A three-year-old experiment to reshape teaching strategies and bolster achievement in the state’s neediest and lowest-performing school districts has produced promising early results, state officials said Wednesday. The Connecticut Accountability Learning Initiative (CALI) led to significant gains for minority students, low-income children and other groups that have lagged behind white and more affluent groups on […]

With a dozen legislators surrounding him, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed into law today a $40.1 billion biennial budget that remains incomplete unless his administration negotiates up to $1 billion in labor savings in coming days. Malloy signs the budget. Malloy sat down at a desk in the ornate Old Judiciary room to sign a […]

As history professor Matt Warshauer brought his sixth-grade daughter to Hartford this week to see an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, he lamented that students often know little about their government. A national study released today suggests that Warshauer is right. A U.S. government study on civics education reported only modest gains by […]

With final legislative passage of the $40.1 billion biennial budget by the House late Tuesday night, the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy now turns its attention to a significant missing piece of the fiscal puzzle — $1 billion in concessions and labor savings. The House Democratic leadership of Speaker Christopher G. Donovan and Majority […]

WASHINGTON–University of Connecticut officials are retooling their Washington lobbying strategy, drafting a new playbook that’s more defense than offense. Until recently, the university has focused on snagging earmarks, along with building support for increased research funding. But now, earmarks are banned. And other staple programs that UConn and similar educational institutions have relied on–from Pell […]

Young criminal offenders who are sentenced to jail often serve their time and win release, only to find that they can’t return to their schools–a situation that reduces the opportunity for them to straighten out their lives, advocates say. “It makes the choice of dropping out that much easier for them,” said Melanie Starks, a […]

U.S. District Judge Christopher F. Droney of West Hartford was nominated today by President Obama to the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. “At every step of his career Judge Droney has performed with excellence and unwavering integrity,” Obama said in a statement just issued by the White House. “I am confident he will serve […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will join President Obama in a wreath-laying ceremony at Ground Zero at noon on Thursday. He will represent the Connecticut victims of the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 1, 2001.

Many environmentalists view measuring a person’s carbon footprint–an assessment of the environmental impact of day-to-day activities–as a valuable educational tool that can lead to earth-friendly lifestyle changes. That may be true for people already committed to environmentalism, a new study suggests, but the practice could backfire with other people. The study involved 212 college students […]

At least 600,000 young adults have taken advantage of a provision in the federal health reform law that allows them to maintain coverage under their parents’ health plans until age 26, according to a survey of insurers by Kaiser Health News. The number of people taking advantage of the provision appears to be growing more […]

Sometimes, it’s the small milestones that can be most significant and symbolic. For most Connecticut Latinos recently, it was having Gov. Dannel Malloy and key legislative leaders stand with us at the Capitol at the Latino Advocacy Day and acknowledge the role of state’s rapidly growing Latino community. Their presence, and most importantly their words, […]

Top state lawmakers in Connecticut are pushing ahead with plans to legalize marijuana for medicinal use, despite recent warnings to officials in other states of possible federal prosecution. “States have a right to decide this for themselves,” said Michael P. Lawlor, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s senior criminal justice adviser. Malloy and Democratic leaders are proposing […]

Jessie Stratton, a long-time legislator turned environmental advocate has been named to help formulate policy as the state merges environmental and energy regulation under one department. Monday was Stratton’s first day as director of policy development for the DEP – a job she will continue with the new Department of Energy and Environment, once legislation […]