In Norwich, as in other cash-strapped public school districts, spring is the mean season. Trying to balance its budget, the district has decided to cut out middle school sports, foreign language classes and an instrumental music program. It will end some after-school bus routes. Officials are considering closing an elementary school. And nearly a quarter […]

Connecticut’s school reform plans got a mediocre grade in the federal Race to the Top competition, the Obama administration reported Monday, putting new pressure on state lawmakers to pass legislation to revamp the state’s public school system. Out of 40 states and the District of Columbia, Connecticut ranked 25th, well out of the running in […]

As businessman Steven Simmons tries to fix what’s wrong with Connecticut’s public schools, he hopes to win the help of skeptics such as parent activist Gwen Samuel. Simmons has built an impressive résumé as a college professor, children’s book author and cable TV entrepreneur, but his recent appointment by Gov. M. Jodi Rell to head a […]

Eighth-graders in Connecticut improved their reading scores significantly and fourth-graders held steady as the state posted some of the nation’s highest scores on results of a national test released Wednesday. However, minority and low-income students continued to lag farther behind white and wealthier students than in most other states on fourth- and eighth-grade reading tests […]

Two of every five Hispanic high school freshmen fail to graduate on time from Connecticut’s public high schools, part of a bleak record of graduation rates among minority students, state officials said Tuesday. Overall, about one of five freshmen who entered high school in 2005 failed to graduate four years later, according to a new […]

Eighth-graders in Connecticut improved their reading scores significantly and fourth-graders held steady as the state posted some of the nation’s highest scores on results of a national test released Wednesday. However, minority and low-income students continued to lag farther behind white and wealthier students than in most other states on fourth- and eighth-grade reading tests […]

A landmark state Supreme Court ruling Monday gave renewed hope to a coalition of municipal officials and education leaders hoping to force the state to pump billions of dollars more into its public schools. But with the state already facing years of massive budget deficits, the price tag for the coalition’s effort to overhaul the […]

After enrolling at Post University in Waterbury three years ago, Karina Heredia dropped out after her freshman year – a fate all too common among Hispanic students across the nation, says a study released Thursday. Barely half of the nation’s Hispanic college students complete bachelor’s degrees within six years, and the numbers are considerably worse […]

As angry teachers protested, the Hartford Board of Education voted Tuesday to ask the State Board of Education to change a contractual guarantee of seniority job rights, a provision that officials say disrupts the teaching staffs of the district’s many specialized magnet schools. “It is a necessary step in order for high-performing schools to survive the […]

An overflow crowd, including a parade of schoolchildren that marched past lawmakers, left little doubt Monday the General Assembly is under pressure to reform Connecticut’s public schools this spring. Dozens of spectators jammed a hearing room and hundreds of students, parents and educators filled the atrium of the Legislative Office Building while legislators heard hours […]

Connecticut failed in its first try to win millions of dollars in federal stimulus money for school reform, but its second attempt could lead to some of the most significant changes in public schools in years. The legislature’s Education Committee will hold a public hearing today on a dozen bills on school finance, teacher evaluations, […]

When Walter Harrison became president of the University of Hartford, he was astonished that a state regulatory process was holding up a proposed new academic program to train cantors, the officials who sing or chant prayers in synagogues. The campus already had well-known programs in music and Jewish studies, and Harrison didn’t understand why a […]

NEW HAVEN – Here in the city’s Adult Education Center, alongside former dropouts in their 20s and 30s or older, hundreds of teenagers such as Leandrae Doward also are signing up for a second chance at a diploma. “I had an attendance problem,” said Doward, a 16-year-old who dropped out of Hillhouse High School as […]

If you can’t give them more money, give them less paperwork That seems to be the rationale behind a provision in Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s deficit reduction plan that would allow school boards to petition for waivers of state mandates, including paperwork requirements. But while local school officials have long complained of being overwhelmed by […]