New Haven Independent

Opinion

What Do You Mean, “Tenure”?

by David Cicarella, NHFT President | Feb 16, 2012 9:18 am

Tenure is perhaps the most misunderstood topic in public education. Renewed cries to change or abolish tenure have surfaced once again. It is widely believed that tenure provides lifetime job security for teachers. And this erroneous belief is almost universal, misunderstood by educators as well as by the public. The simple fact is no such protection exists. Ironically just the opposite is true. The “tenure” law, which is CT State Statue 10-151, actually delineates how a tenured teacher can be fired. There is not a single word which even mentions a guarantee of employment. The reason for the misunderstanding is because at the college level, tenure does provide guarantees of employment for professors.  Public school teachers through grade 12 enjoy no such protection. The term tenure is unfortunately shared and has created the ridiculous notion that teachers in Connecticut have some mythical and absolute job security.

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Cable Box Is A Noisy Energy Hog

by David Sepulveda | Oct 20, 2011 1:43 pm | Comments (11)

(Opinion) Our new Comcast digital video recorder (DVR), along with its vast array of channels, high definition image, and recording capabilities, quickly became an unwanted and bothersome presence, emitting a perpetual series of audible whirring, spinning and spooling sounds that were loud enough to annoy and frequent enough to finally prompt a call to customer service.

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Murphy’s To Lose

by Jason Paul | Sep 20, 2011 2:50 pm | Comments (1)

“Jason The Greek,” one of Connecticut’s most incisive in-the-trenches numbers-crunchers on behalf of Democratic campaign, handicaps the already busy 2012 campaign to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman. Already in the race: Republicans Linda McMahon and Chris Shays and Democrats Chris Murphy, Susan Bysiewicz, and William Tong.

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In Defense Of Moore

by Reginald Mayo | Jul 1, 2011 5:00 pm | Comments (47)

New Haven’s schools superintendent submitted this article in the wake of recent articles about the principal of Wilbur Cross High School.

As school was about to start last year, Wilbur Cross High School faced a sudden and unforeseen crisis. The outside candidate that the district intended to hire as principal unexpectedly declined the position, saying the salary was too low.

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Co-op High Students: Let Us Vote

by Henry Murphy Jr., Amber Corey & Leah Gimbel | Jun 6, 2011 7:20 am | Comments (6)

Note: The authors of this article are students at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School.

When fewer than half of America’s 8th grade students know the purpose of the Bill of Rights, as the National Assessment of Education Progress reported recently, we know we have a problem.

This growing “crisis” in civics education—to quote former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor—poses a real threat to our democracy. Young people who do not understand or care about how their government functions will likely become uninformed voters.

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Does City Need An East-West Connector?

by Thomas A. Foster | Apr 12, 2011 11:05 am | Comments (47)

(Opinion.) Downtown Crossing, the proposed redevelopment of New Haven’s Oak Street Connector, is stirring discussion, as well as reflection on this relic of urban renewal. Ignored, however, is the fact that New Haven still lacks—and needs—a convenient east-west route through the city.

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“Neighborhood Preference,” Defined

by Mark Oppenheimer | Feb 15, 2011 3:07 pm | Comments (24)

How do you get your kid into the magnet school down the block? Westville author Mark Oppenheimer, who lives within paper-airplane-flying distance of Edgewood School, set out in search of answers, then blogged the results:

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Why Change The Date?

by Jennifer Stockwell | Dec 16, 2010 11:38 am | Comments (6)

Jennifer Stockwell sent in this opinion piece about a possible change to the kindergarten eligibility age.

It came to my attention last week that there is a movement in Connecticut to change the date by which prospective students must turn 5 to be eligible to enroll in kindergarten from Dec. 31 to Oct. 1. I immediately began Googling every term I could think of to find out more about it since my daughter is currently on track to begin kindergarten four months before her fifth birthday in 2012, which, I can only guess, may be the first school year affected by this decision.

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New Haven, Through “The Wire”

by Tim Holahan | Oct 1, 2010 4:26 pm | Comments (36)

(Opinion) Back in the 20th century, it was a mark of serious literacy to have read Tolstoy’s War and Peace cover to cover. I never earned that badge, but I recently attained what may become our century’s version: I finished watching all 60 episodes of The Wire, the gripping HBO drama about inner-city Baltimore and its spider web of troubles.

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What Makes A Good Teacher?

by Frank Carrano | Mar 12, 2010 5:21 am | Comments (5)

What makes a good teacher?  How will be recognize one when we see him/her?

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