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Hundreds of Connecticut legislators, teachers, parents, and activists gathered at Central Connecticut State University today to discuss the need for education reform in the state. WNPR’s Neena Satija reports.
Governor Dannel Malloy has called 2012 Connecticut’s Year for Education Reform. In that spirit, he convened workshops Thursday where local school administrators and experts from around the country addressed issues ranging from school financing to teacher preparation. Justin Cohen is President of the School Turnaround Group at Mass Insight Education, a non-profit education research organization in Boston.
“Everyone seems to agree that some schools and some subsets of schools consistently underperform their peers over and over," said Cohen, who moderated a panel on the subject.
Among the panelists were Farmington schools superintendant Kathleen Greider. A former elementary school teacher, she went on to transform one of the worst-performing schools in Hartford, Dwight Elementary School.
“I think that we leave children out of our improvement efforts, and at Dwight we did not," Greider said.
The workshops are meant to prepare the Connecticut General Assembly for a legislative session focused on education reform in the state. For WNPR, I’m Neena Satija.