high school reform and has proposed
plans that include performance exams for key subjects and provisions
allowing early admission to college. "We wanted to get kids through
faster and hook them up to college faster," he said. If the proposed
system proves to be successful, "it could be quite transformative," he
said.
Calvin Brown, 17, a junior at Bristol Eastern High School, said such an
approach would appeal to "students who are willing and ready to
get out there and take hold of their future and not waste time. There
are a lot of kids who definitely could go off to college now, a lot of
people better off out there working. It's good to have those options
open."
The idea "sounds great to me," said 17-year-old Hunter Kodama, a senior
at Norwich Free Academy. "Not every student is bound for college,
but some students are ready for college before others."
Kodama, a student representative on the State Board of Education, said
the idea of testing for college readiness as a sophomore "sounds
intriguing. . . . I'm sure I would have attempted it at least."
Wednesday's announcement also drew praise from David Carter, chancellor
of the Connecticut State University System. "There are a number of
students who right now are capable of completing high school [early],"
he said. "If you're capable, why not go ahead and challenge yourself?
"I'm excited by it," he said. "I think it could end up motivating other
students who might not be thinking of college."
However, state Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti said he's
not convinced of the value of the program. Even if they pass the exams
as sophomores, most high-performing students will opt to remain in high
school to prepare for selective colleges, he said, and he questioned
whether the system would help low-performing students.
The Board Examination system uses a series of existing tests and
provides a faster, cheaper and surer way to catch the United States up
to the best performing countries than by developing new tests and
teaching systems, according to the NCEE.
"Students who pass these exams will meet international standards, not
just national standards," the NCEE said. "The examinations these
programs use are much better at measuring the kinds of analytical
skills that will make America competitive than the kinds of tests most
states now use."
State Educators Hail Obama's Budget
Proposals
Hartford Courant
By GRACE E. MERRITT
February 4, 2010
State education leaders say they're pleased that President Barack
Obama's proposed education budget would overhaul the Bush
administration's test-based No Child Left Behind law with a more
competitive approach that rewards reforms designed to raise student
achievement, improve teaching and inspire students to excel in math and
science.
Connecticut is set to receive $455 million under Obama's proposed
budget to help develop better schools, improve student achievement and
make high school graduates ready for college and a career.
Many of the proposals in the education budget, released Monday, expand
Obama's Race to the Top national school reform competition, which
encourages expansion of charter schools and linking teacher pay to
student performance, among other reforms.
The budget would add $1.35 billion more to Race to the Top and offer
millions in competitive grants for state and local efforts to improve
literacy instruction and develop effective strategies for teaching and
learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"It more clearly defines what's most important to invest in," said
George Sugai, a professor at the Neag School of Education at the
University of Connecticut.
He said he liked the fact that the budget increases funding for
education overall, focuses on improving student performance "by looking
at how you teach" and pays attention to special education to make sure
the needs of all children are addressed.
"We see a refocused shift from No Child Left Behind, which was based on
year-to-year test scores and consequences, to a new calculus of
focusing on instruction, using data and putting more emphasis on
student performance from year to year," said State Board of Education
spokesman Thomas Murphy.
State Rep. Andrew M. Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the
legislature's education committee, called the new approach a "vast
improvement" from the "one-size-fits-all" approach of the Bush
administration.
He said the new approach is more logical and attempts to improve the
nation's global competitiveness.
"It sounds to me like the right direction," Fleischmann said. "We know
the United States is falling behind our competitors when it comes to
math and science."
State Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey, D-Meriden, the other education committee
chairman, was more reserved, saying he'd like to know more specifics.
"It remains unclear as to actually how they are going to define these
terms as having children college-ready and career-ready," Gaffey said.
"That's going to be left to the Department of Education to write those
terms. I get very nervous when there is stuff proposed in legislation,
but it is left up to the bureaucrats to write the terms."
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant
School choice: 'The most efficient
way' to desegregate
CT MIRROR
Robert A. Frahm
February 2, 2010
As Connecticut spends millions of dollars a year to meet a court
desegregation order by building and running racially-integrated magnet
schools, parents like Iraida Sanchez of Hartford would be happy with a
far less expensive alternative.
Year after year, Sanchez has put her son Nathaniel's name in a lottery.
She is not aiming for one of the region's state-of-the-art magnet
schools but hoping instead for a desk in a regular elementary school in
any of the city's neighboring suburbs.
No luck so far. "Ever since first grade or kindergarten he's always on
the waiting list," she said. Nathaniel's now in fourth grade.
Despite what state officials insist is an ample supply of open seats
under a decades-old school choice program, suburban schools have
accepted only a trickle of children while Sanchez and thousands of
other Hartford parents continue to wait.
Moving some of Hartford's largely minority student population to
integrated or mostly white suburban schools was to have been a key
element in the effort to comply with a 1996 state Supreme Court order
[3] in the Sheff vs. O'Neill desegregation case. However, the state put
its emphasis - and its money - mainly into building magnet schools with
popular specialty themes such as science, performing arts and
international studies. The suburban choice program languished.
But today, as magnet schools and the state's fiscal crisis push
education budgets to the breaking point, some educators believe this
civil rights-era program, now known as Open Choice, could be a more
budget-friendly, long-term answer to school desegregation in the
Hartford region.
"The future of Sheff rests on the back of Open Choice, not magnet
schools," said Bruce Douglas, executive director of the Capitol Region
Education Council (CREC), an agency that runs both the choice program
and several magnet schools in the Hartford region.
Leaders of the state Department of Education and the legislature's
Education Committee agree that the choice program should be expanded,
and the potentially volatile issue of requiring suburban towns to
accept city students may come up in the General Assembly session that
starts Wednesday.
Urban-suburban transfer programs have been used to desegregate schools
in cities such as Boston, St. Louis and Milwaukee, and plaintiffs in
the Sheff lawsuit agree that Hartford's suburban choice program can
play a larger role.
"We've always believed that [suburban] choice was a far more effective
means to offer quality and integrated education for the bang for the
buck," said John Brittain, a civil rights lawyer who was part of the
team that filed the Sheff lawsuit in 1989.
Among those hoping to bolster the Open Choice program is state
Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan, who is troubled by the focus on
magnets as the central strategy to meet the Sheff goals.
"Relative to Sheff, it has not been a good strategy," McQuillan said.
Magnet schools sprouted across Connecticut following a 1996 law that
promised the state would pay the entire cost (later reduced to 95
percent) of building new magnets.
The state has spent nearly half a billion dollars to build more than a
dozen magnets in the Hartford region with several others under
construction or in planning. Nevertheless, the effort to place enough
Hartford children in integrated schools has been a struggle.
About one quarter of Hartford's 21,730 minority schoolchildren now
attend integrated magnet schools, charter schools, regional technical
and agricultural high schools, or suburban schools. However, under
terms of a court-approved agreement with the Sheff plaintiffs, the
state must increase that number to 41 percent by the 2012-2013 school
year.
As many as 14,000 names remain on waiting lists for magnet schools and
the Open Choice program, officials estimate. Most are Hartford students.
Although the legislature increased support for operating magnet schools
in the Sheff region this year, it did not increase the subsidy to
suburban schools for enrolling Hartford students in the choice program.
That subsidy remains at $2,500 per student despite McQuillan's request
for a substantial increase.
Bolstering that subsidy would be far more efficient than building
another magnet school for, say, $60 million, said former Avon
Superintendent of Schools Richard Kisiel, now representing the Sheff
plaintiffs under the court-approved settlement.
"You take that $60 million and translate that into [Open Choice]
incentive money - absolutely it's the most efficient way, but we can't
seem to convince the legislature," he said. "If they had increased the
incentive as the commissioner proposed, I'm convinced that would have
opened up seats. . . . I think it could solve the problem completely."
McQuillan still hopes to get more incentive money but also plans to ask
the legislature to give him authority to order suburban schools to
accept additional Open Choice applicants.
"Choice is the preferred strategy," McQuillan said, "but you can't
execute a strategy like that if you don't have any power and, secondly,
no money."
State Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, co-chairman of the legislature's
Education Committee, supports the idea of allowing the commissioner to
order schools to increase participation in the Open Choice program. "I
don't see how you reach the [Sheff] goal . . . unless he does have that
authority," he said.
Nevertheless, forcing schools to accept students in what has always
been a voluntary program undoubtedly would be met with resistance. "In
my community, the fact it's voluntary has an extremely positive effect.
Mandating things is very corrosive," said Cal Heminway, chairman of the
Granby Board of Education and past president of the Connecticut
Association of Boards of Education.
Granby is among the most active school systems in the Open Choice
program, taking more than 3 percent of its student body from Hartford.
But is the expansion of Open Choice the best strategy for pursuing the
Sheff goals?
The magnet school approach has led to major school construction
projects in places such as New Haven and Hartford, helping those cities
replace or renovate crumbling schools. Magnets also have renewed
interest in city schools from thousands of applicants, including
suburban families who have put their names on long waiting lists for
the popular specialized schools. Four Hartford magnet schools recently
were cited in U.S. News & World Report's survey of America's best
high schools.
"As long as there is a demand, then we haven't reached the limit" for
magnets, said Norma Neumann-Johnson, principal of Hartford's
Breakthrough Magnet School. "Just building magnets may not be the only
solution. Choice should be part of it, but I think we need to keep
going."
Edward Linehan, who formerly ran magnet programs in both Hartford and
New Haven, said state officials should not ignore the benefits of
magnets.
"If Open Choice were seen as the only future expansion [of
desegregation programs], you lose the potential impact on urban school
districts that magnets represent," he said. "The cost of voluntarily
desegregating our schools is going to be substantial, and the least
expensive alternative may not be the most effective."
The choice program was known as Project Concern when it began in 1966
with 266 Hartford children bused to schools in Farmington, Manchester,
Simsbury, South Windsor and West Hartford. It drew national attention
and was once considered a showcase for racial integration, but after
reaching a peak of about 1,200 students in the 1970s it fell on hard
times and nearly closed.
Today, enrollment hovers near 1,200 again but growth has been slow. A
state study last year reported that suburbs have the capacity to enroll
three times that number. Still, of more than 4,000 applicants this
year, just 236 children were selected in a lottery for new seats,
according to CREC.
Suburban officials have been reluctant to open more spaces. Some
question the accuracy of the state study on school capacity. Others
cite factors such as cost and limited class sizes. Many accept only the
youngest students, those in kindergarten or the primary grades, saying
older students have more difficulty adjusting or are sometimes lagging
academically.
In Granby, for example, schools accept new Open Choice applicants only
up to second grade so that they can stay in the Granby system
throughout elementary, middle and high school, said Heminway.
"You send us a ninth-grader with $2,500, and there is no way we can
service that kid," he said.
To run a choice program successfully, schools should have support to
pay for services such as extra training for teachers or after-school
buses allowing city children to take part in sports or extracurricular
activities, Heminway said.
In Plainville, about 50 students from Hartford attend school under the
choice program. "We keep trying to take more, but we don't have the
space," said Kathy Binkowski, superintendent of schools. Some
classrooms already exceed school board guidelines on class size limits,
she said.
An early study of the choice program, then known as Project Concern,
said it produced long-term benefits. The study, published in 1992 by
Teachers College at Columbia University, found that graduates of the
program had lower dropout rates, more social contact with whites,
better success in college and fewer problems with police.
"I learned how to deal with different cultures," said Angela Minto, of
Hartford, a former Open Choice student and one of nine black graduates
in a class of 192 seniors at Plainville High School in 2004. "In
the real world when you grow up, you're going to have to deal with
different kinds of people," said Minto, who later attended Howard
University, where she graduated in 2008.
Minto's mother enrolled three daughters in the choice program in
Plainville, looking for "a diverse education," Minto said, and "a
better education than what Hartford schools were giving at the time."
That is the same goal that prompts parents such as Iraida Sanchez,
Nathaniel's mother, to put their children's names in the lottery again
and again.
"I'm still keeping my fingers crossed," Sanchez said.

Charter Schools - not a popular idea in most states, as of now...
Obama to seek $1.35 billion more for education
YAHOO
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer
January 19, 2010
FAIRFAX, Va. – President Barack Obama announced Tuesday he'll ask
Congress for $1.35 billion to extend an education grant program for
states, saying that getting schools right "will shape our future as a
nation."
Obama outlined the proposal that will be part of his budget request for
this year at an elementary school here, where he also held a short
discussion with sixth-grade students.
The $787 billion economic stimulus program that Obama signed into law
soon after taking office included $4.3 billion in competitive grants
for states, nicknamed the "Race to the Top" fund. States must amend
education laws and policies to compete for a share of the money.
The deadline to apply for the program is Tuesday, and officials expect
more than 30 states to apply. The Education Department is expected to
announce its first of two rounds of awards in April — with Obama saying
that not all who enter will get a grant.
The president said that extending the program would allow more states
to win grants. He also wants to use some of the $1.35 billion for a
similarly competitive grant program for local school districts.
"Offering our children an outstanding education is one of our most
fundamental — perhaps our most fundamental — obligations as a country,"
Obama said in brief remarks. "Countries that out-educate us today will
out-compete us tomorrow, and I refuse to let that happen on my watch."
With the grant programs, Obama is trying to make federal education
spending more of a competitive endeavor to encourage states and school
districts to do better, rather than a solely formula-driven effort in
which states and districts look forward to receiving a certain amount
of money each school year, regardless of how good a job they do
educating students.
To that end, Obama sees the use of student test scores to judge teacher
performance and the creation of charter schools, which are funded with
public money but operate independently of local school boards, as
solutions to the problems that plague public education.
National teachers' unions disagree. They argue that student achievement
amounts to much more than a score on a standardized test and that it
would be a mistake to rely heavily on charter schools.
The "Race to the Top" fund — and the opportunity to compete for the
billions of dollars it holds — was designed to encourage states to
rework their education systems and bring them more in line with Obama's
vision. Education is largely a state and local responsibility.
So far, more than a dozen states have changed laws or policies to link
data on student achievement to the performance of teachers and
principals, or pave the way for opening more charter schools.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor
Committee, called the administration's plans "exciting."
Obama is expected to send Congress his 2011 budget proposal sometime
next month.
State
Stands To Win Up To $175M For School Reform
Department of Education Racing To
Finish Race To The Top Application
The Hartford Courant
By GRACE E. MERRITT
January 18, 2010
HARTFORD —
The state Department of Education has been racing to finish its
application to the federal Race to the Top competition that's designed
to stimulate broad-based school reform.
With $4.35 billion on the table — a tantalizing chunk of change in a
time of tight budgets — states are fiercely competing to file the most
compelling proposal.
"We're in an era of fiscal crisis. This is the only game in town," said
Tom Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of Education.
The grant program, part of the federal economic stimulus package, is
designed to reward states that promote innovative reforms to improve
teaching, do a better job tracking student performance and shore up
failing schools.
Connecticut stands to win up to $175 million in Race to the Top money
and is working overtime to get towns to sign on, write proposed
legislation and iron out hundreds of other details by Tuesday's
deadline.
Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan has been working late and on
weekends and held numerous meetings with superintendents, teacher
organizations and school boards to encourage schools systems across the
state to support the application by signing a memorandum of
understanding to participate.
So far, 120 out of 187 school districts — including charter schools and
regional education centers — have signed up. To promote cooperation,
the application encourages each district's superintendent, school board
chairman and teacher union representative to sign the agreement.
Some school boards have been hesitant to sign, worried about whether
they will be able to withdraw from the project at any time and whether
local taxpayers will be saddled with extra costs to keep programs
running after the federal money dries up, said Robert Rader, executive
director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, which
has been advising local boards.
"What we're doing is just telling them they should review details of
the state plan, figure how much they are eligible to receive and think
about whether the district will be able to support the work when the
funding ends in four years," Rader said.
Suffield's board of education, for example, opted not to sign the
memorandum of agreement last week, arguing that its estimated $33,000
allocation spread out over four years would not come close to helping
the board pay for changes it wants to make.
Connecticut is eligible to receive a maximum of $175 million spread
over four years, a small number compared to the $8.5 billion the state
spends on pre-kindergarten through Grade 12 public education each year.
Half the Race to the Top money would go directly to local participating
towns based on need. Hartford, for example, would get $14.8 million.
West Hartford would get a relatively small lump sum of $170,000 in each
of the four years.
"Big cities are in for millions of dollars and we're in for
diddly-squat. That's not the issue," said Terry Schmitt, vice chairman
of the West Hartford school board. The school board voted recently to
be a "good citizen" and respond to the commissioner's appeal to sign up
but also to take advantage of cutting-edge teacher training and
professional development.
The other half of the grant money would pay for state-run activities,
such as professional development for teachers, running a regional
teacher exchange, building data systems to track students from
kindergarten through the public university system, expanding advanced
placement courses and hiring more Department of Education employees to
run everything.
Along with getting towns to sign on, the board of education is
developing proposed legislation to allow for secondary school reform,
lift enrollment caps on charter schools and increase state per-pupil
grants to charter schools from $9,300 to $10,300.
•Staff writer Shawn Beals contributed
to this story.
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant
State Board Of Education
Discourages
So-Called Tracking In Schools
Hartford Courant
By GRACE E. MERRITT
January 7, 2010
HARTFORD —
The State Board of Education voted Wednesday to oppose the longtime
practice of tracking students by academic ability, saying it funnels a
disproportionate number of low-income and minority students to less
challenging classes that hurt their chances to succeed.
The resolution is not binding on school systems, but is designed to
discourage the practice.
The board's resolution calls for schools that do track students to
inform parents if their child is on a low track and tell them that the
level of course work would not be rigorous enough to allow the child to
attend the state university system.
In addition, schools must file annual reports explaining their tracking
systems, describing the research that supports them and mapping out the
demographic characteristics of students assigned to each track level.
"The intent is not to take issue with instructional-level classes or
groups," board member Theresa Hopkins-Staten said. "It's to take issue
with the disproportionate number of students of color and low-income
students in low-track classes.
"This is something we, as a board, need to monitor ... to ensure high
quality education is available to all in this state."
The measure is not aimed at advanced placement courses or honors
courses or even just splitting up a classroom into different reading
groups, said Tom Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of
Education.
"That's not tracking," he said. "Tracking is when you have an A-team
and a B-team and maybe even a C-team and you never leave those teams.
You have a different curriculum, a different pace and a different set
of expectations."
Assistant Education Commissioner George Coleman said the resolution
approved unanimously Wednesday is designed to make sure parents realize
that their child has been placed in a non-college preparatory track and
give them an opportunity to see the data supporting that placement and
redress the decision.
Hopkins-Staten said she proposed the resolution after learning that
some school systems in Connecticut still adhere to rigid tracking. The
Department of Education doesn't know exactly how many school systems
still have tracking because schools systems are run and controlled by
local school boards.
For instance, the board learned that Danbury and Stamford still have
tracking systems — though they're dismantling them — when school
leaders presented the board with their school improvement plans
recently.
Tracking, which was popular in American schools in the 1970s, has
fallen out of favor in some education circles, Murphy said.
"We are trying to get away from it," Murphy said.
Instead, state school officials prefer a more heterogeneous approach in
which a wide range of students learn together in one classroom.
"Research says if you are in a heterogeneous classroom where you have
students of all levels and experiences, students, particularly students
who are struggling, can do better," Murphy said.
Critics, however, say that approach does a disservice to high-achieving
students who might become bored as extra time is spent with other
students. A group called Stamford Residents for Excellence in
Education, for example, has said that Stamford's plan to dismantle
tracking would "dumb down" instruction.
There is conflicting research on both sides of the issue.
A study by the Fordham Institute released last month on tracking in
Massachusetts middle schools found that more students at schools with
two or three levels of math scored near the top of state math tests
than those at schools with only one math track.
But Stamford Superintendent of Schools Joshua P. Starr firmly believes
in the benefits of "eradicating" the tracking system, which he says
serves only high-performing students.
"The kids at bottom stay at bottom and it hurts kids that are
traditionally lower performers," he said. "They are not being
challenged. They are not being asked to work at a higher level. The
evidence is overwhelming. It all leads to the same conclusion: Tracking
does not work for those kids."
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant
Kan. Delays Aid Payments to Schools
for 3rd Month
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 5, 2010 Filed at 1:52 p.m. ET
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas is delaying $200 million in aid payments to
public schools this month so it can meet state government's payroll and
pay other bills on time, its top budget official confirmed Tuesday.
It will be the third consecutive month that an ongoing cash crunch has
led the state to postpone payments to its 295 school districts. State
officials expect nearly 100 districts will be forced to violate cash
management laws to pay their own bills.
The payments to schools, representing part of general aid to school
districts, were due Friday, the first day of the new year.
State Budget Director Duane Goossen said the state hopes to make half
the payments by the end of the week. But he said it doesn't expect to
pay the rest until the end of January because it won't collect enough
tax revenues in its main bank account until then.
''It depends on how fast money comes in,'' Goossen told The Associated
Press. ''These bills will be paid. It's just that we don't have the
cash right now to do it.''
The state's financial juggling comes as legislators, Gov. Mark
Parkinson and other officials wrestle with the state's ongoing budget
problems. Legislators are scheduled to open their 90-day annual session
Monday, and their biggest task will be heading off a projected budget
shortfall.
The state delayed general aid payments to schools in November, with
half the funds not arriving until early December. It also postponed
general aid payments and special education funding in December.
Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis said a third of school
districts probably will be forced to violate state laws that govern how
they're supposed to manage various accounts.
''The state really needs to step up and honor its commitments,'' said
Mark Desetti, a lobbyist for the Kansas National Education Association,
the state's largest teachers union. ''This is shameful.''
But Goossen said delaying payments to public schools will allow state
government to cover $25 million in payroll expenses this week. Also, he
said, the state will make $35 million in aid payments to community
colleges on time and pay health care providers $24 million for services
to needy Kansans in the Medicaid program.
Meanwhile, state Sens. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, and John Vratil,
a Leawood Republican, planned to outline a bipartisan budget
initiative. Both are members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee,
which handles budget legislation.
Kansas
Governor Cuts Education Budget; Parkinson Reduces Spending By $259
Million
KMBC-TV
POSTED: 4:39 pm CST November 23, 2009
UPDATED: 7:52 pm CST November 23, 2009
TOPEKA, Kan. -- Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson announced $259 million worth
of spending cuts Monday, reducing funds for highway maintenance and
education to shore up a troubled state budget.
The cuts are the fifth such reduction for the state budget year, which
ends June 30. Parkinson said Kansas was in historic times, never before
seeing two consecutive years of revenue declines, let alone the
four-year trough it faces now.
"This has been particularly challenging for the 2010 budget, which has
been absolutely decimated by this decline in state revenue," Parkinson
said. "There are no longer any easy answers."
The Democrat's plan also calls for drawing down an additional $85.9
million in federal stimulus dollars given to states to prop up budgets.
That leaves $189.6 million remaining from Kansas's allocation.
Republicans said Parkinson was helpful in making the cuts, but thought
he could have gone deeper in cutting spending without borrowing from
transportation funds or federal funds that will be needed next year.
"I applaud the governor's effort to make what are some very difficult
decisions," said Rep. Kevin Yoder, chairman of the House budget
committee. "What we didn't see and hoped to see were real, significant
reductions in government spending."
Legislative budget analysts said Monday that even with the governor's
cuts, Kansas already is looking at a 2011 budget hole of as much as
$400 million.
Parkinson made the cuts in response to a Nov. 5 revenue estimate that
foretold a gap of $260 million between state revenues and approved
expenditures. Parkinson said he could not promise there wouldn't be
further cuts next spring when the next revenue forecast is given.
Policy-makers use the revenue forecast as the basis for setting the
state budget. Estimates are made twice a year, taking into account
trends in the economy.
Parkinson said every agency took a hit and will have to adjust
accordingly.
"I am genuinely sorry," he said. "There is no way to sugar coat this.
This will have negative affects across the state."
The governor promised legislative leaders earlier in the year that he
would balance the budget through cuts before the 2010 session begins in
January. He said Monday that work on the 2011 budget year begins
immediately, but wouldn't commit to pushing to raise taxes to cover
future revenue shortfalls.
Legislative action will be required to make permanent Parkinson's cuts,
which include a $50 million reduction to the Kansas Department of
Transportation for maintenance, $36 million for K-12 schools and $2
million for higher education. Medicaid reimbursements paid to
providers, such as doctors, nursing homes and services for the
disabled, were reduced 10 percent, or $22 million.
Parkinson said state agencies would have flexibility in responding to
the cuts, which may include layoffs or furloughing employees.
Yoder, an Overland Park Republican, said cutting wage costs was the way
the state could reduce spending, much like the private sector has been
forced to do when the economy slumped.
House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat, said state
budget cuts could have been avoided over the past decade if not for tax
cuts enacted by Republicans while spending increased.
"This goes far beyond 'trimming the fat' from state agencies," Davis
said. "These cuts are now doing severe harm to our public schools,
community colleges and universities and the most vulnerable Kansans who
are relying on state services to survive this economic downturn."
Derrick Sontag, state director of Americans for Prosperity, which
favors smaller government and opposes tax increases, said Parkinson
should continue to look for ways to cut inefficiencies and for
long-term solutions to end the budget crisis.
Parkinson cautioned school districts not to consider suing the state
for additional funding, as they did in 1999. That suit resulted in a
2005 Kansas Supreme Court ruling and a spending increase of nearly $1
billion over the past four years.
The governor said districts should wait to see what state revenues do
once the economy rebounds. If education cuts are not restored, then a
lawsuit may be necessary, Parkinson said.
Budget Adjustments
An overview of the Governor’s budget reductions and adjustments:
Budget Adjustments: $258.9 Million
* Targeted, strategic budget reductions in
individual agencies as outlined on the attached list.
* Reduce highway maintenance funds by $50 million.
This is achieved by transferring $50 million from the State Highway
Fund to the State General Fund.
* Reduce the amount transferred from the State
General Fund to the Bioscience Authority by $5 million. This will still
allow $35 million to be transferred from the General Fund to the
Bioscience Authority.
* Reduce funding for K-12 by $36 million and Regents
by $2 million, leaving both at 2006 spending levels. Do not fund
recommended $155.8 million K-12 increase based on revised estimates of
property tax revenue and student enrollment.
* Move unspent funds from prior years from
individual agency budgets to the State General Fund. This includes the
Governor’s Office and the Legislature.
* Reduce Medicaid reimbursement rates by 10%. This
cannot be implemented immediately, so it is estimated it will result in
savings of $22 million during the last three months of the fiscal year.
Offset Budget Adjustments With Recovery Act Funds: $85.9 Million
* Reduce K-12 Supplemental General State Aid by
$85.9 million, but offset that reduction with $85.9 million of federal
Recovery Act funds that had been budgeted for the 2011 fiscal year.
This leaves the state with $189.6 million of Recovery Act funds (State
Fiscal Stabilization and Special Education funds) for use in the 2011
budget.
* States have discretion over when to draw down
these Recovery Act funds. At least 10 states plan to use all of their
Fiscal Stabilization Recovery Act funding by the end of FY 2010. A
large majority of states plan to use a greater portion of the funding
in FY 2010 and a smaller portion in FY 2011.
In
neighboring Westport...
Consultant Projects Drop Off in
Elementary Enrollment
WestportNow
Monday, Dec. 7, 2009
An education consultant told the Westport Board of Education tonight
that the town’s elementary enrollment could drop off sharply over the
next few years.
However, Donald G. Kennedy of the New England School Development
Council, known as NESDEC, said the pattern could reverse itself quickly
depending on a number of factors, especially the economy.
“Will you lose?’” he asked. “Maybe, maybe not…these are strange
economic times.”
Kennedy said based on his analysis, Westport’s middle school population
will likely remain the same while the high school population will
continue to increase.
The NESDEC official cautioned that because Westport was so different
from other towns, it “may not have drop off like other communities.”
“Westport usually recovers more quickly than other communities,”
Kennedy said referring to the economy.
He said given the pattern in place, Westport will probably “level off
and grow again in student population in a shorter amount of time” than
some other communities.
Kennedy said one result of the difficult economy is that Westport has
experienced a growth in school enrollment as parents have moved their
youngsters from private schools to public schools.
He said this pattern could be reversed quickly if there is an
improvement in the economy.
Donald O’Day, chairman of the board, said while the projections were
useful he noted that many assumptions used 2000 census numbers and that
these numbers were nine years old and likely very outdated.
Layoffs likely after Shelton schools find
themselves $700,000 short; Layoffs possible after teachers reject
furloughs
CTPOST
By Kate Ramunni, STAFF WRITER
Updated: 12/07/2009 10:43:51 PM EST
SHELTON -- Layoffs are likely as school officials grapple to close a
$700,000 gap in the current year's school budget as teachers reportedly
have turned back a request to take two furlough days.
The teachers met Monday afternoon with union representatives to vote on
a proposal to take two unpaid days -- the last school day of the year
and a teacher's development day -- in order to avoid layoffs, but
unconfirmed reports say they rejected that request.
Union representative Deb Keller couldn't be reached for comment after
the meeting but multiple sources reported that the teachers rejected
the furlough proposal. Now school officials say that the result will
likely be layoffs, as well as other measures to close the gap. A
combination of an increase in the number of students needing special
education services and a decrease in the amount of state special
education funds has led to the shortfall, Board of Education chairman
Tim Walsh said.
"The state didn't fund what they said they were going to fund," he
said. "They're only coming through with about 70 percent of what they
did last year."
Add to that a dramatic increase in need and you have a problem, he said.
"Our special education costs are getting away from us -- they're
astronomical," he said. There's been an increase of about 50 students
requiring special education services this year, he said, and a total of
about 200 over the last several years.
There has been more demand for tutors, which is hurting the district's
finances, he said, but the district is mandated to provide them. "The
mandates are killing us -- it has put quite a strain on us," he said.
There are some children who are placed outside the district, and their
costs can top $100,000 each, he said.
The problem has consumed school officials' time, he said. "We have been
meeting morning, noon and night," he said. And Tuesday night the board
will address the problem in open session at 7:15 p.m. in the Shelton
Intermediate School auditorium.
"Hopefully (administrators) are going to present plans for mitigation
for this year's budget," Walsh said.
Exactly how much is needed to close the gap hasn't been determined yet,
Walsh said. "Hopefully we will find out (Tuesday) night," he said.
On Wednesday, Superintendent of Schools Freeman Burr will present his
2010-11 proposed budget at another special meeting at 7:15 p.m. at the
Central Office on Long Hill Avenue.
Former board chairman Win Oppel, who still sits on the board, said the
figure is about $700,000, which school officials had hoped could be
filled in part with a two-day furlough that the teachers' union voted
on Monday afternoon.
"Originally it was just under $2 million, but we were able to cover all
but $700,000 in our existing budget," Oppel said.
Even if the union had agreed to the two furlough days, there would
still have been about a $290,000 gap, Oppel said.
"The furlough days are the least impactful as far as students and
classrooms are concerned," Oppel said. "Even with furlough days, the
potential for a reduction in staffing is probable, and without it, it
would become pretty much a certainty."
Approving the furlough days would have meant that certified staff would
likely have been immune from layoffs, Oppel said, which would have
fallen on uncertified staff. But rejecting the furlough days means
certified staff will likely be included in any layoffs, he said.
When the board approved its budget, it used the 2008-09 budget figures
regarding state special education funding, but when state legislators
got around to passing a budget months later, that number was
considerably less than that, Walsh said.
"Part of it is we assumed we would get from the state at least what we
got last year, but that didn't happen," he said. In addition, the board
received a zero increase from City Hall, he said.
The school board may return to the Board of Aldermen for help, Walsh
said. "Hopefully they will let us come back and appeal for help," he
said, "but I don't have great hope that is going to happen."
Aldermanic president John Anglace couldn't be reached Monday afternoon,
but Mayor Mark A. Lauretti said he doesn't see the city bailing out the
school board.
"Our budget is set and I'm not interested in any new appropriations,"
he said. "This is something they are going to have to work out for
themselves."
The mayor said he doesn't have much sympathy for the school board.
"It's the same old story -- more raises, hire more people, they never
have enough money, and meanwhile the test scores are the same," he
said. "They are going to have to do whatever they have to do."
When formulating the current school budget, the board's goal was to
allow everyone to keep their jobs, Walsh said.
"We did everything we could to avoid layoffs," he said.
E L E C T I O N I
N F O R M A T I O N
At the request of the FORUM, we are including a link to the CT Statutes.
This section explains why Board of Education candidates always seem to
get fewer votes and thus appear to be less popular that other
candidates for seats on other Boards and Commissions: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/pub/chap146.htm#Sec9-204.htm
EDUCATION: Board Discusses
Application For Funds; Teacher Evaluation Requirement Raises Concerns
The Hartford Courant
By GRACE E. MERRITT
October 8, 2009
HARTFORD —
Holding its breath and jumping right in, the State Board of Education
broached the controversial subject of connecting teacher evaluations to
student performance Wednesday as members discussed the state's
application for funding under a new federal competition.
To be eligible for the U.S. Department of Education's $5 billion Race
to the Top reform-driven competition, applicants must prove that
performance assessments for teachers and school administrators are
linked to student and school achievement.
The state Department of Education wants to revise legislation to allow
that linkage in order to meet a Dec. 30 application deadline.
>>
2009 CMT & CAPT Test Scores Search
The state is developing an ambitious proposal for Race to the Top money
that calls for dramatically improving 20 school districts, mostly
urban, through secondary school reform and other initiatives.
During Wednesday's meeting, the board discussed various approaches to
the teacher evaluation issue, such as linking teacher merit pay to
student achievement. The issue proved immediately divisive as board
Vice Chairwoman Janet Finneran and others said they could not support
merit pay. Teacher unions, which negotiate pay for members as a
group,
are generally skeptical of merit pay.
"I just don't want to see us sell our soul as we are racing to the top
and not making philosophical decisions along the way," Finneran said.
She also raised concerns about the possibility of setting different
salary levels for teachers based on market demand in their fields.
"How can you decide whether a high school math teacher gets more pay
than a kindergarten teacher? Teaching kindergarten is a more difficult
job," she said.
Board member Lynne Farrell said teachers go into the profession knowing
that they won't get rich, but will get satisfaction from the job.
Chairman Allan Taylor said the issue of whether some teachers get paid
more than others is separate from the merit pay issue. Taylor
noted
that there are various other teacher evaluation models the board can
consider.The board eventually agreed to explore models developed by
other states and agreed to discuss the issue more fully at a future
meeting.
Also during the meeting, state Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan
gave a presentation of the state's Race to the Top application, which
he is still refining.
Currently, the plan would target 20 districts: Hartford, East Hartford,
Manchester, Bloomfield, New Britain, Bristol, Middletown, Meriden,
Ansonia, Bridgeport, Danbury, Hamden, Naugatuck, New Haven, New London,
Norwalk, Stamford, Waterbury, West Haven and Windham, as well as the
state-run Connecticut Technical High School System. The goal is
to
make the Class of 2016 ready for college or work, lower the number of
students requiring remedial course work in college and lower high
school drop-out rates, among other measures.
Also during the meeting, McQuillan told board members he strongly
disagreed with recent criticism by the U.S. inspector general's office
that Connecticut used economic stimulus money to plug budget holes
rather than on education spending.
The inspector general's office said last week that Connecticut,
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania may not get Race to the Top money
because they misappropriated stimulus money set aside for education.But
Connecticut education officials said they used the money to shore up
education cost-sharing money funneled to towns. State Department of
Education spokesman Tom Murphy said the U.S. Department of Education
even complimented the state for its excellent application. Murphy said
the state is preparing an official response to "clarify and correct
misconceptions."
"We believe we will be treated fairly once he sees the response and
notes the compliance," he said.
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
Charter School Battle Shifts to
Affluent Suburbs
NYTIMES
By WINNIE HU
July 16, 2011
MILLBURN, N.J. — Matthew Stewart believes there is a place for charter
schools. Just not in his schoolyard.
Mr. Stewart, a stay-at-home father of three boys, moved to this wealthy
township, about 20 miles from Midtown Manhattan, three years ago,
filling his life with class activities and soccer practices. But in
recent months, he has traded play dates for protests, enlisting more
than 200 families in a campaign to block two Mandarin-immersion charter
schools from opening in the area.
The group, Millburn Parents Against Charter Schools, argues that the
schools would siphon money from its children’s education for
unnecessarily specialized programs. The schools, to be based in nearby
Maplewood and Livingston, would draw students and resources from
Millburn and other area districts.
“I’m in favor of a quality education for everyone,” Mr. Stewart said.
“In suburban areas like Millburn, there’s no evidence whatsoever that
the local school district is not doing its job. So what’s the rationale
for a charter school?”
Suburbs like Millburn, renowned for educational excellence, have become
hotbeds in the nation’s charter school battles, raising fundamental
questions about the goals of a movement that began 20 years ago in
Minnesota.
Charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently
operated, have mostly been promoted as a way to give poor children an
alternative to underperforming urban schools — to provide options akin
to what those who can afford them have in the suburbs or in private
schools.
Now, educators and entrepreneurs are trying to bring the same
principles of choice to places where schools generally succeed,
typically by creating programs, called “boutique charters” by
detractors like Mr. Stewart, with intensive instruction in a particular
area.
In Montgomery County, Md., north of Washington, the school board is
moving toward its first charter, a Montessori elementary school, after
initially rejecting it and two others with global and environmental
themes because, as one official said, “we have a very high bar in terms
of performance.”
Imagine Schools, a large charter school operator, has held meetings in
Loudoun County, Va., west of Washington, to gauge parental interest in
charters marketed partly as an alternative to overcrowded schools.
In Illinois, where 103 of the current 116 charter schools are in
Chicago, an Evanston school board committee is considering opening the
district’s first charter school.
More than half of Americans live in suburbs, and about 1 in 5 of the
4,951 existing charter schools were located there in 2010, federal
statistics show. Advocates say many proposed suburban charters have
struggled because of a double standard that suggests charters are fine
for poor urban areas, but are not needed in well-off neighborhoods.
“I think it has to do with comfort level and assumptions based on real
estate and not reality,” said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for
Education Reform in Washington, which studies and supports charter
schools. “The houses are nice, people have money, and therefore the
schools must be good.”
Ashley Del Sole, a founding member of one of the rejected charters in
Montgomery County, said that regardless of how well a district
performed, children benefited from choice because not everyone learned
the same way. She added that competitive pressure would invigorate
schools that had grown complacent.
“There’s sort of this notion that if it’s not broken, why fix it,” Ms.
Del Sole said. “But there are people who are not being served.”
With high test scores and graduation rates to flash around, suburban
school officials have had an easier time than their urban counterparts
arguing that charters are an unnecessary drain on their budgets. In
some states, including Virginia, where only local school boards
authorize charters, suburban boards have all but kept them out.
“It’s like you’re Burger King and you have to go to McDonald’s to get a
license — in most cases you won’t get a friendly reception,” said Roy
Gamse, executive vice president of Imagine Schools.
District school boards in Georgia have rejected so many charters that
lawmakers created a commission that approved 16 schools over local
objections. But after several boards sued, the law was overturned in
May, leaving in question the fate of some of those schools.
In New Jersey, where the State Education Department approves charters,
school boards and parents have been fighting a proposed school in
another suburb, Montclair, north of Millburn, and another
Mandarin-immersion school in the Princeton area that was approved last
year but has yet to open. Statewide, 15 of 73 charter schools are in
the suburbs.
The latest battle, over Hua Mei and Hanyu International — which would
start in 2012 with 200 kindergarten through second-grade students drawn
from Millburn, Maplewood, Livingston, South Orange, West Orange and
Union — has divided neighbors and has spurred calls for legislation to
require voter approval to open charters.
Jutta Gassner-Snyder, Hua Mei’s lead applicant, said some of the
school’s 12 founders had received threatening e-mails.
“This is not just about the education of my child,” said Ms.
Gassner-Snyder, who sends her daughter, Kayla, 4, to a private
Mandarin-immersion preschool. “If we just sit back and let school
districts decide what they want to do without taking into account
global economic trends, as a nation, we all lose.”
Millburn’s superintendent, James Crisfield, said he was caught off
guard by the plan for charters because “most of us thought of it as
another idea to help students in districts where achievement is not
what it should be.” He said the district could lose $270,000 — or
$13,500 for each of 20 charter students — and that would most likely
increase as the schools added a grade each year.
“We don’t have enough money to run the schools as it is,” Mr. Crisfield
said, adding that the district eliminated 18 positions and reduced bus
services this year.
Millburn offers Mandarin only in high school, fueling the arguments of
those seeking the new charters. “Kids are like sponges,” said Yanbin
Ma, a Hanyu founder. “There are so many things they can absorb and
become good at, and I feel that our public schools haven’t done enough
to take advantage of that.”
But to Mr. Stewart, a leader in a growing opposition that includes
Livingston mothers who have helped collect more than 800 petition
signatures, this sounds “selfish.”
“Public education is basically a social contract — we all pool our
money, so I don’t think I should be able to custom-design it to my
needs,” he said, noting that he pays $15,000 a year in property taxes.
“With these charter schools, people are trying to say, ‘I want a
custom-tailored education for my children, and I want you, as my
neighbor, to pay for it.’ ”
Behind the unions' shift on
charters

By THOMAS W. CARROLL
Last Updated: 11:20 AM, October 9, 2009
Posted: 1:14 AM, October 9, 2009
NEW York's teachers unions have recently abandoned their open hostility
to charter schools. To see whether the shift is real or merely
rhetorical, it helps to look at the reasons behind the change in tone.
Shifting politics: By far the biggest factor has been the enthusiastic
embrace of charters by President Obama, who was elected with strong
union support.
Dick Iannuzzi, president of the state teachers union (New York State
United Teachers, or NYSUT) admitted as much to The Albany Times Union
this week, when asked if Obama had forced a change in the union's
position. Although still unenthusiastic, he said: "I'll be the first to
admit I was one of the staunchest opponents [of charters] and waged a
real battle in my own school district in Central Islip. The world has
changed since then. Charter schools are established."
Mounting evidence: A recent independent evaluation by Stanford
Professor Caroline Hoxby has much undercut the union's historic
anti-charter position.
The study's most important finding: "A student who attended a New York
City charter school for all of grades kindergarten through eight would
close about 86 percent of the 'Scarsdale-Harlem achievement gap' in
math and 66 percent of the achievement gap in English." Students
attending for shorter periods would see "commensurately smaller" gains.
The study also showed that charter students were more likely to post
higher results on state Regents exams.
In response to the study, Jonathan Gyurko, the point man on charters
for the city teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers,
grudgingly conceded on the union's blog that "Hoxby's findings are
encouraging."
Blowback from union members in charter schools: Teachers at most
charters have opted to remain nonunion, but some have unionized. And
these union members aren't happy to see their schools facing layoffs
this year because their own union got the Legislature to freeze charter
funding.
The freeze prompted union members at the Charter School for Applied
Technology in Tonawanda to demonstrate outside NYSUT headquarters.
Here in the city, the UFT has had to compromise even at "union" charter
schools. For example, it agreed to a more flexible contract with the
Green Dot charter that does away with tenure and limits on the length
of the school day and permits faster removal of bad teachers than the
UFT's master contract with the city.
The union is well aware that Green Dot was the chief organizer of a
2,000-plus parent rally earlier this year at a Los Angeles Board of
Education meeting. The rally led the school board to defy the LA
teachers union and turn over up to 250 schools to new management by
nonprofit charter operators or others.
Green Dot's charismatic leader, Steve Barr, has long argued for
collective bargaining in a charter-school context -- a rarity among
charter leaders. But, at the same time, Barr is perhaps the fiercest
foe of union attempts to block charters or broader education reforms.
Losing the prestige press: Reporters and editors no longer
automatically buy the union line on charters. The New York Times has
called a national teachers union "aggressively hidebound." The
Washington Post recently ran an editorial with the blistering headline:
"Poor children learn. Teachers unions are not pleased."
The coming year will show whether the shift in union rhetoric is just
cosmetic. Watch three key charter-related issues:
* Will NYSUT again call for a freeze on charter funding?
* Will the unions oppose lifting the cap on the number of charters? The
current cap of 200 schools will likely be exhausted early next year.
* Will the unions support preserving SUNY's authority as one of the two
state authorizers of charter schools -- or instead push to reserve this
power exclusively to the state Board of Regents, which is widely viewed
as not especially charter-friendly?
Whether the teachers unions are sincerely shifting is one test that
will be easy to grade in the year ahead.
Thomas W. Carroll is president of the
Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability.
Charter-school
clincher
New York Post
Last Updated: 10:15 AM, September 28, 2009
Posted: 5:07 AM, September 28, 2009
A new study has just blown away any remaining doubts about the remark
able success of charter schools.
Maybe now Albany will stand up to the teachers union and finally give
more New York students access to these better schools -- by lifting the
state cap on them.
Already, charter schools (public schools that operate largely free of
union rules) have mounted much evidence, especially in the city, that
they out-perform their union-run, public-school counterparts.
Last year, for example, 87 percent of city charter students met math
standards, while only 68 percent did at regular schools. In English, 82
percent made the grade at the charters, but only 58 percent did so at
traditional schools.
But critics -- like those in the teachers union -- have pooh-poohed
such data, claiming that charter schools score better only because they
admit better students.
Families that apply to charters, they claim, are likely more interested
in education -- so their kids are more likely to do better, no matter
where they go to school.
But Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby's new study shatters that
argument.
She compared the scores of applicants who were accepted to New York
charter schools with those of students who were not. Turns out, the
ones who got in to the charters did better -- by about six percentage
points in math and five in English.
But the key here is that New York charters don't get to cherry-pick
students; kids are accepted strictly by lottery. So Hoxby's study
strongly suggests that it is the schools, not the students or their
families, that make the difference.
Only one question left: Will Albany let more of these better schools
open?
Two years ago, the Legislature raised the cap on charters to 200
statewide and 100 in the city. But why have a cap at all, except to
please the teachers union (which doesn't particularly like the
competition)?
Albany needs to do what Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants every
state to do: Ditch the cap completely.
Lawmakers no longer have any honest excuse.
Regional Shift Seen in Education Gap
NYTIMES
By SAM DILLON
July 15, 2009
Historically, the achievement gap between America’s black and white
students was widest in Southern states, where the legacies of slavery
and segregation were reflected in extremely low math and reading scores
among poor African-American children.
But black students have made important gains in several Southern states
over two decades, while in some Northern states, black achievement has
improved more slowly than white achievement, or has even declined,
according to a study of the black-white achievement gap released by the
Department of Education this morning.
As a result, the nation’s most dramatic black-white gaps are no longer
seen in Southern states like Alabama or Mississippi, but rather in
Northern and Midwestern states like Wisconsin, Nebraska, Connecticut
and Illinois, according to the federal data.
The study plotted the evolution of average scores of black and white
students on the series of federal tests, known as the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, that were administered every two to
four years in both math and reading from 1992 through 2007.
Nationwide, the average math score in 1992 for fourth grade white
students on a 500-point scale was 227, compared to an average score of
192 for black students that year. Those scores resulted in a
black-white gap of 35 points.
By 2007, the most recent year included in the new study, average fourth
grade white math scores had risen to 248, but average black scores had
risen faster, to 222, thus narrowing the black-white gap to 26 points,
about the equivalent of two and a half years of schooling.
By 2007, the widest black-white gap in the nation on the fourth-grade
math test, (not counting the District of Columbia, which is not a
state) showed up not in the deep South but in Wisconsin.
White students in Wisconsin scored 250, slightly above the national
average, but blacks scored 212, producing a 38 point achievement gap.
That average black score in Wisconsin was lower than for blacks in
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, or in any other Southern state, and 10
points below the national average for black students, the study
indicates.
Wisconsin was the only state in which the black-white achievement gap
in 2007 was larger than the national average in both the fourth and
eighth grade tests of both math and reading, according the study.
“I was just in Wisconsin meeting with principals, and I showed them the
scores, and that they had the largest achievement gaps, and they were
just stunned,” said Kati Haycock, president of Education Trust, a
Washington-based nonprofit that works to close achievement gaps. “Black
kids in Wisconsin do worse than in all these Southern states and the
reason is that they haven’t been focusing on doing what’s necessary to
close these gaps.”
Nebraska is another Midwestern state where black student achievement is
lower than anywhere in the old South. In eighth-grade math, for
instance, the average score among Nebraska’s black students in 2007 was
240 on a 500-point scale, compared to the national average for blacks
of 259, according to the federal data. The average score for black
eighth-graders was 246 in Alabama, 251 in Mississippi, 258 in
Louisiana, and 261 in Georgia.
The average white eighth grade score in Nebraska in math was 291,
almost exactly the national average, resulting in a black-white gap
there of 51 points, far larger than in any other state.
Connecticut is another Northern state where achievement gaps are larger
than in states across the South, the federal study shows. That is
partly because white students in Connecticut score above the national
average, but also because blacks there, on average, score lower than
blacks elsewhere.
Stimulus Funds Are Wildcard In Local
Budgets
DAY
By Karin Crompton
Published on 5/25/2009
As legislators wrangle and bicker in Hartford over state budget
details, local towns and school districts are embarking upon their
annual ritual of drafting proposed municipal budgets without knowing
exactly how much state funding they will receive. This year's
guessing
game is more complex than in most years, however, as municipalities
also factor in federal economic stimulus funds and try to sift through
the regulations attached to the federal funds headed their way.
A large chunk of stimulus money that will directly influence local
budgets comes in the form of education funds. And while the federal
government released the money and sent out instructions for its use on
April 1, local and state officials are still maneuvering through the
details.
”I'm right in the middle of it right now,” Groton superintendent Paul
Kadri said during a phone interview on Friday. “It's so complicated I
don't even know where to begin.”
And that comes from someone who said he felt he had a good grasp of the
subject.
”I feel we're on top of it,” Kadri said, “but make no bones about it,
my desk is a mess.”
The stimulus funds for education are split into three categories: Title
I (typically for low-income districts); IDEA (special education); and
“fiscal stabilization” funds.
The first two pots of money are being doled out according to existing
formulas districts are already familiar with. With a few exceptions
about how the money can be used - qualifying districts can use up to
half of their special education funds for other purposes, for example -
these two categories are largely seen as the most straightforward of
the stimulus funds. Then there is the stabilization money.
A one-time appropriation of $48.6 billion nationally, the stabilization
funding, as the name indicates, is meant to “minimize and avoid
reductions in education and other essential services,” according to the
federal education department's Web site. Each state has to apply
for
its share, demonstrating in its application to the federal government
that it will use the funds according to the guidelines laid out.
Twenty-two states and Puerto Rico have already applied for the
stabilization funds, according to the federal education department's
Web site, with 13 already having received money. But Connecticut
has
not yet applied for its $541 million in stabilization funds.
Tom Murphy, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the
department and the governor's budget office each has a role in putting
together the application. Murphy said Connecticut ran into some minor
technical issues regarding how the state funds its education grant
program and how that jibes with federal guidelines for the stimulus
funds. The spokesman in Gov. M. Jodi Rell's office who fields
stimulus
questions was off on Friday and unavailable to explain Connecticut's
delay in applying.
Meanwhile, local officials grapple with the unknowns in how the funds
can be used, some saying they're awaiting guidance from the state, some
pointing to the federal government.
”We have no idea yet what strings are going to be attached to another
2, 3, 4 million, whatever it's going to be, that the city's going to
get from ARRA (the stimulus package) and whether that is supplantable
or supplementable or what at this point in time,” said Donald Goodrich,
New London's interim director of finance.
Goodrich was referring to a key component of the stabilization funds:
the distinction between the terms “supplement” and “supplant.” Federal
guidelines indicate that the stabilization funds can only be used to
supplement a school district's budget, not be used in place of, or
supplant, other funds.
In other words, a municipality - and, apparently, the state - is not
supposed to “take” from education budgets and use stabilization funds
to fill in the gap. That point is still fuzzy to many, however.
Goodrich suggested the federal government re-examine the point “because
everyone is really getting hammered.”
”I think there's a lot of public misperception in how you can use the
money,” said Christine Carver, New London's assistant superintendent of
schools. “People think you can offset the local budget through the
stimulus money and you absolutely can't.”
However, Goodrich asked, what if the school district doesn't have a
perfect match for the funds?
”What if you cannot expend that (money) wisely; isn't it better to then
supplant and not just supplement to be spending money?” he asked. “Or
can we use it to, as we saw with the Board of Education adopting its
budget, (avoid) reductions in staff? Can we use it to bring some of the
staff back? Is that supplanting local dollars or supplementing it?”
It appears the state is considering the same issues. Connecticut is
currently considering cutting its state education grant money, known as
ECS funding, by 14 percent, then filling in the gap with stimulus
funds.
Murphy, the Department of Education spokesman, said one of the state's
technical issues was whether its pledge to flat-fund the state
education grant money would affect Connecticut's eligibility for the
stimulus funds. According to Murphy, the U.S. Department of
Education
“keeps saying in their guidance that dollars would be used to restore”
funding.
But the prospect of a 14 percent cut to a crucial piece of state
funding has many towns worried, local officials said.
A 14 percent cut in ECS funding means $4.5 million to Norwich, said
Joseph Ruffo, the city comptroller. Ruffo said officials who attended a
meeting of the Connecticut Council of Municipalities last week were
concerned that school districts could find themselves 14 percent over
budget already, and some went so far as to say the cut could bankrupt
their communities.
Ruffo was more measured, saying Norwich hasn't yet passed a budget and
still has a couple of weeks to receive clarification. Still, even if
the state intends to fill the gap with stimulus funds, it will pose
complications, he said.
”What we hear is (the state is) finding more information about how this
process will go forward, but this $4.5 million will be treated
separately, and there will be all sorts of requirements and
stipulations on how that money will be spent,” he said.
Conn. considers 'green cleaning'
in schools
DAY
Posted on May 5, 12:52 PM EDT
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A coalition of lawmakers and health advocacy
groups are asking Connecticut's General Assembly to require all public
schools to use environmentally friendly cleaning products.
They gathered Tuesday to support a proposal that would bar school
districts from using products that contain various toxic substances and
are not certified as environmentally friendly.
Connecticut already requires crews to use certified green cleaning
products in all state-owned buildings, including its universities and
vocational-technical schools.
The legislation expanding the rules to public school buildings awaits
House action, and would give districts two years to start meeting the
new standards.
Op-Ed
Columnist: ‘No Picnic for Me
Either’
NYTIMES
By DAVID BROOKS
March 13, 2009
In his education speech this week, Barack Obama retold a
by-now familiar story. When he was a boy, his mother would wake him up
at 4:30 to tutor him for a few hours before he went off to school. When
young Barry complained about getting up so early, his mother responded:
“This is no picnic for me either, Buster.”
That experience was the perfect preparation for reforming American
education because it underlines the two traits necessary for academic
success: relationships and rigor. The young Obama had a loving
relationship with an adult passionate about his future. He also had at
least one teacher, his mom, disinclined to put up with any crap.
The reform vision Obama sketched out in his speech flows from that
experience. The Obama approach would make it more likely that young
Americans grow up in relationships with teaching adults. It would
expand nurse visits to disorganized homes. It would improve early
education. It would extend the school year. Most important, it would
increase merit pay for good teachers (the ones who develop emotional
bonds with students) and dismiss bad teachers (the ones who treat
students like cattle to be processed).
We’ve spent years working on ways to restructure schools, but what
matters most is the relationship between one student and one teacher.
You ask a kid who has graduated from high school to list the teachers
who mattered in his life, and he will reel off names. You ask a kid who
dropped out, and he will not even understand the question.
Relationships like that are beyond his experience.
In his speech, Obama actually put more emphasis on the other side of
the equation: rigor. In this context, that means testing and
accountability.
Thanks in part to No Child Left Behind, we’re a lot better at measuring
each student’s progress. Today, tests can tell you which students are
on track and which aren’t. They can tell you which teachers are
bringing their students’ achievement up by two grades in a single year
and which are bringing their students’ levels up by only half a grade.
They can tell you which education schools produce good teachers and
which do not.
New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has data showing that
progress on tests between the third and eighth grades powerfully
predicts high school graduation rates years later — a clear
demonstration of the importance of these assessments.
The problem is that as our ability to get data has improved, the
education establishment’s ability to evade the consequences of data has
improved, too. Most districts don’t use