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NSBA Delegate Assembly
Best Practices: Bloomfield and Stamford shine on DPI
Patrice A. McCarthy Deputy Director and General Counsel, CABE
CABE was represented at the recent NSBA Delegate Assembly (see photo on page 14) by CABE President Richard Murray, (Killingly); First Vice President Ann Gruenberg, (Hampton); Area 2 CoDirector Donald Harris, (Bloomfield); Vice President for Government Relations Robert Mitchell, (Montville); and Vice President for Professional Development Elaine Whitney, (Westport). Among the resolutions approved were the following: â&#x20AC;˘ Opposition to unlawful expansion of executive authority. According to the resolution, NSBA supports â&#x20AC;&#x153;an appropriate federal role in education.â&#x20AC;? However, it opposes the â&#x20AC;&#x153;federal intrusion and expansion of executive authority by the U.S. Department of Education and other federal See NSBA page 9
NEW Follow CABE on Twitter @CTAssocBdsofEd
May 2014
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Chris Seymour Reporter, CABE
First Robotics Competition held at Hartford Public High School on March 30
Interview with James Comer [Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: Dr. James Comer, MD, MPH, is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University Child Study Center. He has long focused on child development as a way of improving schools. His work in support of healthy development of young people is known internationally. He was recently appointed to the Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. He was the 2004 CABE Friend of Public Education.] Bob: Good morning, Dr. Comer and thank you for speaking with us. My first question is, why did you decide to join the Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African
Americans? Dr. Comer: Mostly because the focus is on excellence for black students as opposed to the usual focus on deficit. We know that there Dr. James Comer are programs addressing the needs of African-American students that have been successful. Why havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t we focused on the successful programs to help bring success to the many? I think President Obama understands that possibility and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why his Commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus is on excellence. Our School Development Program had success with African Americans students in the 1970â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and no government education agencies at any level ever asked â&#x20AC;&#x153;how did you do that?â&#x20AC;? Bob: Tell us about the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Comer method.â&#x20AC;? Dr. Comer: It is a change model that grew out of my personal experience; deepened by my training, research, and practice in schools. I received an excellent educational experience because my parents nurtured and pushed me; followed by the same from teachers. My program is an effort to approximate the experience that worked for me with kids like me; low income and minority. The effort to do so led to our model. Bob: How do we get more parents of students involved in the education system? See COMER page 8
When the state announced District Performance Index (DPI) numbers for school systems around the state in December, only two â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Bloomfield and Stamford â&#x20AC;&#x201C; managed to meet elementary and high school targets for their lowincome populations. According to officials in both districts, this achievement on the new state performance reports is due, in large part, to their ongoing analysis of individual student data by multiple data teams. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What we have done deliberately is to use our testing [data] and analyze it on a continuing basis,â&#x20AC;? explained Stamford Board of Education member and CABE City Representative Dr. Polly Rauh. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have a district data team and we have a data team in each building and then at the grade levels. And they use it for action â&#x20AC;&#x201C; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not information for infor-mation sake. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ok to know â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Johnny did this and he hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mastered that,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; but what are you going to do about it? So they are regrouping continually and focusing in on what that data tells them. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the key â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do testing to accumulate the scores and send them to the state.â&#x20AC;? A District Performance Index (DPI) for the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) is â&#x20AC;&#x153;the test performance of all subjects tested in the respective assessment for all students in the district,â&#x20AC;? according to the State Department of Education. The DPI ranges in value from 0 to 100 points and Connecticutâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ultimate target See BLOOMFIELD page 10
INSIDE THIS EDITION President Commentary ........................ 2 Executive Director Commentary ......... 3 What board members should know about finances ................................................ 4 The Nutmeg Board .............................. 5 The Policy Corner ............................... 6 CT at Risk Gifted/Talented Students ... 7 Understanding Basic Facebook ......... 12 Professional Development ................. 13
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