08/30/09 The Raw Greenwich News Feed: Nancy Weissler And The Rest Of The School Board Get Busted By The Greenwich Time

Himes to hold three health care forums Connecticut Post Jim Himes, D-Greenwich, will hold before Congress reconvenes next month. Wednesday's forum has been moved twice, at least in part because of the large crowd ...

Does Connecticut's Estate Tax Drive Away The Rich? Debate's Not Over Hartford Courant She never moved to a lower-tax state and instead spent some of her final days in Greenwich, where she signed her will. Other residents in Greenwich would be ... The Greenwich Time Starts To Report The Truth About Greenwich Public School Test Scores

When Greenwich Roundup Types The Greenwich Time Listens.....

First Greenwich Roundup Posted This.....

08/27/09 Greenwich Time Cub Reporter Colin "BOE Brown Nose" Gustafson Wont Tell You The Truth, But Greenwich Roundup Will.....

Principal Damaris Rau was shown the door and is now headed to an undisclosed position at an undisclosed Connecticut School district, because .....

Hamilton Avenue School was once again the lowest scorer among the 11 elementary schools in Greenwich

Here Is More Evidence That Western Greenwich Is Getting Screwed Over By The Greenwich Board Of Education .....

Western Middle School was the lowest scorer of all of the town's three middle schoolsThe achievement gap between disadvantaged students of Western Greenwich and their wealthier peers continues to grow.

The wide gulf between white and Hispanic high schoolers grew wider between 2008 and 2009.

The percentage of white students reaching goal jumped from 83 percent to 87 percent, while the percentage of Hispanics at that level declined from 54 percent to 47 percent.

The United States Department Of Justice has inquired about Hamilton Avenue School and they are going to be back if the Greenwich Board Of Education continue to refuse to fix the failing schools in Western Greenwich.

Meanwhile, Greenwich Time Cub Reporter Colin "BOE Brown Nose" Gustafson Is Putting On His Rose Colored Sunglasses And Cheerfully Reporting.....

Greenwich students' test scores on the rise

Then The Greenwich Time Changed It's Tune And The Greenwich Time Editors Published This .....

Excellence the only lesson plan for Greenwich

Greenwich Time

....But while the start of the school year is about a bright outlook, it's important to see with clear eyes.

Greenwich schools are still not where they need to be. Results of last spring's Connecticut Academic Performance Test are a good illustration. While 10th graders who took the test made strong progress, particularly in reading and science, overall results shouldn't be acceptable to anyone in a town like this one.

For example, even with a 10-point jump, only 71.4 percent of 10th graders reached the goal level in reading. On a report card that's a C-. ...

....Same goes for results on the Connecticut Mastery Tests, which students in grades three through eight took in the spring...... But this is not a B- town. Nor should it be a town in which only 73.1 percent of our elementary schoolers reach the goal in science.....

.....Yes, people have pride in this town. But if it's not continually earned and re-earned, it's merely hubris, and that's the way to failure. Across the board, excellence is the only standard a town like Greenwich should accept, in all things, but particularly its schools......

Now Hearst Newspaper Vice President Lincoln Millstein Blogs This.....

The real numbers behind the Greenwich test results - (or what the school board does not what you to know) By Lincoln Millstein An excellent editorial in the Greenwich Time today has me thinking about schools at the dawning of the 2009-10 school year. Click here for article Dunno about you, but I am embarrassed to be a resident of the wealthiest town in the state that has a school district ranked No. 41 (out of 195) according to the latest statewide standardized tests. NUMBER 41! While that’s an improvement over last year when we came in at 44, other Fairfield County towns are racking up much better performance. Westport is No. 1. Nearby Fairfield - with more students (9494) - is ranked 26. Six out of the 11 elementary schools in Greenwich fell in a ranking of their peer group - Riverside (No. 19 down by 2), Dundee (44 down 14), Old Greenwich (59 down 43), North Street (101 down 39), Parkway (114 down 38), Julian Curtiss (138 down 89)..... Same story among the middle schools - nothing to brag about. Eastern held its No. 10 position. But there was a time in the first part of this decade when Eastern came in consistently the No. 1 middle school in the state year after year. Central is 54 - down 27....... ....Last but not least, my favorite topic, Greenwich High School, the misbegotten stepchild of the Greenwich political machine. GHS in my opinion is the single most visible and important public institution in Greenwich. It is either the beacon by which we measure our commitment to our children and community, or a blot symbolizing a wayward culture and broken system. Lately, it’s been the latter - especially under the current school board. Wouldn’t it be nice for a change if we could brag about GHS’s accomplishments other than its football scores - like its academic standing. Last year, GHS ranked 26 in the state in its test scores...... .....12.7 percent of the GHS population is of hispanic origin and therefore greatly impacts the reading and writing of English in standardized testing...... .....Farmington High School came in ranked No. 7. Farmington HS has a subsidized lunch ratio of 4.6 percent, 4.6 percent African Americans and 3.1 hispanics. But the real kick in the teeth: Hall High School in West Hartford, with a 11.4 percent subsidized lunch population, 10.6 percent African American population (GHS has 3.2) and 11.2 percent hispanic, came in at No. 22, beating out GHS by four places. A school with equally daunting statistics, if not more daunting, has no business besting Greenwich. The motto in Greenwich for its public schools? Good enough..... ....There is a silver lining: The miserable performance by the schools has exposed the school board in a public light like never before. In short Weissler et al, you’ve been busted. And we’re not going away until we see real improvement Lincoln's Log - http://blog.ctnews.com/lincolnmillstein/

=============================== Please send your comments, news tips and press releases to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com