ConnCAN's Education News Roundup

Editorials and Opinions

Invest in state's future via higher education
By, Harold C. Wibling, The News-Times, October 14, 2007

Connecticut is poised to make an historic investment in public education as a 10-year capital plan for the state's largest public university system, recently approved by the General Assembly, awaits final action. Unfortunately, it is innocently caught in an unrelated public squabble between the governor and legislature about what should and shouldn't be included on the state's list of bond authorizations.

At a time when the eroding cohort of 20- and 30-year-olds headline virtually every report about Connecticut's population, CSUS graduates are one group that sticks in our state. Thus, improving the education provided by these institutions is clearly an investment in Connecticut's future, the benefits of which will accrue to every resident.

So, just who are these graduates? They are our future teachers (already, two of every three classroom teachers in Connecticut schools graduates from a CSUS university), small business entrepreneurs and bank presidents, directors of nursing and mechanical engineers, chambers of commerce executives and municipal fire chiefs. In the traditional Land of Steady Habits, they are precisely the people who will keep Connecticut steady, our economy growing and our quality of life second to none.

News Articles

Blurring Lines Among Both Students and Subjects
By, Jay Mathews, The Washington Post, October 15, 2007

In three classrooms along a short corridor at Blue Ridge Middle School in Loudoun County, there were several scenes last week of educational convention turned upside down. Lemmert and colleagues Alisa Gladstone and Amy Wood decided last year to experiment with placing honors, regular and special education students in the same rooms, offering a course that unified social studies and English, and encouraging every child to reach higher than before.

Such innovations are uncommon in U.S. public schools, given the old pressure to conform to tradition and the new one to raise standardized test scores. But plenty of teachers still find that if they are seized by an idea, as Lemmert, Wood and Gladstone were, and can convey that passion to supervisors, they have a chance to see what happens when they go in a different direction.

Making Cash a Prize for High Scores on Advanced Placement Tests
By Jennifer Medina, The New York Times, October 15, 2007

The city is expanding the use of cash rewards for students who take standardized tests with a $1 million effort financed by philanthropists who will pay students who do well on Advanced Placement exams.

High school students who get a top score, a five, on the exams will earn $1,000. A score of four will be worth $750, while a three will earn $500.

The A.P. program is intended to increase the number of low-income, black and Latino high school students in New York who take and pass A.P. tests. In city schools, less than 1 percent of black students pass an Advanced Placement exam, according to city data analyzed by the program.

State Lauds Magnet School
By, Jennifer Masi, The Bridgeport News, October 11, 2007

Multicultural Magnet School in Bridgeport has received a Blue Ribbon honor from the federal Department of Education.
The No Child Left Behind Act's Blue Ribbon School designation is considered one of the most prestigious education awards in the country.

Multicultural Magnet was the only Blue Ribbon award recipient in Connecticut and one of only three in New England. Nationwide, 287 schools were honored with a Blue Ribbon.