WASHINGTON — Efforts to fashion a new federal education bill have created a big divide between civil rights organizations and teachers unions – and between many Connecticut educators and Sen. Chris Murphy, who has been active in trying to shape the legislation.
K-12
Posted inEducation, Money
School-funding trial delayed, again
A Superior Court judge on Wednesday grudgingly agreed to delay the the start of a trial to determine whether the state is spending enough to ensure every student a quality education.
Posted inEducation
Is school choice really a choice, or a chance?
When it comes to winning the lottery for a magnet school seat in the Hartford region, some bets are a sure thing. Overall, however, the odds are more often not in the student’s favor, recent data shows. The majority of area magnet schools throughout the region offer seats to fewer than half the students who apply.
Posted inEducation
State pushes to end court oversight of Hartford school desegregation
Nineteen years after the Connecticut Supreme Court ordered state officials to desegregate Hartford’s city schools, and the courts assumed supervision of that effort, attorneys for the state told a judge Friday the time has come for the court’s role to end.
Posted inEducation
Put off kindergarten a year? Officials want to end ‘redshirting’
While many parents hope an extra year of preschool and development will mean their children are better prepared for school or ahead of their classmates when they start kindergarten, state officials at the Office of Early Childhood want to outlaw the practice.
Posted inEducation
How did your school do on the new SBAC test?
See how your school and school district performed on the new English and math assessment tests aligned with Common Core state standards.
Posted inEducation
How many students skipped the test?
Statewide, 4 percent of the nearly 300,000 public school students eligible to take the state’s standardized exams did not. However, in several schools throughout the state, those rates were much higher. See our charts for more detail.
Posted inEducation
New test, same large achievement gaps
Huge gaps in achievement between minority students and their peers remain, state education officials said Friday as they released results of the new, more difficut SBAC standardized test.
Posted inEducation
Scores plunge as students take new, tougher SBAC test
As expected, the standardized test scores parents are accustomed to seeing for their child’s school have plunged as the state implements a harder test aligned with the controversial Common Core State Standards.
Posted inEducation
State still wrestling with long-delayed graduation requirements
State lawmakers are still looking for a way to implement a sweeping and expensive law they passed five years ago to boost high school graduation requirements. Implementation has been delayed twice because of a lack of state and federal funding, and now some say the requirements are outdated.
Posted inEducation
Complaint says Bridgeport’s special education problems persist
Nineteen months after state investigators determined that the state’s largest school district “systemically violated” state and federal laws created to ensure the needs of special education students are promptly met, the attorneys for eight Bridgeport students complained to the state that the problems fester.
Posted inEducation, Health
Most middle and high schools start too early, CDC study says
In Connecticut, fewer than 5 percent of middle and high schools started at 8:30 or later, one of the lowest rates in the country.
Posted inEducation
Expired contracts leave education advocates for foster kids in limbo
Advocates called “surrogate parents” are typically assigned to help children in foster care or homeless children overcome barriers and get the education services they need. But the state’s contracts with the 74 surrogates responsible for more than 1,000 foster and homeless children on any given day expired July 1 — which has left these advocates in limbo.
Posted inEducation, Politics
Democrats will not attempt to override Malloy vetoes
Majority Democrats in the General Assembly will not try to override any of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s vetoes when they meet in special session Monday, House and Senate Democratic leadership announced Friday morning.
Posted inEducation
U.S. Senate votes to leave many education reforms to the states
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate Thursday approved a sweeping overhaul of federal education law that would leave up to Connecticut and other states whether to continue with education reforms including the controversial Common Core standards and linking teacher evaluations to student test scores.