Education

WASHINGTON-Congress has squashed hopes for a $10 billion rescue fund to save teacher jobs. Emergency Medicaid funding for the states is teetering on a political cliff. And the talk of extending health insurance subsidies for laid-off workers has gone quiet.

As Congress inches toward a five-week August recess without passing any of these funding measures, public officials in Connecticut are growing increasingly jittery about the financial fall-out at home. Read more

WASHINGTON-Connecticut is out of the running for a coveted federal education grant that state officials had said was vital to implementing the sweeping new school reforms passed in May.

Connecticut did not make the list of finalists for the Race to the Top grants, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced today. Eighteen other states--including New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts--and the District of Columbia were chosen to advance to the next round, with 10 to 15 grant winners expected to be identified in September. Read more

At the request of Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Connecticut State University System trustees Monday reduced the size of raises granted this month to Chancellor David G. Carter and the presidents of CSU's four campuses.

The officials were allowed to keep 5 percent cost-of-living increases, but the Board of Trustees Executive Committee rescinded an additional raise of about 5 percent that was considered a "pay equity" adjustment based on a consultant's compensation study. Read more

Gov. M. Jodi Rell asked Connecticut State University officials Friday to reduce pay raises granted this month to top managers, calling the raises "excessive" and "intolerable" in light of the state’s fiscal crisis.

She also said she will order a study of the possible elimination of the central office of the 36,500-student system.

The governor took the action a day after the Mirror disclosed that raises, some as large as 10 percent, had been granted to non-union managers, including high-ranking officials such as Chancellor David G. Carter and the presidents of CSU's four campuses. Read more

The academic standards used in Connecticut's public schools for the last two decades are "among the worst in the country," according to a report being issued today.

The good news is, new national standards being adopted by the state are far superior, the report says.

The state standards--essentially guidelines for curriculum development in public schools--received a grade of "D" for both mathematics and English from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C. group that advocates standards-based accountability for the nation's schools. Read more

The release of Connecticut Mastery Test results today marks the 25th anniversary of a multi-million dollar testing program that critics and supporters alike agree has sharply altered the course of public education across the state.

The annual exam shaped curriculum, spurred classroom drills, provided evidence in lawsuits, and grabbed the attention of politicians, parents and even real estate agents. Read more

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the state’s child advocate, Jeanne Milstein, say child abuse and neglect cases are slipping through the bureaucratic cracks at the state’s schools. Their proof: hundreds of examples in a 66-page report they released Thursday.

One case outlines a teacher and women’s basketball coach at Southington High School allegedly having inappropriate behavior with female athletes. Another: a teacher accused of slapping her disabled student’s hands and making another stand in the rain with no coat. Both still are teachers. Read more

Until now, when schoolchildren in the 50 states studied math and English, they have been held to 50 different standards. What fifth-graders learn in Connecticut is not always the same as what they learn in Kansas.

After a vote Wednesday by the state Board of Education, that is about to change. Read more

A literature course featuring 20th-century female authors is not standard fare at most high schools, yet Maggie Court earned credit at Rocky Hill High School this year by taking the course on her home computer.

"It was really cool for me," said Court, 17, who will be a senior in the fall at Rocky Hill, one of dozens of public and private schools joining a growing online education movement in Connecticut. "I thought it was a great opportunity."

To save money while expanding curriculums, schools are going virtual. Read more