The Connecticut SBAC scores will be released by the State Department of Education any day now. The scores will be low. You will be told that the low scores are because the SBAC tests are rigorous and our students don’t measure up. Don’t believe it. … It is our job as citizens and parents to tell students the truth about SBAC. It is our job as educators to keep teaching and assessing students in real and honest ways. Otherwise, we adults are the failures.
Connecticut State Department of Education
Posted inEducation, Politics
Achievement gap an issue as Congress considers new ed bill
WASHINGTON – Connecticut elementary students have among the highest reading and math scores in the nation, but a stubborn achievement gap persists between the state’s highest- and lowest-performing schools, said a White House report issued Monday.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut education: Getting it right in the future
The bad news for education in Connecticut is that in the state budget, which takes effect on July 1, money will be spent on charter schools for 2 percent of Connecticut children that would have been better spent on the other 98 percent of Connecticut children. The good news is if the Connecticut legislature wants to address that kind of injustice, it now has the power to do so.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut should provide bilingual education for all
We need to embrace the fact that speaking more than one language is a 21st-century skill that all American students should have, yet our state is lagging behind others in its adoption of bilingual education programs. So, people of Connecticut, its time that we demand that our state takes the lead on providing quality bilingual education for all children, K-12.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: Parent explains why she can’t allow her children to take the SBAC test
After doing her own research for months, a Fairfield parent explains why she has no confidence in the state’s use of the SBAC test or that student privacy is adequately protected in the use of the test data. She has elected for her children not to take the test.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: When we suspend them, we fail our youngest students
Several bills before the legislature would ban out-of-school suspension for children younger than 8. These proposals recognize that young children with problem behavior are often in need of help, that being excluded from school sets them up for academic failure, and that a culture of exclusionary discipline harms every child in a school.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
When we suspend them, we fail our youngest students
Several bills before the legislature would ban out-of-school suspension for children younger than 8. These proposals recognize that young children with problem behavior are often in need of help, that being excluded from school sets them up for academic failure, and that a culture of exclusionary discipline harms every child in a school.
Posted inEducation
Number of Connecticut kindergarten suspensions rising
The number of kindergarten students suspended from school for misbehaving is on the rise, the Connecticut Department of Education reported Wednesday. Minority children make up three-quarters of the suspensions, the department said, and charter school students are suspended twice as often as those in the public school districts where they are located.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
SBAC test is part of corporate plan to discredit Connecticut public schools
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test is part a profit-motivated scheme to undermine public education and advance unregulated for-profit schools. The state should not make it so difficult for parents to opt out of this testing program.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: SBAC test is part of corporate plan to discredit Connecticut public schools
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test is part a profit-motivated scheme to undermine public education and advance unregulated for-profit schools. The state should not make it so difficult for parents to opt out of this testing program.
Posted inEducation
Help wanted: CT commissioner with education background
The panel searching for the state’s next education commissioner wants someone who has a long background and an advanced degree in education – qualifications the last commissioner did not have and which one of the state’s teachers’ unions called for during the campaign.
Posted inEducation
Special Report: Education, Diversity and Change in Fairfield County
Fairfield County, a region marked by sharp disparities in income and in urban and suburban life, faces particular challenges in assuring all its residents a quality education. Today, a special report, “Education, Diversity and Change in Fairfield County,” explores the issue through in-depth policy reporting, interactive maps and charts, photo galleries and opinion pieces written by teachers from the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University.
Posted inEducation
Education commissioner leaving first week of January
Commissioner Stefan Pryor, the leader of the state Department of Education who helped craft controversial legislation during his tenure, will leave office the first week of January. Pryor announced in August his intention to leave the post if Gov. Dannel P. Malloy won re-election.
Posted inEducation
State wants to rate schools on more than just test scores
State Department of Education officials said Wednesday they plan to seek federal approval to grade the state’s 1,150 public schools using more than just test scores. The state agency wants to use student attendance rates as a criteria in the required school ratings in its next application for a waiver from the punitive requirements of the […]
Posted inEducation
After scandal, state to tighten rules on charter schools
In the wake of recent controversies, state education officials have announced plans to start requiring that charter schools operate more like other public schools—“transparently,” with clear standards to meet.