ConnCAN's Education News Roundup

ConnCAN in the News

PMS Celebrates Testing Success
By Jeff Mill, The Middletown Press, November 22, 2007

PORTLAND - The major share of the credit for the middle school's success in a recent survey of schools goes to the teachers, school Principal Scott Giegerich said.

The school was rated first in an assessment of "performance gains" among sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students from 2006 to 2007.The school also ranked eighth in ConnCAN's list of "most improved schools.

One of the first things we did was to share data," Giegerich said. "We looked at CMT scores for the last five years and then, as a staff, we identified both areas of strength and areas in need of attention."
Throughout the process, there was an emphasis on sharing and cooperation.

Teachers shared examples of specific approaches with the entire staff, which included math, language arts, science social studies world language and unified arts, Giegerich explained.

News Articles

City School Overhaul Advances
By Rache Gottlieb Frank, The Hartford Courant, November 20, 2007

Hartford's school board took a giant leap Tuesday into what will be the redesigning of most of the school system when it approved initial plans to create four new schools and directed the superintendent to redesign four existing low-performing schools and close one elementary school in order to convert it into a magnet school.

By unanimous vote, the board approved a first reading of a plan to create an Achievement First charter school — New Haven's successful Amistad Academy is an Achievement First school — a second Breakthrough Academy, an International Baccalaureate, similar to the one in East Hartford, and a Montessori elementary school. The board will take a final vote next month.

About 500 teachers wearing pins bearing the word "respect" and parents who feel left out of the redesign process protested in a cold drizzle outside before the meeting, and then moved inside, where they demanded a role.

Other board members promised that parents and teachers will be included in the future. "Change of this magnitude happens in stages. Our work is really just beginning," board member Pamela Richmond said.

Public allowed to place items on BOE meeting agenda
By A.J. O’Connell, The Wilton Villager, November 22, 20007

WILTON — The public has long been able to comment at Wilton's board of education meetings. Now, thanks to a change in the board's bylaws, members of the community are now allowed to place an item on the school board's agenda.

"It's been pointed out that while we conduct our meetings in public, they are not public meetings," said board member Troy Ellen Dixon, who led the revision of the board's bylaws this year.

Academic goals for St. Jude kids tailor-made
By Linda Conner Lambeck, The Connecticut Post, November 19, 2007

MONROE — When parent Lynn Dafcik recently sat down with Marie Cassin, a teacher at St. Jude School, to discuss how son Andrew was doing, there were few surprises.

Dafcik — and Andrew — already knew the goals set for him and even which words in reading still pose a challenge to the 6-year-old.

It was, after all, spelled out in an Individualized Academic Plan developed for Andrew at the start of the academic year, with his mother's input.

The goals for Andrew are based on how well he scores on several tests. This year, every student in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and the first grade at St. Jude has a plan tailored just for them.

Within three years, students in all 39 schools in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport will have a custom-developed learning road map if John Cook, the deputy superintendent of diocesan schools, has his way.