Reform · Standards · Students

Bridgeport Board In Complete Disarray During Pivotal Time

What a shameful state of affairs — on the very same day the New York Times published an article detailing the gross inequity faced by students attending Bridgeport schools, a political feud between board members halted the city’s school board. Monday afternoon, the Connecticut Post reported that school board chairman Dennis Bradley canceled the school… Continue reading Bridgeport Board In Complete Disarray During Pivotal Time

Reform · Standards

Who’s Opting-Out? Recent Survey Results Show It’s Exactly Who You Think

Who is the opt-out movement? As it turns out, the people promoting opting out of state assessments are exactly who you’d expect. A recent survey conducted by Assistant Professor at Teacher’s College at Columbia University Oren Pizmony-Levy and Teachers College Research Associate Nancy Green Saraisky found that an overwhelming majority of opt-out activists are white… Continue reading Who’s Opting-Out? Recent Survey Results Show It’s Exactly Who You Think

Budgets · Reform · Standards

No, Leaving The Smarter Balanced Testing Consortium Would Not Save Connecticut Money

I hate to break to everyone, but John Bestor is wrong. Leaving the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) isn’t likely to save Connecticut money — far from it. In his recent Op-Ed for CT Viewpoints Bestor, a former school psychologist and anti-reform activist, makes the extraordinary claim that Connecticut could save money by designing a… Continue reading No, Leaving The Smarter Balanced Testing Consortium Would Not Save Connecticut Money

Standards

CEA’s Own Data: Teachers Support the Common Core

I want to make this very, very clear: The following statistics were taken directly from the Connecticut Education Association’s (CEA) own poll. [Greenberg Quinan Rosner Research, 2/20/2014] When the CEA dragged out the megaphone this week to rally the troops against the Common Core, they neglected to mention the following information from their own survey.… Continue reading CEA’s Own Data: Teachers Support the Common Core

Standards

Freedom From Accountability? Why Not?

Would you like to never be judged at work? Would you like an accountability holiday? Who wouldn’t? That’s what the union asked their members, according to the survey questions asked by the Connecticut Education Association (CEA). [Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, 2/20/2014] That is the pudding in their proof that Common Core implementation should be stalled.… Continue reading Freedom From Accountability? Why Not?

Standards

Anti-Common Core Rhetoric an Obviously False Pretense

When the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) decided to lambaste the Common Core this week, the fact their strings were being pulled went completely unnoticed. The questions are, who is pulling the strings and why? The answer to the first question is simple, and the evidence is clear. The National Education Association (NEA) is banging the… Continue reading Anti-Common Core Rhetoric an Obviously False Pretense

Hartford · Standards

Hartford BOE Relies On Reason And Rules, Thank Goodness

Maybe we should forgive Jon Pelto for forgetting what “executive session” means. After all, he hasn’t been relevant for a few decades. The excitable-if-not-precisely-accurate politician-turned-activist blogger has been yammering on for weeks now about a Hartford Board of Education executive session during which the subject was to be Capital Prep Founder and Principal Dr. Steve… Continue reading Hartford BOE Relies On Reason And Rules, Thank Goodness

Standards · Students

Bridgeport Board Working Overtime to Ignore Parents

Though its tenure has barely begun, Bridgeport’s Working Families Party-run Board of Education seems to be doing everything it can to disenfranchise parents, particularly working or single parents. Strange, for an organization that calls itself community-led. Case in point: Last Monday’s Board of Education meeting lasted seven hours. Starting at 5:30 p.m., the meeting didn’t… Continue reading Bridgeport Board Working Overtime to Ignore Parents

Standards

Former Board Member & Now Political Operative Maria Pereira Calling The Shots At The Bridgeport Board of Education?

  Even though she chose not to seek re-election, Working Families Party Chairwoman and former board member Maria Pereira appears to be calling the shots at Bridgeport Board of Education meetings. In this recorded moment, at last night’s Community Engagement Committee Meeting, politician turned union operative Pereira seems to be giving political advice to sitting… Continue reading Former Board Member & Now Political Operative Maria Pereira Calling The Shots At The Bridgeport Board of Education?