ConnCAN's Education News Roundup

October 22, 2007

Opinions and Editorials

Magnet school aid may need adjusting
The New Haven Register, October 21, 2007

A change in how the state distributes local school aid may jeopardize Connecticut's most successful effort to integrate inner-city schools by attracting suburban students.

The result of the changes in the aid formula mean that New Haven could lose $2 million in the 2008 school year and $4 million in the 2009 school year for its magnet school budget. The city could bill the suburban student's home district, but that district as well as New Haven or other magnet host districts will see a 25 percent drop next year and a 50 percent drop the following year in its main state education grant for each student attending a magnet school.

The result may be, as New Haven fears, that suburban districts will no longer send as many students to city magnet schools because of the loss of state aid. As with charter schools that draw their enrollment from public schools, state aid should follow the student. Taxpayers should not pay twice for a student's education.

News Articles

Board Of Education Faces Challenge Of Closing 'the Achievement Gap'
By Elaine Stroll, The Day, October 21, 2007

New London — Twelve candidates from three political parties are seeking two-year terms on the seven-member Board of Education.

The school board will face a number of important issues in the next two years. The biggest, according to current President Alvin G. Kinsall, is “working toward closing the achievement gap.” Besides seeking an overall increase in test scores, Kinsall said, the school board must address a disparity between the test scores of white students and the lower scores of their black and Hispanic counterparts.

The board also must continue work to lower dropout rates and boost retention and graduation rates, said Kinsall and current board member James Pearce.

Teachers haven't heard last of performance pay proposal
By Andrew Shaw, Greenwich Time, October 21, 2007

The arbitration ruling on Thursday that turned down performance pay for some non-tenured Greenwich teachers led to jubilant responses from state teacher unions, but local and state Boards of Education predict the performance pay issue isn't dead yet.

It was teachers, though, who claimed victory in the first performance pay proposal of its kind in Connecticut. Performance pay was lambasted by the Greenwich Education Association for creating what they believe is a corporate culture inside the classroom, although the Board of Education saw it as a means of attracting top teachers by giving bonuses for good work.

Teachers Agree to Bonus Pay Tied to Scores
By Elissa Gootman, The New York Times, October 18, 2007

The Bloomberg administration and the New York City teachers’ union announced an agreement yesterday on a plan that would give teachers bonuses based largely on the overall test scores of students at schools that have high concentrations of poor children.

The plan, negotiated for months, is a major breakthrough for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who for years has advocated extra pay to reward high-performing teachers.

In a bow to the union, the bonus money would go to schools for overall performance, and then would be distributed to teachers. The agreement also gave the union something it had long sought: city backing for senior teachers to retire with full pension benefits, five years earlier than they can now.

Special ed teacher certification pushed
By Linda Conner Lambeck, The Connecticut Post, October 18, 2007

BRIDGEPORT — Southern Connecticut State University's program to turn teacher aides here into fully certified special education teachers in a year, at no cost, has yet to reach its full enrollment of 30 participants.

The program is that tough.

Already offered in New Haven and Hartford, the program has yet to attract a full contingent of 30 participants who stick with the program through completion. New Haven has had about 17 complete the program; Hartford, 10.

Panel drops plan to close middle school
By Chris Gosier, The Stamford Advocate, October 19, 2007

The committee, which is exploring ways to reduce overcrowding and socio-economically balance schools, decided yesterday that closing Turn of River Middle School - or any middle school - would not save enough money to justify the disruption to students and families.

The committee also decided merging Westover and Hart magnet elementary schools isn't the best way to balance the two schools' populations.

Those ideas had arisen from the committee's months long discussion about redistricting, or revamping district boundaries so that no schools are crowded and that all have about the same socioeconomic makeup as the entire city.