Jake Kara

Jake is a former managing editor of The Ridgefield Press, a Hersam Acorn newspaper. He worked for the community newspaper chain as a reporter and editor for five years before joining the Mirror staff. He studied professional writing at Western Connecticut State University and is a graduate student in software engineering at Harvard Extension School.

Clarice Silber

Clarice Silber joined The Mirror as General Assignment Reporter in November 2017. She formerly worked for The Associated Press in Phoenix as a legislative and general assignment reporter. In 2016, she conducted extensive interviews and research in Portuguese and Spanish for the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative team at McClatchy, which was the only U.S. newspaper to gain initial access to the Panama Papers. She is a Rio de Janeiro native and graduated from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Recent Posts

CT’s performance on ‘Nation’s Report Card’ doesn’t budge

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Connecticut’s performance this year on the so-called ‘Nation’s Report Card,’ the country’s most comprehensive assessment of what students know, was remarkably the same as it was the last time the test was given two years ago. The average student’s performance and the gaping gaps in achievement between different groups of students were largely unchanged. Continue Reading →

Filed under: K-12, Schools/Child Welfare, Nation's Report Card, National Center for Educational Progress, NCES

A debate over how government should identify our ethnicity

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Claire Liao, a 10 year old from Fairfield, with Ming Li, a mother of two from South Windsor.

Using more detailed ethnic categories in student and health data could allow policymakers to better serve small populations, but some people in those small populations are anxious about extra scrutiny, the possibility of discrimination and being labeled as other than American. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Data, Health Care, Immigration, K-12, asian pacific americans, data, discrimination, Education Committee

Report: Overhaul needed to avoid ‘untimely’ health care for inmates

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The state system of providing healthcare to nearly 14,000 inmates in state prisons is on a path to “inadequate staffing” and “untimely healthcare,” according to consultants hired by the state Department of Correction. The consultants recommend a transition to a “hybrid” model of care that relies more heavily on private providers. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Civil and criminal justice

School choice lottery a mystery for parents as desegregation efforts stall

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The confusion surrounding who wins the lottery – or doesn’t – has fueled displeasure and distrust among many Hartford residents concerned that the vast network of magnet schools has created a two-tiered education system where thousands of struggling city students are stuck in underperforming neighborhood schools. Continue Reading →

Filed under: K-12, Schools/Child Welfare, Deeper Dive, Deeper Look, Martha Stone, Regional school choice office lottery, school choice, school desegregation