There was some optimism as 350 state and national officials gathered last week at workshops on statewide education reform, but one huge obstacle cast a shadow.
“The elephant in the room was funding,” said Frank Carrano, chair of Branford’s Board of Education. He was invited to attend the workshops.
Gov. Dannel Malloy, who convened the workshops to jump-start the legislative initiative on education reform, told reporters that the state and/or school districts will need to spend more money. In addition, a task force formed by Malloy is studying ways to reconfigure the state’s funding formula for school districts. Click here to read a CT News Junkie story on the task force.)
Carrano, like other district leaders, wonders where the money will come from. They fear that the state’s complex funding formula will be reformatted to allocate money to under-performing districts at the expense of those that are making progress. “That’s a justified concern,” said Carrano, who was invited to attend workshops held at Central Connecticut State University.
Click here to read an article in the Connecticut Mirror on funding issues raised at Thursday’s workshops. The Mirror reported that Lydia Tedone, president of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, echoed Carrano’s sentiment as she said, “We don’t want them to rob Peter to pay Paul.”
State Rep. Lonnie Reed, (D‑Branford) shared concerns about funding as she spoke to the Eagle last week.
Reed said the state’s Education Cost Sharing (ESC) formula provides too little money per student in Branford as the district strives to meet diverse needs and special education challenges. Branford receives roughly $400 per pupil. Property taxes pay for nearly the entire school bill each year.
“A fair ECS formula is still a huge goal of mine,” Reed said.
The Representative Town Meeting’s education committee met last night to discuss a variety of topics, including graduation rates. The Board of Education’s proposed budget for the next school year will be unveiled in early February.
Malloy plans to introduce legislation that would promote early childhood education, turn around low-performing schools, remove red tape so that schools can be innovative; ensure that schools have the best teachers and principals; and deliver more resources to districts with the greatest need. That usually means the cities.
The state has the dubious distinction of having the largest achievement gap in the nation.
Carrano said it is important not to concentrate solely on the gap at under-performing schools, but to look at improving performance in all districts.
Carrano said the workshops were “a good start,” but he detected cynicism on the part of some attendees. “There’s a little bit of been there done that,” in regard to previous reform attempts that never materialized, he said. “Everyone is just waiting to see how much support there is for these changes to take place.”
The workshops Carrano attended dealt with ways to make teachers and administrators more effective. Panelists said school administrators need to be aware of what is happening in classrooms. Discussion focused on how to support good teachers and how to deal with ineffective ones.
Carrano said Branford school administrators are currently working to develop a new assessment process for teachers. He said some aspects of teacher performance should be tied to student performance, but the question is how to gauge student performance through more than just test scores.
“There are so many aspects of teaching,” Carrano said, that need to be taken into consideration when evaluating performance.
In Connecticut, teachers are granted tenure after four years of successful teaching, and the certification must be renewed every 5 years. During that time frame, each teacher is evaluated and must also complete 90 hours of professional training.
Carrano said one of the suggestions in a comprehensive report by the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) is to revise the state’s tenure laws.
Click here to read a summary of the CAPSS report, which includes numerous suggestions for improving schools and education.
Among the suggestions in the CAPSS report:
• Adopt a more varied system of accountability for student learning.
• Make early childhood programs available for all 3- and 4‑year-olds.
• Redirect efforts of the State Department of Education (SDE) to meet the needs of school districts.
• Tie state funding to incentives for meeting and exceeding learning outcomes.
• Dismiss teachers and leaders who have consistently poor performance.
• Foster partnerships among schools, parents and communities.
Carrano said one interesting proposal at the workshop was the establishment of “bridge programs” that would link early childhood programs to elementary school; and also link high schools to colleges.
Carrano said he was encouraged to hear discussion of one proposal that is already being used in Branford’s elementary schools. The strategy involves using “lesson study” techniques to promote collaboration among teachers.
He said he was generally pleased with the workshops. “Overall they were really focusing on trying to open up a process of investigation and information sharing,” Carrano said.
However, he said that while the presentations were informative, there was little opportunity for attendees to offer opinions. He is hopeful additional sessions will be scheduled in the future.
###
