Setting the Record Straight
Prepared by Abacus Associates, researchers in Northampton, MA
Using 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER) made the argument this week that Connecticut should be more like Massachusetts and New Jersey if we are to see improvement in student achievement on NAEP.
However, teacher due process and tenure laws in Massachusetts and New Jersey in the years leading up to the 2011 exams were as strong, if not stronger, than those in Connecticut today. Why, if our goal is to match the achievements in Massachusetts and New Jersey, is CCER suggesting that stripping away teacher due process rights and making it harder to get tenure is the solution? Indeed, let us look at test scores among states—Louisiana, Delaware, and Rhode Island—where education policy reflects most closely what Governor Malloy is proposing.
Connecticut outperforms these “Malloy states” in low-income student performance in NAEP reading scores in 4th and 8th grade and one would be hard pressed to use these states as models for improving low-income student performance.
Let’s also keep in mind the two-thirds of all Connecticut public school students who do not live in poverty. The governor’s proposal fundamentally undermines the teaching profession in every district. The changes he proposes are not just isolated to schools with high poverty. One of the reasons Connecticut has a wider achievement gap than other states is that its students who do not live in poverty perform so well.
In the “Malloy states,” NAEP scores in math and reading among students who do not live in poverty are much lower than the performance of Connecticut students who do not live in poverty. I think we can agree that the best way to reduce the achievement gap is not by lowering the academic success of those students not living in poverty.
Using CCER’s logic of trying to match outcomes to policy proposals, we can see that stripping away teacher protection and privatizing public schools like the “Malloy states” have done will result in lower student performance among students in poverty and students not in poverty. This makes it perfectly clear why we should not emulate the anti-public school policies of Louisiana, Delaware, and Rhode Island, and why we should maintain the type of strong public school and teacher support that has always been a hallmark of the best performing states in the country.
CCER states that it thinks “folks would be hard-pressed to argue that low-income students right over the border in Massachusetts or New Jersey face very different circumstances at home than the low-income students in Connecticut.” In fact, when one examines poverty and student funding data we find significant differences between Connecticut and Massachusetts and New Jersey.
It is not just that there are poor students in Connecticut as there are in all states, it is that our poor students are especially heavily concentrated in poor urban school districts. Research indicates that schools with concentrated poverty do not provide the same learning environment and opportunity for academic success as those which are more socioeconomically diverse. Connecticut has some of the wealthiest school districts in the country and it has some of the poorest. The two biggest schools districts in the state have 98% and 92% of their students living in poverty (Bridgeport and Hartford, respectively). No school district in Massachusetts nor New Jersey has poverty levels that high.
That unique concentration of poverty in our state and the very large income gaps between the wealthiest communities and our poorest ones is a point that should not be lost in trying to make comparisons.
Furthermore, in spite of Connecticut’s higher concentration of poverty, Massachusetts and New Jersey both address the issue of poverty more directly by spending more of their resources in high-poverty districts than Connecticut does. In its major cities with the highest levels of poverty and highest student enrollments, New Jersey spends 32% more per pupil than it does in schools across the state.
In Massachusetts, per-pupil spending in the three largest cities is 26% higher than spending state-wide. In Connecticut, by comparison, per pupil spending in the four largest districts with the highest levels of poverty is only 9% higher than it is state-wide. In addition, New Jersey offers fully funded universal Pre-K for students in high poverty districts.
If you want to know why students in poverty are performing better in Massachusetts and New Jersey, it is because those states are investing in education to address the very real problem of poverty—not blaming their problems on the kinds of protections that help make their teaching profession great.
We agree that there are many ways in which we are like and we should be more like Massachusetts and New Jersey. But the logic that the solution for getting to those levels of performance is to be more like states that have adopted proposals like Governor Malloy’s, states such as Louisiana, Delaware, and Rhode Island, we find absurd.
Legislative lessons taught at CEA conference
CEA Government Relations Director Vinnie Loffredo explains to new teachers the importance of getting involved with the legislative process.
“Governor Malloy was supportive of education in Stamford, and teachers supported him in the election. Now we are asking, ‘what happened?’” said Stamford teacher Donna Slifkin. The technology teacher at Hart Magnet School was among three dozen teachers who attended the afternoon session “Year of Education Reform: You and the teaching profession” at the CEA New Teacher Conference Saturday.
CEA Government Relations Director Vinnie Loffredo explained the importance of teachers contacting their legislators and letting their voices be part of the process.
Some new teachers said that with so much going on in the classroom, on top of learning new procedures, grading homework, and lesson planning, it can be challenging to get involved.
“Legislators need to hear from you. They need to hear your stories, your struggles and how proposals being considered will impact your students, your classroom, and your profession,” said Loffredo.
However, some of the teachers said they have taken action, including writing letters.
“I wrote a letter to Governor Malloy after he said teachers just have to ‘show up’ to get tenure,” said Somers High School biology teacher Lora Cavallo. “I was disappointed that I never received a response.”
Other teachers talked about attending back home meetings with legislators. “We met with Senate President Pro Tem Don Williams,” said a Windham teacher, “and he was very cordial and understood our issues.”
Other teachers said they testified before the Education Committee in February and wrote letters to the co-chairs, Sen. Andrea Stillman and Rep. Andrew Fleischmann.
Loffredo explained that the most effective way to communicate with legislators is to have face-to-face meetings. He urged teachers to set up meetings with their legislators. “Your legislators are elected officials. They are responsive to their constituents and want to hear from you,” he said.
Second, he suggested writing letters. “Put what you are feeling down in writing. Legislators want to hear how the bills they are considering will directly affect you.” He said that calling legislators is also effective.
Many teachers have been sending emails, but Loffreddo said, “Think about all the emails you get, and ignore. Legislators get a lot of emails. We don’t want to tell you not to send emails because, of course, any correspondence is helpful, we just want you to know it might not be as effective as you might think. We urge you to also hold meetings, write letters, and call your legislators.”
Call, write, or email your state senator and state representative using the link and phone numbers below.
www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/CGAFindLeg.asp
Senate Democrats 1-800-842-1420 Senate Republicans 1-800-842-1421
House Democrats 1-800-842-1902 House Republicans 1-800-842-1423
The governor, business-backed groups, privately funded organizations, charter school management companies, and others are lobbying legislators to act on their behalf. “We need to be persistent and unwavering in our commitment to ensure education reform gets done right,” said Loffredo.
As the legislature debates education reform for Connecticut and many parties weigh in, CEA continues to speak out and share teachers’ views about what works to improve education for our students. To that end, CEA Executive Director Mary Loftus Levine appeared on two television news programs this Sunday.
Watch Loftus Levine on Fox 61′s The Real Story with AFT Connecticut President Sharon Palmer.
Loftus Levine was a guest on WFSB Channel 3′s Face the State along with CCER Executive Director Rae Ann Knopf.
2012 Connecticut Teacher of the Year David Bosso of Berlin told Governor Malloy during a town hall meeting last night, that his proposal affects teacher morale and is demoralizing.
Bosso said, “A focus on teachers and evaluation is hurting teacher morale, and, when teacher morale declines, teaching and learning suffer, and this needs to be avoided at all costs.”
Bosso continued saying, “I am proud to say I am an expert and feel good as a teacher when I am supported, respected, and valued. I am more than the test scores of my students.”
Governor Malloy said he’s not to blame for poor morale. “Don’t blame me for bad morale because I am not the person who told you I was going to take certification away, and I am not the person to take due process away.”
“What makes morale tough is when people are told that I want to take away certification and there’s nothing in the bill that does that, or when people are lead to believe that their union didn’t vote for an evaluation framework, and that I’m a bad guy for trying to invent an evaluation framework,” said Malloy.
“I don’t think there’s a one size fits all approach to morale,” he continued. “The biggest morale problem in schools is when everybody is not pulling their weight.”
But, in fact, the Governor’s proposal in his Education Bill #24 calls for a system that ties subjective local evaluations by principals to both teachers’ certification and renewable tenure. The new Substitute SB 24 does not contain that provision.
Southington High School Math teacher Marcia Stavola told the governor she and her colleagues are concerned about the fairness of his proposals. Stavola attended the governor’s Berlin town hall meeting last night, with four fellow high school teachers. Pictured from left to right are Beth Corbin, Susan Albert, Marcia Stavola, Pat Havanec, and Denise Lafrenier.
Southington veteran teacher Marcia Stavola attended the meeting with five of her colleagues from Southington High School and expressed her concern over the governor’s proposals. As a teacher with 38 years of experience, she says she doesn’t feel respected.
“You can’t say that because my students—because of the classes that I have, do better because of me and don’t do as well because of a colleague who is equally as qualified.” She said there are many variables and that a colleague could have students in his or her classes who have more personal issues, (including chronic absences, drug abuse, and dysfunctional families), than she has in her classroom. But despite that fact, she said, “both teachers are evaluated the same way, and that isn’t fair.”
The governor agreed there are variables, and lots of them. However, he said, “The framework which your union agreed to has ample space to address those.”
The governor said people have decided to concentrate on what they don’t like and ignore what they actually agree with. “This is good for everyone because it’s happening in other states.”
In a give and take, the governor said to Stavola, “You’ve known a teacher or two in your life who stepped backwards, who failed to perform at the level they once did.”
She responded that in 38 years she could only come up with three teachers who fit that description, and said that they were let go under the present evaluation system.
“Then you have better teachers than I did,” said the governor.
Governor not backing down on his education reform plan
Everything is written in pencil right now—that’s the way one legislator characterized Substitute Senate Bill 24, now being considered by the state legislature as an alternative to the Governor’s Education Bill #24.
“We understand this bill is a work in progress—just one step, with many more to go on the long road ahead before the end of the legislative session on May 9,” said CEA President Phil Apruzzese. “The new language makes us cautiously optimistic that lawmakers will get reform done right to ensure high-quality education for all students.”
Governor says he will not sign Substitute SB 24
At a news conference on March 27, Governor Malloy told reporters that he will pursue plans he outlined in his original bill, including linking a new teacher evaluation system with tenure and establishing a commissioner’s network for low-performing schools. The governor said, “There will be a major piece of legislation this year, and it’s going to be substantially more like what we proposed than what they [the Education Committee] voted on.”
Malloy says he plans to speak with legislative leadership and wants “more progress rapidly.” He added, “We need an evaluation system that is tied to something, not five years from now. We should have had it yesterday.”
Significant reforms
Substitute SB 24 represents significant reforms and improvements in education, but more work needs to be done. Positive elements in the bill include:
- Creating 1,000 new pre-K slots.
- Providing new funding for schools most in need.
- Restoring collective bargaining to enhance teaching and learning conditions.
- Decoupling evaluation, certification and salary schedules.
- Improving the teacher evaluation system by ensuring that evaluation plans will include collaboration, professional development supports to continually improve teaching, and the validation of a new rating system.
- Enhancing teacher standards by recognizing and requiring master’s degrees for the professional certificate and a newly “distinguished educator” designation.
More can be done
“Teachers are grateful for all the hard work that went into the alternative legislation and the fact that members of the Education Committee listened to the concerns of Connecticut teachers, but more can be done,” said CEA Executive Director Mary Loftus Levine.
This “Year of Education” reform may be the most important event in a generation, and Substitute SB 24 can still be improved upon by:
- Encouraging more parental and community involvement in schools.
- Elevating the teaching profession by instituting in teacher dismissal proceedings a “just cause” hearing—one afforded other employees in the public sector.
- Eliminating any reference to “money follows the child” funding, since cash-starved schools cannot afford to lose resources.
WTNH Asks Viewers to Ask the Governor Questions on Ed Reform
WTNH is hosting an opportunity for Connecticut residents to Ask the Governor questions about education reform on April 3. Read the press release below to find out how to ask your questions.
WTNH News 8 Viewers Ask the Governor about Education Reform
News 8 Hosts Fifth Exclusive Live Q&A with Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (March 27, 2012) — Politicians and interest groups have had their turns to speak, now News 8 viewers will be able to Ask the Governor questions about education reform. A special, education themed Ask the Governor, will air on Tuesday April 3rd, at 5:30pm on News 8. This will be Governor Malloy’s fifth appearance on News 8’s Ask the Governor. Before his last several appearances, thousands of questions were submitted by News 8 viewers via www.wtnh.com.
“If you have children, are involved in the education system, or are just a concerned citizen, you probably have a question regarding education,” said Mark Higgins, Vice-President and General Manager of WTNH/WCTX. “At News 8, we put the ‘voice of the people’ into all of our newscasts. Education reform has a real impact on our viewers. We are proud to give them the opportunity to ask Governor Malloy their pressing questions on the state of our schools.”
The fifth installment of Ask the Governor will be hosted by News 8’s chief political correspondent, Mark Davis. Once again, all of the questions for the broadcast will be provided by viewers. Viewers can submit questions via www.wtnh.com, News 8’s “Voice of the People” hotline (203-212-WTNH), facebook and twitter. Ask the Governor will also be available to watch live, online at www.wtnh.com.
Writers Continue to Draw Attention to Issues in SB 24
Several news outlets have published pieces in recent days by writers drawing attention to important areas of concern in the Governor’s Education Bill #24.
In the Stamford Advocate, “Bill takes public out of public education,” Wendy Lecker writes about how the governor’s bill takes control away from parents, communities and local school boards in low-performing school districts and puts tremendous power in the hands of one State Commissioner of Education.
Which schools are “fundamentally broken”? State Sen. Donald Williams recently noted that our lowest performing schools are also our poorest; the ones most in need of additional resources.
These schools also serve predominately our communities of color; communities that are traditionally disenfranchised.
…
It takes a village? It seems only certain villages in Connecticut are allowed to participate in raising their children. For the rest, I guess it takes a commissioner.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to have the best teachers in the classroom, and to get rid of educators who are dead wood and who can’t or don’t want to improve. We all want that. But realistically, what good teacher will want to remain in a school or a district where all of his or her long-bargained-for rights are taken away?
…If Connecticut wants to encourage more good teachers to accept positions in struggling school systems, then the worst way to go about is to give them inferior rights and protections than enjoyed by their peers in cushier districts.
Not only do we have an achievement gap between students in Connecticut, but if this legislation is passed as now worded, it creates two classes of teachers — one with strong union protection and another with no safety net.
On CTNewsJunkie Sarah Darer Littman, “Coalition of the Factual,” mentions the support a coalition of six groups is giving to the governor’s bill and says she writes her Op-Ed on behalf of a Coalition of the Factual.
While the Governor and the Gang of Six have staked their souls on tenure reform and linking teacher certification and pay to test scores, despite substantial research showing that this is not in the best interest of either teachers or students, my hope is that our legislators actually review the facts. The Governor and his allies are trying to frame this as a “union issue” but it isn’t. It’s about education. And those of us who are passionate about education, who read the research and care about the facts, know that many provisions of this bill are deeply flawed and will damage our kids for years to come.
Contact your lawmakers and let them know how you feel about the Governor’s Education Bill #24. If your legislators are not members of the Education Committee, urge them to discuss your concerns with Education Committee members.
Contact your state senator and state representative.
Senate Democrats 1-800-842-1420 Senate Republicans 1-800-842-1421
House Democrats 1-800-842-1902 House Republicans 1-800-842-1423
Only Two Days Before Education Committee Votes
Region 13 teachers traveled to Hartford today to meet with their legislators. From left to right are Melissa Frey, Megan Kavanaugh, Doug Frasier, Candace Brickley, Donna Mattei, and Rebecca Suchy.
There are only two days left before the Education Committee is scheduled to act on the Governor’s Education Bill #24. Teachers traveled to Hartford today to meet with their legislators and many more are calling and emailing lawmakers.
Please join them and take a moment this weekend to contact your state legislators. Urge them to eliminate proposals in the bill that would weaken high-quality education for our students.
Ask them to fix elements of the Governor’s Bill that would
- weaken collective bargaining;
- tie a teacher’s license to a supervisor’s evaluation;
- shift new funding away from local public schools unfairly; and
- impose experimental programs that have not been proven to work.
If your legislators are not members of the Education Committee, urge them to discuss your concerns with Education Committee members.
Contact your state senator and state representative.
Senate Democrats 1-800-842-1420 Senate Republicans 1-800-842-1421
House Democrats 1-800-842-1902 House Republicans 1-800-842-1423
Business-backed groups, charters, and other privately funded organizations are lobbying legislators aggressively to act on their behalf, and pass the Governor’s Education Bill #24.
Yesterday, some members of these groups appeared on WNPR’s radio program Where We Live—insisting that legislators proceed with the governor’s proposal to tie teacher evaluation to certification, and salary schedules.
During the hour-long program, host John Dankosky asked about tenure and if they would support the bill without it.
Patrick Riccards, CEO of ConnCAN, said, “I think it would be disappointing if we are not addressing tenure quite honestly. People don’t appreciate how difficult it is for Gov. Malloy to have brought this package forward…this addresses all of the issues that we need in terms of organization and structure in our schools.”
When asked by Dankosky if pulling the bill apart would make sense, Ramani Ayer, former CEO of the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., and a member of the Connecticut Council on Education Reform, “It would be a major setback if we lose tenure—because that introduces rigidity in a system where you cannot remove ineffective teachers expeditiously.”
(Click here to listen to the entire WNPR Where We Live radio interview.)
Riccards, Ayer and others pushing the Governor’s Education Bill #24 do not work as teachers, and don’t know what goes on in today’s classrooms—but you do. We urge you to pick up the phone and tell your legislators how to reform education the right way.
Time is running out with the Education Committee scheduled to finalize an education reform bill this Monday.
Please step up your efforts to contact your legislators today.
Senate Democrats 1-800-842-1420 Senate Republicans 1-800-842-1421
House Democrats 1-800-842-1902 House Republicans 1-800-842-1423
Teachers need to be persistent and unwavering in our commitment to ensure education reform gets done right.
Malloy Calls His Reform Scary at Latest Town Hall Meeting
Waterbury teacher Jahana Hayes told the governor last night she worries that his proposals will be an incentive for good teachers to flee city schools.
Governor Dannel P. Malloy told a crowd of more than 400 people at his education town hall-style meeting yesterday at Walsh Elementary School in Waterbury that the reform plan he is pushing is “scary” to some people. But he says things have to change in public education.
Waterbury teacher Teresa Morias stepped up to the microphone to ask the governor how he could propose enabling a principal to have absolute control over a teacher’s evaluation and state certification. “How can you want to pass a bill that will enable an evaluator to bully his or her staff?” Morias asked the governor. He replied, “I don’t know what people are telling you. There’s no way one person will be able to control all the factors” outlined in the framework adopted this winter by the State Board of Education.
Malloy’s Education Bill #24 also eliminates the master’s degree requirement for teachers. According to Malloy, he is trying to “recognize exemplary teachers” and not “the hours in a seat” they spend in graduate school.
At Walsh Elementary School janitors had been at work since Friday night scrubbing floors and walls, replacing ceiling tiles, and cleaning the grounds. While they appreciated their nice clean school, some people lamented, “Would it not have been better if the governor had been able to see the conditions students and teachers confront daily?”
Waterbury parent Heather Greene is worried about the impact the governor’s bill will have on her children. Greene told CEA, “With teachers under attack, I’m worried about how that will affect students academically and emotionally. This is not a good situation.”
Torrington teacher Carrie Phillips attended the meeting with her mother, Janet Phillips, a Waterbury vice principal. Both are concerned about whether teacher evaluation, as outlined in the governor’s bill, can be carried out in a fair and valid manner.
Greene is PTA president at West Side Middle School. She shared with the governor that she’s troubled that parents and teachers did not have adequate input in his education bill. He disagreed, saying that he has been meeting with teachers and parents and that Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor went on a listening tour of Connecticut schools last fall.
The governor’s meeting was a family affair for some. Torrington teacher Carrie Phillips attended with her mother, Janet Phillips, a Waterbury vice principal. Both are concerned about whether teacher evaluation, as outlined in the governor’s bill, can be carried out in a fair and valid manner. When he adds state certification and salary schedules to the mix, they become “alarmed.”
Waterbury teacher Jahana Hayes said she loves working as an educator, but she worries whether the new systems that the governor proposes will be an incentive for good teachers to flee city schools.
