David Ellis Adams Carson has spent a near-lifetime advocating for Connecticut’s public school children, testifying at legislative hearings in Washington and Hartford, and 10 years after he retired as chief executive of People’s Bank his efforts continue. (Full disclosure: I am his biographer.) He served as a member of The Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement and shares his thoughts about creating a robust education system.
Connecticut public schools can demonstrate success in many areas of the state and with many students. At the same time, objective analysis also produces evidence of profound failure in many towns with far too many students failing not just in tests but in every other objective evidence of learning success.
The Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement appointed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell in March 2010 spent seven months on hearings and research to produce recommendations that can help resolve this disparity between success and failure all within our state.The commission’s recommendations are contained in a report to the governor and to the public, which is easily available at www.ctachieve.org.
This commissioner would suggest the following:
There are many parts to the education system controlled by the principal constituencies — parents, students, teachers, principals, superintendents, town officials and state officials.
Each of these constituencies has broken parts that affect the ability of the education system to function for all.
Many parents do not prepare their children for school, and then do not provide adequate support.
Students are distracted by the temptations of modern society.
Too many teachers are not prepared to teach in the classrooms to which they are assigned, and are not supported by robust and focused continuing development.
Principals and superintendents fall into three categories: brilliant, average and poor. We need to develop more brilliant principals and superintendents and eliminate the poor.
There are town officials, including both Board of Education and town government officials, who lack comprehensive understanding of the role they’ve been given by state law to develop schools that serve every one of their student constituents.
The state Department of Education is a clawless tiger. It oversees one of the largest parts of the state budget without any accountability for results or power to make changes quickly when failure is apparent. The Legislature and the governor are responsible for this situation.
The situation cries out for gubernatorial leadership and the rallying of citizens from every community to change and improve this broken system. The failures of our public education system have a negative impact on the ability of Connecticut to compete intellectually and economically in the 21st century.
The commission’s recommendations provide a comprehensive menu of changes that address the problems.
*** City schools waste money on the wrong things, are lacking enforcement of school rules & policies towards teacher & student conduct, lack good security & are much too top-heavy in admin. positions. And most of all need to make parents much more responsible & active in their kids’ overall education. Also the people who work & live it every day should be asked more often for input, no? *** Back to basics. ***
Hey Lennie, contact Gregg Dancho at the Zoo. I hear they are in search of a “Tiger” for its breeding program. Sounds like the perfect tiger genes.
“The failures of our public education system have a negative impact on the ability of Connecticut to compete intellectually and economically in the 21st century.”
I’m not too sure this analysis is true. I’ve said it in the past and I’ll say it again. “Our Education System creates the bi-product of our Criminal Justice System.” The Dept. of Correction has done very well. Right, Mojo? Criminals are always coming up with creative ways to beat the system for as long as they can (Intellectual Competition). Police officers are busy and doing well with overtime. The bondsmen are doing well and falling over each other for a piece of the action. Lawyers receive cash and jewelry for their golden egg nests. The Sneakers manufacturers; clothing industry; the Big Rims and Tires industry, and the list goes on and on.
“The commission’s recommendations provide a comprehensive menu of changes that address the problems.”
Sounds fair enough! Now let’s assume that every Bridgeport student will graduate from college in the future and they go on to work in Government, Corporate America and Wall Street. Do you believe the country’s or the world’s problems caused by past failing education systems will go away and our economy will be the strongest yet? Lennie, write this in my biography.
Congratulations to David Carson for continuing to use his experience, intelligence, and insight to assist in the repair of broken elements of our Connecticut schools. He provided easy access to a 32-page report with recommendations that might be most helpful for those attempting to assist in restoring vision and light to our local Board activities.
I got to see WAITING FOR SUPERMAN at the Community Theater in Fairfield last evening. What a wholesale indictment of our failure in the US to understand the responsibility to each child who is ignored when large percentages of primary school students fail to make the grade and drop out. What a waste of negotiating energy also is the automatic lifetime tenure provision. As much attention should be paid at time of granting tenure to all of the performance details as is required at time of failure and forced departure. Not the way it is reported. And that wastes precious resources of time and money.
Finally, Ken Dixon writes in Friday’s CT Post front-page article on gaining agreement regarding State support for educational funding. Ken, a long term Hartford observer who is unafraid to report things the way he sees them tells us, “Despite law requiring higher support for public schools, Bridgeport receives only 38 percent of its education funding from the state.” Our City budget for the current year is about $470 Million. The BOE budget looks to be about $192 Million. Educational Cost Sharing funds from CT appear to be about $137 Million (about 67%). What is the difference between Ken’s report and City budget? Anybody?
Perhaps more corporations should invest in our school systems. Target partnered w/Atlanta and we all know about Zuckerberg’s generous donation to Jersey. Keep up the excellent work David Carson.