By CHRIS POWELL According to the recent results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test given to students in fourth and eighth grades throughout the country and styled “The Nation’s Report Card,” Connecticut’s students are performing worse in reading and math than in 2019, before the national virus epidemic, which disastrously interrupted schooling nearly everywhere.Continue reading “Connecticut tells students they needn’t go to school”
Tag Archives: social promotion
City mayors and educators seek more money for what keeps failing
By Chris Powell Governor Lamont welcomed the General Assembly back to work two weeks ago with a remarkable exhortation. “We have a longer legislative session this cycle,” the governor said, “giving us an opportunity to get in the weeds, lift up the hood — not always arguing about more money but better results.” To regrowContinue reading “City mayors and educators seek more money for what keeps failing”
To regrow Connecticut’s cities, first understand their decline
By Chris Powell Back in the 1950s many Connecticut cities had populations about 50% larger than they are today. In his address to the General Assembly as it reconvened this month, Governor Lamont said he wants them to grow back to their old size. He’s right that the cities are where most of any populationContinue reading “To regrow Connecticut’s cities, first understand their decline”
Connecticut’s social promotion makes public education a costly fraud
By Chris Powell Social promotion in Connecticut’s schools isn’t just informal policy and practice, implemented by winks and nods. This week Marc E. Fitch of the Yankee Institute’s Connecticut Inside Investigator reported that many school systems, including those in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury, and Middletown, follow written policies virtually prohibiting giving students failing grades. Hartford schools obstructContinue reading “Connecticut’s social promotion makes public education a costly fraud”
Terrible policies created Connecticut’s underclass
By Chris Powell After three fatal shootings of young men in New Haven in less than two weeks, Mayor Justin Elicker gave news interviews to assure people that downtown is safe for holiday shopping, dining, and other festive activities. The mayor noted that, as with murders and shootings in other cities, most in New HavenContinue reading “Terrible policies created Connecticut’s underclass”
Case of illiterate Hartford girl should become a national scandal
By Chris Powell Hartford’s school superintendent, Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, says she’ll investigate the case of the girl who, the Connecticut Mirror reported a few weeks ago, graduated this year from Hartford Public High School without being able to read or write or do more than rudimentary addition and who then somehow was admitted to the University ofContinue reading “Case of illiterate Hartford girl should become a national scandal”
Poverty devours Connecticut but who will ask its cause?
By Chris Powell Rising homelessness. Growing demand at food and diaper banks. Chronic absenteeism at schools. Brawls at high school football games. Schools closed by threats of violence. Street takeovers and car thefts by young hooligans. More drug abuse, mentally ill children, teen suicides, and abandoned pets. Such news reports indicating worsening poverty and social disintegration inContinue reading “Poverty devours Connecticut but who will ask its cause?”
‘Smart phones’ aren’t why Connecticut’s students are dumb
By Chris Powell Schools increasingly are prohibiting students from operating or even carrying “smart phones” — internet-equipped telephones — in class. Some schools are investing in special pouches in which students must lock their phones in school, being able to unlock them only with a special device made available when they are leaving. At $25Continue reading “‘Smart phones’ aren’t why Connecticut’s students are dumb”
Connecticut needs innovation to end poverty and violence
By Chris Powell Appalled by the shooting of five people in several incidents in Bridgeport over the Memorial Day weekend, Governor Lamont hurried to the city on Tuesday to meet Mayor Joe Ganim and other officials and show moral support. While Bridgeport’s police department is said to be understaffed and to suffer high turnover —Continue reading “Connecticut needs innovation to end poverty and violence”
Chris Powell column 