ConnCAN's Education News Roundup

ConnCAN in the News


Joe pushes for renewal, expansion of 'No Child'
By Maria Garriga, New Haven Register, July 26, 2007



U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., who championed the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act in education, plans to introduce a bill Wednesday that would reauthorize the law while making sweeping changes that increase accountability measures and close loopholes.


The reauthorization, billed All Students Can Achieve, calls for teachers to be evaluated based on how much students learn, expands use of data analysis to track individual student progress over time, introduces voluntary national education standards, sets up state committees on curriculum quality, and closes loopholes in the law that permit states to not count special categories of students if they fall below certain numbers.

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"Lieberman is taking a leadership role in getting NCLB reauthorized. One of the great frustrations with NCLB is that it labels schools as failing but doesn't do much beyond that. He is putting more tools on the table for better public schools," said Marc Porter Magee, spokesman forConnecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, also known as ConnCAN, an education advocacy and research group.


News Articles


Yale Opens Labs To City High-Schoolers
Georgia Kral, New Haven Independent, July 26, 2007


These Career High seniors are experimenting with biotechnology this summer. In a Yale laboratory they mix bacterial cells with bioluminescent jellyfish cells, manipulating the genetics of an organism.


The students participate in the SCHOLAR (Science Collaborative for Hands-On Learning and Research) program, which awards top Career High School science students with the opportunity to study for free at Yale for three weeks in the summer- and to live on campus.


"It's nice to do stuff that most kids don't get to do," said Stephan Cunningham, a senior.

The SCHOLAR program began 10 years ago when Forrest Lee led a group of educators to New Orleans' Xavier University, a leader in science education. Lee as well as magnet research teachers Rose Coggins (the new principal of Wilbur Cross High School) and Michael Curaso (current principal of Career) worked with Xavier to devise a science summer program.




Group: Math, Reading Time Up at Schools
By The Associated Press, New York Times, July 25, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. students are spending more time on math and reading and less on other subjects, an apparent consequence of the No Child Left Behind law.

Roughly two-thirds of elementary schools surveyed by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy reported increasing math and reading time since the law was passed in 2001.

The law requires annual testing in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school. Schools face sanctions if they miss testing benchmarks.

''Clearly what this is showing is, what schools are held accountable for is what they put the emphasis on,'' said Jack Jennings, president of the Washington-based center.

The report, being released Wednesday, says that of the districts reporting an increase, elementary schools are spending on average 37 minutes more per day on reading, math or both since the law was passed.



Union-Friendly Maverick Leads New Charge for Charter Schools
By Sam Dillon, New York Times, July 24, 2007

LOS ANGELES — Steve Barr, a major organizer of charter schools, has been waging what often seems like a guerrilla war for control of this city's chronically failing high schools.

In just seven years, Mr. Barr's Green Dot Public Schools organization has founded 10 charter high schools and has won approval to open 10 more. Now, in his most aggressive challenge to the public school system, he is fighting to seize control of Locke Senior High, a gang-ridden school in Watts known as one of the worst in the city. A 15-year-old girl was killed by gunfire there in 2005.

In the process, Mr. Barr has fomented a teachers revolt against the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has driven a wedge through the city's teachers union by welcoming organized labor — in contrast to other charter operators — and signing a contract with an upstart union. And he has mobilized thousands of black and Hispanic parents to demand better schools.

Educators and policy makers from Sacramento to Washington are watching closely because many believe Green Dot's audacious tactics have the potential to strengthen and expand the charter school movement nationwide.