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At ConnCAN, we are committed to closing Connecticut’s opportunity gap, one of the largest and most persistent in the country.
We believe that every student deserves the right to a high-quality education. We advocate for improved policies and education outcomes by conducting actionable research, empowering and mobilizing communities, and pressing elected leaders to enact legislative improvements.
Our policy goals address the need to combat the negative impact of COVID-19, specifically on communities of color, and build a more equitable education system as a result. In 2021, we will focus on several goals to achieve our mission of closing racial and social opportunity gaps in education including:
Goal #1 – Enact a student-centered education funding system for all public schools
- Fund all public schools through need-based ECS formula
- Accelerate Connecticut’s currently planned ECS formula phase-in to support high-need communities
- Increase English language learner weight (from 15% to 25%) and lower concentrated poverty threshold (from 75% to 60%)
Goal #2 – Increase educator diversity
- Support State Department of Education’s innovative Resident Teacher Program that expands access for high-quality new teachers to gain in-school training and experience; and
- Ensure all parties involved in hiring teachers (i.e. District Office, Board of Education members, Superintendents, etc.) participate in anti-bias training
Goal #3 – Create a stronger, more flexible post COVID19 education system
- Codify a student’s right to technology and broadband access;
- Mitigate learning loss by measuring student performance, providing science-based targeted support in literacy and math, and providing flexibilities for districts to meet student need; and
- Clarify student engagement and attendance expectations for remote learning