Groups Laud Conn. Education
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Oct. 08, 2002–It’s been a good couple of weeks for Connecticut’s education system.
First, a private research group named Connecticut the smartest state in the country. Then a separate study of higher education gave the state’s system high marks in four of five categories – marks rivaled only by Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois.
Not bad, even for the state with the first constitution and first newspaper. But not unexpected.
“The results of the reports are quite predictable,” said Kathleen Lyons, a spokeswoman for the National Education Association. “Connecticut has been one of the best, if not the best, state for public education for nearly a decade.”
The state has some of the strictest requirements for teachers, as well as the highest standards, Lyons said. The association’s statistics rank Connecticut second nationally in average salary for public school teachers at $52,693 for 2000-01, and third in per student expenditures at $10,258.
That means the teachers are better, and they’re willing to come to Connecticut because of the better money, Lyons said.
“They have no teacher shortage, and there’s a reason for that,” she said. “Connecticut has set the bar high.”
Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press, which compiled the smartest state report, said Connecticut came out ahead because it also fares well in the categories other than test scores.
“It isn’t just about high school student test scores,” Morgan said. “The award measures a broad array of educational factors,” ranging from percentage of household income spent on public schooling to average class size to student test performances.
“Connecticut has a very solid record when it comes to education,” he added.
The Northeast was well represented on the list, with Vermont ranked second, New Jersey fourth, Maine fifth, Massachusetts seventh and Rhode Island tenth.
Connecticut’s K-12 system also earned high marks with the higher education study, which gave the state an A for college preparation.
The “report card,” compiled by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, gave these additional four grades:
*A- for the number of high school students who immediately attend college
*A- for the percentage of residents with a bachelor’s degree
*B+ for the number of college students who finish school with a degree
*C- for affordability
Each state’s report card also included supplemental, state-specific information. Connecticut’s report focused on performance gaps between whites and minorities and rich and poor, and it highlighted the following statistic: 78 percent of white students take upper-level science courses, while 33 percent of black and Hispanic students took those courses.
Mikyung Ryu, a policy analyst who helped compile the report, said that performance gaps, both along ethnic and economic lines, are becoming the primary concern for the Center. She also pointed out the highest-earning 20 percent of the Connecticut families need only spend an average of 16 percent of their annual income to put a child through a four-year private college; the lowest-earning 20 percent, however, must spend 159 percent of the family income.
And that’s after all financial aid is taken into account.
“So it’s impossible for those low-income families to send children to school,” Ryu said. “That shows how big the gap is.”
The gap is a major concern for the state, said Tom Murphy, spokesman for the Department of Education. Theodore Sergi, commissioner of the department, has called the gap the issue of the next decade.
But the gap between minorities and whites is difficult to close in part because, while the performance of minority students is improving, white students in the state continue to improve as well, Murphy said.
“Without question the gap must be closed, but it’s difficult because there’s a moving target,” Murphy said. “Our minority students have to improve at a faster rate.”
In Connecticut, 30 percent of public K-12 school students are minorities, with 13 percent Hispanic and 13 percent black.
Forty-eight percent of New Britain public school students are Latino, and 65 percent of those students live in non-English speaking homes, according to Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, which operates several Latino mentoring programs.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
