Feds Issue New Swine Flu Advice to Schools
Swine flu is expected to return when kids go back to school, and the government is hoping its new advice on when to shut down schools during an outbreak will prevent the panic and confusion that led to hundreds of school closures last spring.

Connecticut: Feeding the Children
Connecticut students were served nearly 1.4 million free breakfasts, lunches and suppers last summer, a record 11 percent increase from 2007.

Safety Net Fraying for the Very Poor
Government "safety net" programs like Social Security and food stamps have pulled growing numbers of Americans out of poverty since the mid-1990s. But even before the current recession, these programs were providing less help to the most desperately poor, mainly nonworking families with children, according to a new study by the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, a private group in Washington.

New CEA Blog Provides Latest News and Information for Members
Visit BlogCEA.org and subscribe for regular updates.

Greenwich Educator Named U.S. Teacher of the Year
Tony Mullen, a former New York City police officer-turned-teacher, is named the country's top teacher and is honored by President Obama at a White House ceremony.

NEA American Indian/Alaska Native Caucus to Meet in Connecticut
The NEA American Indian/Alaskan Native Caucus, which promotes the education of Indian children and facilitates NEA's efforts at diversity within student populations, will hold its seventh annual conference in Connecticut in June.

Connecticut School Officials See Possible Flaws in Federal Stimulus Aid
The strings attached to nearly a quarter-billion dollars of federal stimulus aid could drive Connecticut schools to launch new summertime and after-school initiatives at the same time they're slashing classroom programs and laying off teachers, educators warned.

Connecticut Teacher Certification Plan Would Increase Training Requirements
Before new teachers get to run a classroom in Connecticut, they should have to undergo extensive training that includes lessons on working with children who speak little English, have learning disabilities or exhibit behavioral problems, according to state Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan.

Parents Speak Out
Fearing deep cuts in state programs, several hundred parents, students, school board members, and school district leaders from urban districts urged state legislators to increase education funding in Governor M. Jodi Rell's proposed two-year budget.

Educators Urge Senate to Act Quickly to Inject Funds into Ailing Economy
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and education leaders from across the country joined Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Americans affected by the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression in urging the Senate to act quickly to inject much needed funds into the ailing economy, especially the nation's public schools and colleges.

Connecticut's High School Class of 2008 Is Among Nation's Leaders in AP Course Work and Exams
The College Board's fifth annual "AP Report to the Nation," reports that 21 percent of Connecticut's public school students in the class of 2008 achieved an AP Exam score of 3 or better. 

Two Coventry Middle School Teachers Honored
Two long-time teachers in Coventry--a music teacher and a history teacher at Nathan Hale Middle School--were recently honored for their teaching excellence.

Bill to Repeal Social Security Offsets Reintroduced
Four of Connecticut's five congressional representatives are among more than 100 legislators who are co-sponsors of a new bill to repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision.

New London's CommPACT School Showcases Its New Approach to Learning
An innovative New London public school that opened last fall recently held a special event to showcase how it’s meeting the learning needs of elementary students in the urban shoreline community.

Education Chief: Schools Crucial to Recovery
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the economy won't improve without the billions of dollars for schools in President Barack Obama's recovery plan. "If we want to stimulate the economy, we need a better-educated workforce," Duncan said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Top Picks for Young Readers
Washington Post staff writer Michael Alison Chandler asked local school librarians which books would make kids slow down long enough to read for fun.

Greenwich Special Education Teacher is Finalist for National Teacher of the Year
Anthony Mullen, Connecticut's 2009 Teacher of the Year, is among four finalists for National Teacher of the Year announced in mid-January. The Greenwich Education Association member embarked on his teaching career after working his way through college while rising in the ranks of the New York City Police Department.

AIG Changes Auto Unit's Name
American International Group Inc. plans to remove "AIG" from the name of a U.S. auto insurance unit. AIG will start calling its aigdirect.com business "21st Century Insurance" in January.

2008 SAT Scores Released
Connecticut’s 2008 public school graduates demonstrated a strong performance on the SAT writing test – 18 points above the national average — an increase of three percentage points, while their scores in reading and math improved slightly. The state’s 76 percent participation rate among public school students was third highest in the nation.
Connecticut's SAT Scores
Press Release from the Department of Education

PDK/Gallup Poll: Obama More Supportive of Public Schools
For the first time in eight years, Americans view one presidential candidate as more supportive of public schools than the other, according to the 40th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward Their Public Schools.

Vouchers Unfair, Cheat Public Education
In an op-ed published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in late July, a University of Georgia student uses the a hypothetical case of two students from the same high school – one, from an upper middle class family and one from a low-income family -- to show why he believes the idea of federally subsidized school voucher programs is a bad idea. In his op-ed, he uses the hypothetical case to reveal voucher programs for what he says they really are -- tuition subsidies for wealthy families – and why school vouchers will almost certainly fail to achieve their goal of increasing educational opportunities for all Americans.

Grade 10 Students Make Gains on 2008 Connecticut Academic Performance Test
Connecticut's Grade 10 public school students showed improved performance from last year in reading, writing, mathematics and science, according to a news release from the Connecticut Department of Education.

No Child Left Behind: Doomed to Fail?
There was always something slightly insane about NCLB, the ambitious education law often described as the Bush administration's signature domestic achievement. For one thing, in the view of many educators, the law's 2014 goal--which calls for all public school students in grades 4 through 8 to be achieving on grade level in reading and math--is something no educational system anywhere on earth has ever accomplished.

Educators Learn about CommPACT Schools Project
The CommPACT Schools Project, a new and promising initiative for urban schools that CEA helped to create, was a featured session at a recent UConn conference that provided Connecticut educators with sessions on research and best practices for closing the student achievement gap in schools.

Canton MS Named Middle School of the Year
Canton Middle School boasts a dynamic faculty, involved parents, and students who consistently score well on state standardized tests. But those aren't the only reasons the school was named Connecticut's Middle School of the Year.

Governor Rell Signs into Law an Act that Charts a Better Course for Beginning Teachers
On June 2, a historic day for the state of Connecticut, Governor Rell signed into law Public Act Number 08-107 “An Act Concerning the BEST Program,” afterthelegislationunanimously passed both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly.

Programs Benefit Teachers in Shortage Areas
In a recently released letter to superintendents and principals, Commissioner of Education Mark K. McQuillan announced that teachers in a defined shortage area can benefit from a mortgage assistance program, and that retired teachers may be re-employed without being subject to an earnings limit.

Many States Have Taken "Backloaded" Approach to No Child Left Behind Goals
A report from the Center on Education Policy finds that while half of all states have adopted incremental achievement goals that assume steady progress towardNCLB's 100 percent proficiency goal, the other half of states have taken a "backloaded" approach that will soon mean dramatically higher--and potentially unreachable--achievement goals.

NAEP Gap Continuing for Charters
Nearly four years after a front-page story in The New York Times sparked a fierce debate by suggesting that charter school students nationally were lagging academically behind their peers in regular public schools, the national testing program that informed the controversy has generated far more data for researchers and advocates to scrutinize.

United Way to Target Health, Education, and Income
The United Way of America, alarmed at the nation's fraying safety net, announces that it will direct its giving toward ambitious 10-year goals that would cut in half the high school dropout rate and the number of working families struggling financially.

Principals' Group Seeks Influence on Incentive Pay
School districts that want to start pay-for-performance programs for school leaders should look beyond high-stakes student tests as the primary measure for awarding bonuses, says a position paper released by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Study: "Reading First" Program Fails to Boost Reading Skills
Children who participate in the $1-billion-a-year reading initiative at the heart of the No Child Left Behind law have not become better readers than their peers, according to a study released by the Education Department's research arm.

Income Gaps Harm Connecticut's Children
A new study released by Connecticut Voices for Children indicates that low-income children are at least twice as likely as higher-income children to have physical health problems, experience emotional and behavioral health difficulties, and be at risk of developmental delays.

Clarification on CEUs for Renewal of Professional Educator Certificates
Many teachers have had questions about earning CEUs for renewal of their Professional Educator Certificates.

Connecticut Income Gaps Grow More Than in Any Other State
A new report on income trends from Connecticut Voices for Children finds that over the last two decades, the gap in average, inflation-adjusted ("real") income between wealthy and poor Connecticut families and the gap in income between wealthy and middle-income families have grown more in Connecticut than in any other state in the country. Click above for press release. Access the report here.

New IRS 403(b) Regulations Information Toolkit
The 403(b) toolkit is a compilation of information to help Association leaders and staff understand the new IRS 403(b) regulations and the impact these regulations can have on NEA members as they save for retirement.

Working to Make the Future Better for Children

NEA president encourages renewed focus on keeping Dr. King's dream alive.

Connecticut 8th Graders No. 1 in Writing Performance
Connecticut eighth graders topped the nation in writing performance on the test known as the Nation's Report Card. The test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is the only standardized test administered nationwide and is often used as a gauge of how states are performing.

Comptroller Wyman, Municipaland Labor Leaders Announce Launch of Cost-Saving Health Insurance Program
State Comptroller Nancy Wyman and a host of municipal and labor leaders announced on April 2the launch of a program that will help cities and towns lower their health insurance costs and provide property tax relief.

U.S. to Require States to Use a Single School Dropout Formula
Moving to sweep away the tangle of inaccurate state data that has obscured the severity of the nation's high school dropout crisis, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will require all states to use one federal formula to calculate graduation and dropout rates.

Introducing NEA Click& Save
NEA Click & Save is an exclusive online shopping service for NEA members that offers savings on brand name merchandise from hundreds of top retailers, online stores, and local merchants. From gourmet food and flowers, travel and vacation deals, entertainment tickets, home decor and electronics, to sports and wellness products, wedding gifts, and even clothing for the entire family, NEA Click & Save offers you dozens of options—and more.

Connecticut's Property Taxes: Asking the Right Questions
A study commissioned by Council 4, Connecticut's largest AFL-CIO union, finds that Governor Rell's property tax cap proposal will actually worsen the state's current tax and economic inequality and recommends innovative and fair solutions for property tax reform.