by | Feb 11, 2014 9:20 am | Comments (4)
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Harries fans applaud his reappointment.
Backed by parents, charter advocates and teachers, New Haven’s new superintendent won approval to remain in charge of city schools for another three years.
by | Feb 7, 2014 11:26 am | Comments (15)
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Parent Megan Ifill: “It seems like they don’t really want our opinion.”
New Haven parents got 19 hours to have a say in who runs the school system for the next three years.
It was the school board’s latest effort in “parent engagement.” Like previous attempts, it didn’t go over well.
Continue reading ‘Parents Get Hours To “Weigh In” On Harries’
by | Jan 28, 2014 3:34 pm | Comments (19)
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Fifty-six families whose young children have missed over 10 days of school will get an invitation to meet Judge Jack Keyes — and try to cut a bad habit before it gets worse.
by | Jan 28, 2014 12:57 pm | Comments (5)
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A struggling Newhallville school may get an influx of extra state money next year as part of a new network of low-performing schools.
Continue reading ‘Lincoln-Bassett “Invited” To Turnaround Network’
by | Jan 27, 2014 9:06 am | Comments (25)
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Parent leader Muhammad: Parents “petrified” of new tests.
Dacia Toll gave her board members a math quiz — and a heads up about a new kind of testing sweeping the nation.
by | Jan 23, 2014 9:31 am | Comments (14)
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Toll (right) with Amistad Parent leader Khadijah Muhammad.
IDEO
The company that invented Apple’s computer mouse is coming to New Haven to help the Achievement First charter network invent a new model of K‑8 schools.
by | Jan 14, 2014 9:22 am | Comments (14)
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Harries points out his top staffers to Harp.
“Look at the ACCUPLACER,” the newest member of New Haven’s school board told her colleagues.
They were discussing the fine points of a state law that will affect hundreds of city high school students — a law she had voted on, and a topic she has studied in depth.
by | Dec 30, 2013 9:23 am | Comments (2)
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Rocio Ramos and Oscar.
The principal sent the alert: Ms. Lopez’s baby was on the way. Amid a shortage of bilingual teachers, Rocio Ramos scrambled to cover a class —and keep the momentum going of a new effort to revamp the city’s largest bilingual ed program.
by | Dec 20, 2013 3:04 pm | Comments (0)
New Haven was not among the final five school districts that won $120 million in competitive grant money from the latest round of the federal Race to the Top, officials announced Thursday.
by | Dec 16, 2013 1:04 pm | Comments (1)
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Shyam Patel and Ivan Torres at ESUMS, one of the top performers.
No New Haven schools are “excelling.” Two are making enough progress to earn “distinction.”
That’s the conclusion of the state’s new effort to grade schools.
Melissa Bailey Graphic
Source: New Haven Public Schools, State SPI Database.
by | Dec 13, 2013 12:04 pm | Comments (9)
NHPS
A new report shows New Haven has suffered a slight setback in reaching one of its main school reform goals: Cutting the dropout rate in half.
by | Dec 10, 2013 9:20 am | Comments (9)
The school district is eyeing two low-performing city schools for potential state-funded “turnaround” efforts next year.
Continue reading ‘Turnarounds Eyed For Lincoln-Bassett, Hillhouse’
by | Dec 9, 2013 3:30 pm | Comments (3)
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Freddy Seminario pointed his browser to Road Trip Nation to search for a future career — and prepare for a new, more demanding standardized test coming to New Haven schools.
by | Nov 20, 2013 4:10 pm | Comments (6)
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Zakeya Herring, Mahogany Green and Robert Rivers oversee video production of Hillhouse’s daily news report as part of a broadcast journalism program in the school’s vo-tech wing.
The school district failed to find money to open a new vo-tech school — so it’s moving ahead with a humbler plan inside an abandoned wood shop at Hillhouse High.
by | Nov 20, 2013 9:03 am | Comments (3)
New Haven has entered the final round of a federal competition that could bring in up to $17 million to create more “personalized” learning for kids.
Continue reading ‘New Haven Schools Reach Final Round Of “Race”’
by | Nov 14, 2013 3:46 pm | Comments (3)
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Teachers Billy Gibson, Mia Edmonds-Duff, Christopher Fry, and Tahisha Porter discuss a mock evaluation.
Pat Brittingham is preparing to take on a big task: Grading six of her peers on job evaluations with newly raised stakes.
by | Nov 13, 2013 9:10 am | Comments (6)
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Teacher facilitator Gretchen Gurr.
In two years, 300 teacher “facilitators” will help their peers improve their craft, reaching every teacher in the city — according to a new plan backed by one of the world’s largest philanthropic foundations.
Continue reading ‘Gates’s Million Will Build Teacher-To-Teacher Network’
by | Nov 8, 2013 4:01 pm | Comments (8)
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Mayor John DeStefano celebrated a teacher vote that continued the direction of a school reform effort he launched four years ago — and called on the state to help keep it going.
Continue reading ‘Mayor: State Should Reward City For Landmark Teachers Contract’
by | Nov 8, 2013 9:27 am | Comments (10)
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Union trustees Derlene Ortiz, MarcAnthony Solli and Roberta Mazzucco count the ballots.
By an overwhelming majority, teachers ratified a new labor contract that stays the course of school reform at a transitional moment in New Haven — and begins to redefine teachers’ careers.
Continue reading ‘10-to-1 Contract Vote Buoys School Reform’
by | Nov 7, 2013 9:26 am | Comments (23)
New Haven teachers will vote Thursday night on a second landmark labor contract that would begin to tie pay raises to job evaluations and add incentives for teachers who work in difficult schools.
by | Oct 29, 2013 12:47 pm | Comments (13)
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Superintendent Harries with new board member Daisy Gonzalez.
Administrators will have to start “brown-bagging it” to meetings. One person from the school district’s central office may lose his or her job. And outside groups may have to pay more to rent school gyms and theaters.
by | Oct 21, 2013 8:11 am | Comments (10)
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Student Millsaps: Survey kids; don’t grade teachers that way.
As the state moves ahead with new teacher evaluations, New Haven is grappling with how to meet one unpopular new requirement: letting students determine a portion of their teachers’ grades.
Continue reading ‘City Balks At Students Helping To Grade Teachers’
by | Oct 16, 2013 8:28 am | Comments (6)
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Student Marc Gonzalez: kids who tried out the new test struggled with “click and drag.”
New Haven is preparing to ditch the Connecticut Mastery Test for a new test — and now faces a technological challenge.
by | Oct 8, 2013 2:42 pm | Comments (6)
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Prospective Elm City Montessori enrollees Theo and Nate Brown.
New Haven got the OK to launch another experiment in how a teachers union can work with the school district to try out new ways of running schools.
Continue reading ‘State OKs New Work Rules At “Local Charter”’
by | Sep 30, 2013 2:24 pm | Comments (7)
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Mayor DeStefano meets Strong School 1st-grader Israel Ramos at a press conference Monday.
A stepchild school with outdated computers will get a major technology boost, thanks to a federal grant to convert four city schools into magnet schools with math-and-science themes.
Continue reading ‘Feds’ $11M Will Turn 4 Schools Into Magnets’