BLOOMFIELD — Only a few years ago, Bloomfield High School was one of the state’s lowest-performing schools, a symbol of the chronic achievement gap afflicting low-income and minority students. But much has changed. In a state with some of the largest achievement gaps in the nation, a promising turnaround – in all of Bloomfield’s schools – has caught the attention of state officials and education reform organizations.
Robert A. Frahm
Posted inEducation
Education’s Revolving Door
In some of the nation’s most troubled schools, new teachers are leaving their jobs at alarming rates — disrupting classrooms and sparking a debate on how to keep the best young teachers on the job.
Posted inEducation
Wanted: Bright, passionate teachers for a new era
Some critics contend that U.S. schools are losing too many top graduates to law, medicine or other high-profile careers at a time when schools are under pressure to close the achievement gap and raise standards. Educators in Connecticut and elsewhere are looking for ways to lure the brightest candidates into the classroom.
Posted inEducation
Teacher evaluations: Too much science, not enough art?
FAIRFIELD — As teacher Alison Taylor conducts a poetry lesson for her third-graders, veteran principal Jason Bluestein watches and listens closely, scratching notes into a spiral notebook – a process he will repeat again and again this year, more often than ever before.
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Bewigged attorneys argue, ultimately, for teaching more civics in CT classrooms
In a new historical video drama created for Connecticut schoolchildren, producers turned to actors more likely to be found in a courtroom than on a theater stage. The stars of a re-enactment of a debate at the 1787 Constitutional Convention include actors such as Connecticut Superior Court Judge James Abrams. “I had a lot of […]
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Should ‘race’ be replaced with ‘socioeconomic factors’ in Sheff case?
Under a racial desegregation order, a popular magnet school near Damaris DeLeon’s home in Hartford draws many of its students from outside of the city but remains a distant dream for her 6-year-old son. Magnet schools are at the center of the desegregation effort, but as they reach deep into the suburban towns to find […]
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The promise — and challenge — of rescuing Hartford’s Milner School
As a valued classroom aide, Sondra Henderson represents both the promise — and the challenge — of the latest effort to rescue Hartford’s Milner School, one of the state’s most troubled public schools. Henderson is one of the 20 aides hired last fall to assist teachers as Milner began making a series of reforms under […]
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Big grant will promote Hartford school, charter ties
A new multimillion-dollar grant to Hartford’s public schools not only will strengthen the city’s ties to charter schools, it could bolster a charter movement that some educators believe has never fulfilled its potential in Connecticut. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a $5 million grant to Hartford, one of seven U.S. cities receiving […]
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State approves rescue plans for four struggling schools
When state officials approved a plan Thursday to rescue Hartford’s troubled Milner School, they took a leap of faith that the latest strategy would succeed where years of earlier efforts have failed. The State Board of Education approved turnaround plans for Milner and three other struggling, impoverished urban schools in Bridgeport, New Haven and Norwich […]
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Bridgeport school reformer brought ‘dramatic transformation’
Even though a court ruled it illegal, the state’s ouster of the Bridgeport Board of Education last year has produced encouraging results, according to some members of the State Board of Education. The replacement of the former Bridgeport board with new appointees led to the hiring of noted school reformer Paul Vallas, whose work as […]
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College merger means fewer administrators, more faculty
Middletown — Connecticut’s state universities and community colleges could begin hiring additional faculty and staff as early as this fall with $5.5 million in administrative cost savings resulting from last year’s higher education merger. The savings from the elimination of about two dozen senior administrative jobs could lead to as many as 45 new teaching and […]
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Colleges tighten anti-hacking rules
Recent Internet security breaches at two college campuses prompted public state higher education officials Thursday to impose tougher rules for the use of personal information in computer files. The Board of Regents for Higher Education adopted a policy that tightens security controls, requires additional staff training and makes college and university presidents responsible for maintaining […]
Posted inEducation
Colleges tighten anti-hacking rules
Recent Internet security breaches at two college campuses prompted public state higher education officials Thursday to impose tougher rules for the use of personal information in computer files. The Board of Regents for Higher Education adopted a policy that tightens security controls, requires additional staff training and makes college and university presidents responsible for maintaining […]
Posted inNews
New London school chief asks for state help
New London’s troubled public school system — struggling under what a scathing new state report describes as a hostile, dysfunctional political climate — should be next in line for state intervention, the system’s top official says. “The state must intervene in New London,” Superintendent of Schools Nicholas A. Fischer told the State Board of Education […]
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Hartford crowd warms to Malloy’s education plan
Hartford — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s sweeping proposal to reshape Connecticut’s public schools has run into plenty of hostile opposition, but the governor found a friendly audience Monday for his pitch to salvage the plan. Malloy got a warm reception from parents, community leaders and others in Hartford, a city all too familiar with the alarming […]