ConnCAN's Education News Roundup

News Articles

Officials call for more regional efforts
By, Genevieve Reilly, Connecticut Post, September 19, 2007

TRUMBULL - Most of the mayors and first selectmen agreed that regional cooperation between their communities could play a role in equalizing the educational opportunities between urban and suburban schools.

The bigger responsibility for educational equity, however, said Trumbull First Selectman Raymond G. Baldwin Jr., lies with the state. "Each town not only competes economically, but also for education dollars from the state," he said, and that needs to be corrected by the state General Assembly.

Corda Outlines Systemic Effort to Improve Schools
By Teresa Errico, Norwalk Citizen News, September 20, 2007

Superintendent of Schools Salvatore Corda on Tuesday outlined for the Board of Education the efforts being made to improve student performance district-wide.

Corda reviewed the seven plans set up for the district, along with the Board of Education's goals, that focus on the instruction core of the school system and the interaction between the teachers and students.

All three of the city's high schools, all four of its middle schools and five of its 12 elementary schools have been identified as "in need of improvement" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, based on student performance on the 2007 Connecticut Mastery Test and Connecticut Academic Performance Test. The district also is in need of improvement, according to a state Department of Education report released Aug. 30.

To help the district improve, each of the schools and the central office will be participating in a quality review program guided by the Cambridge Education Group, Corda said.

Public input sought on state school funds
By Bill McDonald, Connecticut Post, September 20, 2007

MILFORD — The Milford Education Funding Committee, studying ways to get more state aid, wants to involve the public through an education forum in November.

"The public should have an idea what's involved," said Joan Politi, chairwoman of the committee formed by the Board of Aldermen. "We hope to have an education forum with the PTA's help in November."

Politi noted Milford is expecting $10.3 million in ESC funding for the 2007-08 fiscal year, which was $430,000 more than received the previous fiscal year.

"That's 4 percent," she said. "We still don't feel it's meeting our needs. We're going to try to advocate for more."

Education and Schools Are a Focus for Edwards
By Julie Bosman, The New York Times, September 22, 2007

DES MOINES - Speaking at Brody Middle School here, the Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards outlined a plan that he said would evaluate students more effectively, reduce class sizes and reward teachers who work in high-poverty schools with up to $15,000 in incentive pay, initiatives similar to those championed by education officials in New York City and elsewhere.

He also called for universal preschool, the creation of a national university that would become a “West Point for teachers” and an initiative that uses what he described as “education SWAT teams” to sweep in and rebuild failing schools.

Diversity dilemma Parents, RISE committee disagree over influence of race on options
By, Andrew Shaw, The Greenwich Time, September 23, 2007

As Greenwich considers adding magnet programs they hope will scatter children of different races across the district, some white parents have spoken out against underperforming, non-English speaking students coming to their child's school and taking attention away from their child.

Supporters of the Board of Education's task force, which is examining racial imbalance, say that the comments of those parents are actually bigoted remarks veiled in the language of requests to preserve a neighborhood school system the state says is racially segregated.

As of Oct. 1, 2006, 168 minority students attended Hamilton Avenue and 119 attended New Lebanon, compared to Old Greenwich, which had 19 minority students last year, according to the most recent data available.