After losing her teaching job in Norwich last spring, Antonia Revere worried all summer, hoping for the phone call that finally came this week. “I’m so relieved. I’m so happy,” said Revere, who was notified by the school district Monday that she has been rehired as a third grade teacher. She is one of hundreds […]

Connecticut’s neighboring states of New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are among 10 winners of the second round of the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top school reform competition. Connecticut failed last month to make a list of 19 finalists for the Obama administration’s $4.3 billion competition designed to improve low-performing schools. U.S. […]

They will be celebrating this year at Middletown’s Woodrow Wilson Middle School, once considered a prime example of why Middletown only two years ago was designated one of the state’s most troubled school districts. For the first time, Wilson met federal school improvement standards, joining a growing list of Connecticut schools cited Wednesday for making […]

The state’s top education official has criticized an Obama administration plan that would force states to compete for federal education grants, saying it would create a nation of winners and losers in school reform. In a letter to U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, state Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan said Connecticut’s recent failure to qualify for […]

Connecticut State University officials reduced raises for more than 60 high-ranking managers Friday in response to criticism from Gov. M. Jodi Rell but took no action on Rell’s request to rescind raises for two campus presidents. The managers, including officials at CSU’s four campuses and at system headquarters in Hartford, had been given pay increases […]

Connecticut’s failure to qualify for a coveted federal education grant could delay the effort to reform the state’s public schools but will not end it, officials pledged Tuesday. Educators and lawmakers expressed disappointment when U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan did not include Connecticut among a list of finalists for millions of dollars under Race […]

Throughout its history, public education in Connecticut has enjoyed a flattering – though often misleading – reputation among citizens who wanted excellent schools but were reluctant to pay for them. That blunt assessment comes from a new book by one of the state’s most noted authorities on education, former state historian Christopher Collier. The ongoing […]

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 […]

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 […]

As pay freezes expired this month for unionized faculty and staff at the Connecticut State University System, the university also ended a freeze for non-union administrators, against the wishes of Gov. M. Jodi Rell. By the time Rell issued a plea last week to hold the line on non-union salaries, CSU had already granted raises […]

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 […]

The lagging achievement of low-income and minority students in Connecticut’s cities remains a daunting problem, but that did not dampen the mood Thursday at a press conference announcing the latest test results in Hartford. For the third year in a row, the city’s public schools – made up mainly of black and Hispanic children from […]

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 […]

A federal appeals court Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by state officials challenging the cost of a controversial federal school reform law. The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling dismissing Connecticut’s complaint that the No Child Left Behind Act amounted to an unfunded mandate costing state and local taxpayers hundreds of millions […]

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. That is about to change. The State Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday to adopt the Common Core State […]