ConnCAN's Education News Roundup

ConnCAN in the News

Graduation rates overstated by 16 percent
By Randy James, Republican-American, June 10, 2007

It's difficult to overstate the importance of a high school diploma. An 18-year-old dropout will earn an average $260,000 less over a lifetime than a high school graduate, according to a Princeton University study. Dropouts are also more likely to become single parents and unemployed.

Education officials claim their figures are more thorough than the study's numbers. But for many observers, the report confirms what they already suspected.

"Previous studies show Connecticut's official graduation rates probably overstate the actual rate by 10 percentage points," said Marc Porter Magee, research director at ConnCAN, an education research group. "The state numbers are awfully high."

Education Dept. slow to upgrade reporting standards
By Amanda Falcone, Record-Journal, June 8, 2007

Changes in the way the state Department of Education collects and reports data are coming soon. While the department says establishing new systems and formulas takes time, an education advocacy group, Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, is critical of the state for not moving fast enough.

"It's past time we developed a comprehensive and publicly accessible system for tracking the progress of every public school student in our state," said Alex Johnston, the organization's executive director, in a prepared statement. It also is time to modify the formula Connecticut uses to determine its graduation rate, he said.

Murphy does not disagree, but says the department is working to make that happen.

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=18452732&BRD=2755&PAG=461&dept_id=592754&rfi=8

News Articles

Test Scores Decline Slightly
By Robert A. Frahm, Hartford Courant, June 8, 2007

While students in most states made gains in reading and mathematics tests following the enactment of the federal No Child Left Behind Act five years ago, schoolchildren in Connecticut did not.

"We have to heighten our expectations and really bear down to see what the potential reasons are," said Mark K. McQuillan, Connecticut's new education commissioner.

Of particular concern is the poor performance of many low-income and minority children, especially in the state's big cities, where the gap between them and middle-class white children is among the largest in the nation.

Schools discipline on agenda
By Ed Stannard , New Haven Register, June 11, 2007

Carroll E. Brown, president of the black coalition, said the program will discuss alternatives to school suspensions and expulsions, which she believes especially hurt the minority students in West Haven.

Groups such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union have focused on the increase in "zero tolerance" disciplinary policies, which result in harsh penalties for lesser offenses.

According to Youth Rights Media, in 2001-02, 19 percent of suspensions in New Haven schools were for fighting, bullying, weapons or drugs, while 60 percent were for violating school policies such as dress codes or hall pass rules.

Discussion focuses on graduation requisites
By Maria Garriga, New Haven Register, June 7, 2007

The annual epidemic of "senioritis" in high school may be eradicated if Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan succeeds in making high school exit exams a graduation requirement.

McQuillan said tougher graduation requirements could help close the achievement gap.

At McQuillan's invitation, a group of school superintendents, principals and union officials shared their thoughts directly to the state Board of Education at its monthly meeting Wednesday.

"You don't make a pig fatter by weighing it," joked David Larson, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, saying teaching, not testing, gives students more knowledge and skills.

State Skills Test Waived For City Schools Chief
By Robert A. Frahm, Hartford Courant, June 7, 2007

Hartford's school superintendent, hired last fall to bolster the school system's lagging performance in reading and mathematics, won a reprieve this week from an exam that would have tested his own basic skills.

"Dr. Adamowski has spent most of his adult life leading school systems," said state Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, who introduced an amendment authorizing the waiver. "It seems evident he's well qualified to be superintendent in the city of Hartford."

Fleischmann, co-chairman of the legislature's education committee, said he would prefer that Adamowski "focus on reforming Hartford's schools rather than taking another exam."