When the scores came in earlier this summer from the 2008 Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMT) taken by the district's third through eighth graders and from the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) taken by 10th graders, administration officials and school principals had mixed reactions to the results.
At the high school level, math scores showed improvement and writing scores reached five-year highs, but reading scores reached five-year lows.
Science scores also declined significantly as they have reportedly the last 10 years....
CAPASSO BLAMES THE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS FOR HIS LACK OF LEADERSHIP AND HIS ADMINISTRATIVE FAILURES...
....Factors affecting the decline of science scores - a drop from 61.8 to 53.2 (state average of 44.5), included the turnover of teachers.
"Seventy-five percent of the faculty was hired over the last three years," he said. "Science teachers have to become familiar with the curriculum, and some are new to teaching." Teachers were "better in their fifth year than in their first or second."....
...An added challenge with science is finding teachers. "They do better salary-wise in business, with pharmaceutical companies and medical providers," he said....
...."It's a new way of looking at test scores for growth rather than performance," he said. The results were just in and he said, "The amount of growth kids are making in Greenwich public schools is at the level of or exceeding the top performing schools in the state. We're moving them ahead as far as we can."...
...Regarding the five-year-low reading scores, Curtin found it as perplexing as Capasso. "We're having trouble understanding that; is it boys rather than girls?" he asked. "We're working on that."
Regarding the "10-year consistently low science results, we need to take a more systematic look at this."....
John Curtin, assistant superintendent of research and evaluation for the district indicates that he is a failed administrator who is in over his head....
....He called himself "as committed as the next person," but in Greenwich "the Board (of Education) has set the bar very high. "The challenge," he said, "is how do we close the gap with that bar and where we are?"....
Maybe we should just fire Capasso and Curtin and get educational leaders who can handle the job.
Please Read The Full Greenwich Citizen Story » MORE GREENWICH CITIZEN NEWS LINKS: Still Awaiting Reply From Himes Campaign To the Editor: Almost two weeks ago, I attended the last leg of Jim Himes' tour of 17 cities in 17 days at the downtown location of the Ferguson Library here in Stamford. Curious to learn more about Congressman Shays' challenger, I was pleased to see him appearing eager to take questions from those present. However, when I finally got a chance to ask whether he might qualify his statement made just that weekend about Shays "voting with his party only when it matters," I must confess that I was met with behavior unbecoming of a politician; given Shays' record as a "maverick" and his well-publicized positions on abortion, stem cell research, SCHIP and any number of other issues, my surprise at this initial remark was not unwarranted. Yet a visibly agitated Himes gave me his word that 90 percent of Shays' votes are with his party, and that, with the assistance of a Rhodes Scholar, the Himes camp crunched numbers proving that Shays is really entirely partisan, straying only on "skewed" votes when it "doesn't matter" if he sticks to the GOP trend. With over 20 years of experience under his belt, Christopher Shays has built a reputation for himself as a maverick Republican, the only member of the party still in Congress from the Northeast. He is a beacon of pride not just for his party, but for his fellow countrymen, on the whole, and I would like to believe that he has earned my respect by voting with his moral conscience rather than by playing a numbers game. What disappoints me most is that, after Himes publicly insisted that I stay behind to speak with him more about Congressman Shays' supposedly crooked voting record, I was left to speak with his staffers. Though he claimed that he, personally, could show me this data, all bravado was cast aside when nobody on his staff was able to produce any of those numbers. Still, I left my contact info, looking to satisfy my curiosity. I have waited all of this time in hope that they would reveal their calculations, or at least put me in touch with the scholar whose approval they garnered. Despite repeated attempts to get this information, Jim Himes' campaign has failed to reply to me in any fashion. It is in consequence that I write you, reaffirming what I know best: that unlike his challenger, when Chris Shays says something is going to be done, he does it, and I can trust that it will be done with a good head and a great heart. There is no strategy that has kept him around all these years beyond a trust in fundamental human decency. I look forward to preserving the respectability of our district by supporting our congressman this coming November. Joshua Morgan Sirchio
Meet the RTM's 'Mother Superior' - Joan Caldwell
Delegates to the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) assume proper posture and stop unwrapping hard candy and popping same into their mouths when Joan Caldwell, chairman of District 10, stands at the podium and lets out a piece of her mind.
Out Of Town Letters to the Editor From The Republican Machine
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