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OP-ED
| Overcoming Deficit Thinking »
Election
2012 Will Be A ‘Teachable Moment’ »
Spike
In Violence Prompts Bridgeport School To Install Metal
Detectors »
Malloy
Welcomes Back School Superintendents, Challenges Them To
Improve Student Achievement »
OP-ED
| Once You Get Past the Tweets, School ‘Turnaround’ Shortcomings Abound »
OP-ED
| Special Session Full of Assaults on Democratic Process »
Gov.
to Feds: ‘It’s About Time’ »
Hartford
Schools Test New Teacher Evaluation System, State Prepares To Finalize Its Own
»
House
Unanimously Sends Education Reform To Malloy »
October 2, 2012
Three top higher education officials are strongly
refuting a report that the state's 12 community college presidents risk
termination if they do not accept a buyout offer by the end of the month.
Gena Glickman, president of Manchester Community College,
told her top administrators and others in an email Monday that all 12 community
college presents must decide whether to take a buyout by Oct. 31, or face
possible loss of their contracts.
Two legislators and the executive vice president of
the Connecticut
college system say the statement is not true.
Read
more
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October 2, 2012
A new state law
has significantly reduced the number of students being suspended from school,
but it has not diminished Connecticut's
racial disparity in use of the disciplinary technique.
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September 24, 2012
Very small increases in municipal aid over the past
two years haven't been enough to reverse Connecticut's
over-reliance on property taxes, the state's chief
municipal lobby is reminding candidates this fall.
The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities issued
its first bulletin Monday to candidates for the state House and Senate, also
urging them to make additional education funding a priority.
Read
more
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September 17, 2012
A state panel could recommend that wealthy school
districts and high-income parents with special needs children pay more to cover
the soaring price of special education.
Panel members, however, are reluctant to support
changes that many local school leaders say would cut their special education
costs; the members leaned, instead, toward studying those changes.
Read
more
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September 10, 2012
Despite the shutoff of federal stimulus funding for
the school year that just began, the state --
surprisingly -- lost fewer teaching jobs than when nearly $1 billion was being
funneled into Connecticut
schools.
"It's the smallest reduction we've had in
years by far," said Joseph Cirasuolo, executive
director of the state superintendents' association. "It's the first year
without federal [stimulus] money. We didn't lose anywhere near what we were
expecting."
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September 6, 2012
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has repeatedly said that he supports
offering high-quality preschool to children whose parents cannot afford to send
them.
On Wednesday his administration learned just how
much it would cost to provide that universal access in the state's poorest
districts: $43.8 million a year, plus $220.6 million to build the classroom
space.
September 5, 2012
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The State Board of Education unanimously voted
Wednesday that school districts will no longer be required to pay tuition to
send their students to preschools at nearby magnet schools.
Instead, for the school year that just started, the
state will pay the $4 million cost of sending the 1,250 preschool students
outside their district.
But during the next legislative session, lawmakers
will have to determine a policy for subsequent years.
Read
more
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August 31, 2012
Having watched the state strike out in its three
attempts to land federal Race to the Top money to reform schools in Connecticut, officials
at eight urban districts and the state's technical high school system have
decided to try their luck in the fourth round.
Read
more
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August 28, 2012
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's
choice of Sharon M. Palmer as his next labor commissioner helps heal political
wounds with organized labor by his public embrace of Palmer, the blunt and
irreverent union president who fought him over education reform.
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August 28, 2012
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is
turning to Sharon Palmer of Waterford,
the leader of a teachers' union that battled the governor over elements of his
education reform plan, as his next commissioner of labor.
The Malloy administration, which is set to announce
the appointment this afternoon, had no comment. But the choice of Palmer was
saluted by John Olsen, the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, in an email he
sent to AFL-CIO executive board members.
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August 13, 2012
Up against a court-ordered deadline to reduce the racial
isolation of Hartford's
largely black and Hispanic school population, the State Board of Education must
soon decide whether to remove a major incentive white
suburban parents have to send their children to an integrated magnet
school: free preschool.
"I don't know what we'll decide," said
Allan B. Taylor, board chairman. The board will vote on the matter in the next
two months.
Read
more
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August 9, 2012
Even though a court ruled it illegal, the state's
ouster of the Bridgeport Board of Education last year has produced encouraging
results, according to some members of the State Board of Education.
The replacement of the former Bridgeport
board with new appointees led to the hiring of noted school reformer Paul Vallas, whose work as Bridgeport's
superintendent drew praise Thursday from the state board following a report on
his first six months on the job.
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August 9, 2012
When state officials approved a plan Thursday to
rescue Hartford's troubled Milner School,
they took a leap of faith that the latest strategy would succeed where years of
earlier efforts have failed.
The State Board of Education approved turnaround
plans for Milner and three other struggling, impoverished urban schools in Bridgeport, New Haven and Norwich -- the first
schools to be selected for millions of dollars in state assistance and
intervention under a new Commissioner's Network.
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July 31, 2012
Thousands of Connecticut
students are expected to enroll in for-profit colleges this upcoming school
year, and according to a new report, most
will not graduate. Nevertheless, they will be charged more for tuition than
they would have been at a nearby public college, and taxpayers will pick up
much of the cost in the form of defaulted loans or student aid.
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July 19, 2012
The results are in on how nearly 300,000 public
school students did on standardized tests this spring -- and the big
achievement gap between students from low-income families and their more
affluent peers remains largely unchanged since last year.
"Significant gaps in achievement continue
between economically disadvantaged students and their peers," Education
Commissioner Stefan Pryor said when releasing the results
late Thursday.
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July 13, 2012
The main argument that Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch
gave was this: Hartford and New
Haven, which have about the same number of students and student
needs, receive much more funding per student than Bridgeport does.
The state gives Bridgeport
$7,810 per student, while it gives Hartford
nearly $1,000 more per student, and New
Haven gets more than $200 per student.
"No one is fully funded, but Bridgeport is less funded than any other
city," Finch said. "We need your help in correcting that."
Read
more
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July 11, 2012
One of every 20 students is being directed to take
standardized tests created for children with severe or moderate disabilities, a
significant increase in the past five years. Poor results on these alternative
or modified tests won't penalize a school district, unlike weak results on
standardized tests that most students must take.
Although overall enrollment has declined over the
past five years, the number of children identified as having severe learning
disabilities who took the Skills Checklist rose by almost 32 percent, or 900
students.
Read
more
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June 27, 2012
The State Board of Education Wednesday approved
teacher evaluation requirements
that pave the way for up to a third of a teacher's grade to be linked to how
his or her students perform on standardized tests.
The state's 50,000 teachers will also be evaluated
on the results of announced and unannounced classroom observations
and anonymous parent or student surveys,
if their local school board decides to use surveys to fulfill the feedback
requirement.
"This is probably one of the most important
things we are going to be doing this year," Allan B. Taylor, the chairman
of the state board, said before the unanimous vote.
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June 27, 2012
Steven Adamowski was
named the "special master" for New
London Wednesday by the state's education
commissioner.
"Steve has exhibited all of the qualities ...
that we need," Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor told the State Board of
Education Wednesday. "He has a long track record here... Steve has paved the way" with his work in Windham
and Hartford.
June 25, 2012
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Hartford -- As
Republicans and Democrats in Washington
move toward a deal to keep rates low on a popular student loan program,
Connecticut Democrats Monday urged quick action.
In five days, nearly 7.5 million college students
across the country are slated to see the interest rates on their Stafford loans double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.
The lower rate was established by Congress in 2007,
but it is set to expire July 1.
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