ConnCAN and education research firm Public Impact today (Nov. 23 2009) released a groundbreaking report [1MB PDF] tracing the flow of funds through Connecticut's public schools and offering a more rational system that will close that state's yawning achievement gap.
Please visit ConnCAN's website www.conncan.org to download the report The Tab.
I was very fortunate to be provided an advance copy which I read over the weekend. It is truly groundbreaking in every sense of the word. I can not encourage you enough to please take the time to read this extremely well done thorough report.
Doug
p.s. For your convenience I've attached the PDF file of The Tab but please also visit ConnCAN's web site!
Alex Johnston:
ConnCAN runs on big ideas. We launched our organization almost five years ago with a mission to do nothing less than offer every Connecticut child access to a great public school.Living in the state with the nation's largest achievement gap is too unsettling to tolerate plodding incremental change. When more than 90 percent of fifth graders in wealthy Ridgefield can read at or above grade level but only 31 percent of Bridgeport kids can there's no time to dally. We demand breakthrough success.
ConnCAN has grown into a force: an education advocacy group powered by thousands of advocates who share our impatience. We proved the power of our movement through our hugely successful 2009 'Mind the Gaps' legislative campaign. The campaign made real gains in data transparency teacher effectiveness and funding for Connecticut's excellent public charter schools.
But the campaign also illustrated the unsustainable way we pay for our public schools. Consider this tale: In 2008 Hartford asked Achieve- ment First to bring one of its excellent charter schools to the city. The Achievement First Hartford Academy opened its doors to kindergarten first and fifth grade students with plans to add one grade each year as these students advanced until the school was completed. Because charter schools are funded on their own line item in the state budget the school will need more money each year to support this natural grade growth. This jewel of a school became a growing line item in the midst of the Great Recession and an easy target.