ConnCAN in the News
By Andy Rotherham, Eduwonk.com, July 2, 2007
If you follow the saga of the big achievement gaps, NCLB pushback, etc...from one of our most prosperous states, you won't want to miss this NYT ed.
Opinions and Editorials
Stan Simpson, Hartford Courant, June 30, 2007
Pardon me if I get a little testy about court rulings that deal with race, integration and public education. As we debate the latest U.S. Supreme Court ruling, understand that there's never been the political will to execute meaningful, comprehensive changes to correct racial inequities in schools.
Fifty-three years after a landmark Supreme Court decision ordered school desegregation, rapid re-segregation is taking place in public schools - even as America grows increasingly diverse. The achievement gap, really more of a preparation gap, between white students and their black and Latino peers has widened.
Rick Green, Hartford Courant, June 29, 2007
As we nod off again, give thanks to the Supreme Court for its 5-4 decision telling us not to bother with race when trying to create equality in education.
No, this inequality isn't about "extreme" issues like race. It's not about income either, since our cities are repositories of impoverished minorities. So relax, there's no need to disrupt our antique education system, which preserves and enhances divisions based on race and class.
If you believe this hokum, then you probably think more money will solve our education problems. These divided, inferior schools will be our downfall, preventing us from having an educated, competitive workforce
News Articles
Highville parents going to bat for endangered school
By Ann DeMatteo, New Haven Register, July 1, 2007
In fighting for the survival of the Highville Mustard Seed Charter School, parents are taking tips from the school’s mission statement. Parents are being "competent in communications and problem-solving" and relying on their community involvement, in hopes of pulling the school through an extremely bumpy ride that has hit roadblock after roadblock.
Highville is one of 16 charter schools of choice in the state that operate independently of any local or regional board of education and are instead accountable to the State Board of Education. Of the charter schools, Amistad Academy in New Haven is considered the most successful, managing to consistently boost achievement by poor, urban youngsters to the level of their suburban peers. The school earlier this year was named Connecticut’s 2006 Title I Distinguished School for receiving the greatest net academic gains statewide on the Connecticut Mastery Test.
Many schools to have administrative changes
By Chris Gosie, The Advocate, July 2, 2007
The school district has filled two posts in its central office, which will be smaller in the fall because of budget cuts. Each appointee will oversee two curriculum areas that were overseen by separate program directors, school board President Martin Levine said.
The only other central office post to be filled is assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Joanna Nicholson will do the job in the interim, a district official said. Starr proposed a 10-person reduction in the central office because of budget reductions mandated in recent months by the Board of Finance and Board of Representatives. The school board approved the cuts.
Court Rejects Diversity Plans; Little Effect Seen In Hartford
By Robert Frahm, Hartford Courant, June 29, 2007
A U.S. Supreme Court decision forbidding schools from enrolling children strictly on the basis of race threatens many voluntary desegregation plans throughout the nation, but experts believe that it will have little effect on school desegregation efforts in Hartford.
That is because Hartford's court-approved desegregation plan in the Sheff v. O'Neill case differs from the voluntary plans in Louisville and Seattle that were overturned in Thursday's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling.
The key difference, legal experts said, is that the magnet schools and school choice plans that are a central piece of the Sheff efforts do not single out students by race. Rather, the plans attempt to achieve racial balance by selecting students based on where they live.
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