The Bridgeport Board of Education’s recent actions show that it misses the big picture.
K-12
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
New spending, tax breaks at risk as CT lawmakers try to close new budget gap
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his fellow Democrats in the legislature’s majority have some options to re-balance the next state budget – but none of them are nice.
Posted inEducation
Federal report: CT has among largest achievement gaps in graduation rates
More minority and white students in Connecticut’s public schools are graduating high school on time, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm. But Connecticut still has among the largest achievement gaps in the nation when it comes to which students graduate high school in four years.
Posted inEducation
Malloy: CT could lose money if many students opt out of standardized tests
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Monday that federal law restricts students from opting out of taking standardized tests, and if the state were to give students that option, the state would be at risk of losing millions of federal dollars.
Posted inEducation
The Basics: An effort to create universal pre-k in CT
The state Senate voted 33 to 2 on Friday for a bill aimed at moving the state toward “universal access” to preschool in Connecticut.
Posted inEducation
State panel: Teachers must be evaluated on multiple standardized tests
The state panel that crafts the requirements on how districts evaluate their teachers has approved changes that restrict districts from using a single standardized test when grading their teachers.
Posted inEducation
Wanted: Bright, passionate teachers for a new era
Some critics contend that U.S. schools are losing too many top graduates to law, medicine or other high-profile careers at a time when schools are under pressure to close the achievement gap and raise standards. Educators in Connecticut and elsewhere are looking for ways to lure the brightest candidates into the classroom.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
GOP budget scraps Malloy’s gimmicks, rebate — and credit for poor
Minority Republican state legislators pitched an alternative budget Thursday that weeded hundreds of millions of dollars out of gimmicks from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plan and canceled the governor’s controversial rebate.
Posted inEducation
Up next: Charter group that battled NYC mayor targets Connecticut
A charter school advocacy group founded by Wall Street players that recently took on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — and won — is now taking on Bridgeport’s locally elected school board’s opposition to the state potentially opening two new charter school in their urban district.
Posted inEducation
Democrats unveil plan, and funding, for step toward universal pre-K
Thousands of Connecticut students start kindergarten each year already trailing their peers academically because they didn’t attend preschool. Democratic legislative leaders announced Wednesday they intend to pass legislation that will pay for thousands more children to enroll in public schools’ preschool programs.
Posted inEducation
Report: Many Connecticut charter schools ‘hyper-segregated’
State law requires education leaders to “reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation” to advance the state’s interests, but an advocacy group reports that most of Connecticut’s charter schools are “hyper-segregated.”
Posted inEducation
Charter network CEO: Common Core tests may reveal ‘middle-class crisis’
When students start taking Common Core exams, the results will “expose that we have a middle-class crisis in this country,” said the CEO of a charter school network at Monday’s annual Yale School of Management Education Leadership Conference.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Op-ed: Thank you, State Board of Education, for approving 4 new charters
Approving all four schools was the right thing to do – educationally, fiscally, and morally.
Posted inEducation, Money
Not so fast: Key lawmaker upset with approval of more charter schools
The co-chairwoman of the General Assembly’s powerful budget-writing committee is angry that the State Board of Education has approved opening more charter schools than the state budget provides for.
Posted inEducation
Connecticut’s charter school enrollment set to surge
More students than ever are about to have the chance to enroll in a charter school in Connecticut.