What school reform model has no student lotteries and doesn’t require youngsters to leave their neighborhood schools?  U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal may not have known the answer prior to a visit to Waterbury last week.  Now he knows the answer (CommPACT Schools) and much more!
Sen. Richard Blumenthal visited Washington Elementary School in Waterbury. “I was very excited and impressed with the CommPACT model, and the enthusiasm and engagement of the teachers and parents working together and collaborating,” he said after a roundtable discussion at the school.
The Connecticut Education Association invited …

Good morning and thank you Dr. Thomas DeFranco for that introduction, and a special thank you to my good friend Dr. Doug Casa, who is a professor here and the chief operating officer of the Korey Stringer Institute, to the faculty, family and friends and of course to the Class of 2011.

I am humbled to be here at the Korey Stringer Institute, which bears my husband’s name, and I know he would be embarrassed by all the attention, but he might give me a fist pump for the reason …

The Neag School of Education is the first institution in the nation to be featured on the website of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in a new web series entitled “Stories from the Field.”
The NCATE believes that the clinically based teacher preparation model at the Neag School exemplifies many of the principles recommended by the national expert National Blue Ribbon Commission on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning.  The example set by the Neag School will move the field forward by sharing effective practices in improving …

Widline Guerrier, 17, a Bassick High School senior in Bridgeport, wants more challenge. She is tired of friends picking on where she attends high school and insinuating her courses are less rigorous than theirs.
Judy Whittingham, a parent with three children at Bassick, wants books that go home with students, even if they have to be rented. She wants kids to respect their teachers a little bit more.
Jerond Rogers, another parent who has a pair of juniors at the high school, wants to see his kids excited to learn.
Ever so slowly, …

The Department of Kinesiology in the Neag School of Education has received one of the highest honors in its field. For the second consecutive time, the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK) has ranked the doctoral program in Kinesiology No. 1 in the U.S. The No. 1 ranking stands for five years.
“We are extremely proud of this continued success by our kinesiology department,” says Thomas C. DeFranco, Dean of the Neag School of Education. “The competition was fierce and we are in good company in the rankings.” Doctoral programs in kinesiology …