 |
|
Phone: 860.586.2340 |
Fax: 860.586.7360 |
The Connecticut Center for School Change is a private, non-profit organization that supports efforts at comprehensive reform of Connecticut s schools. Opened in September 1994, the Hartford-based center serves the state's public and non-public schools, focusing initially on pre-K through eighth grade. The center is an initiative of the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund and is adapted from the Minnesota Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota.
The Center's executive director is Dr. Gordon A. Bruno, who has spent 17 of his 36 years in education as a superintendent. Dr. Bruno is active in numerous statewide organizations and affairs, serving most recently on the State Commission on Educational Excellence. While the Center is not a lobbying organization, Dr. Bruno works with the state legislature, the state Department of Education and a variety of agencies and associations to improve teaching and learning.
RETURN TO TOP
| Mission & Goals Statement | Operating Principles | Beliefs |
March 1997 Newsletter
A message from the Executive Director, Gordon Bruno
A report on the conferrence: Making Schools of the Next Century Work for Children
CCSC grantee to teach summer course
Celebration of Excellence on the Internet
A report on Connecticut's social health
Audio and video tapes of the conferrence now available
November 1996 Newsletter
A message from the Executive Director, Gordon Bruno
Learning the Basic School basics
Leadership Conferrence Scheduled
Grantees gather for team-building retreat
July 1996 Newsletter
A message from the Executive Director, Gordon Bruno
Update on the Connecticut Center for School Change
Conferrence schedule: Making Schools of the Next Century Work for Children
MISSION AND GOALS STATEMENT
The CCSC supports and facilitates efforts at comprehensive reform of Connecticut's schools through grants, workshops, statewide conferences and seminars, research on policy issues affecting educational reform, and partnerships with other agencies and institutions committed to systemic change on behalf of children.
OPERATING PRINCIPLES
A geographic focus on the state of Connecticut
An approach that embraces rural urban and suburban communities
A desire to work with both public and non-public schools
An interest in informing public policy at national, state and local levels
Provision for schools to interact and learn from one another
Attention to the importance of listening
Inclusion of people who are affected by change in its design, implementation
and evaluation
Provision for collaboration among educators, parents, students, community leaders, school governing boards, state officials and other grant makers
Commitment to dissemination and replication of successful programs
Provision for evaluation of programs and of the strategy as a whole
BELIEFS
The Connecticut Center for School Change is guided in its commitments and strategies by the following beliefs about education:
All students need to acquire a common core of knowledge, skills and values.
All students need to be challenged by the highest expectations for their intellectual, social and moral development.
Families, schools and communities need to work closely together as equal partners in the education of children.
The community, region, indeed world, is a classroom, to be used by every school.
Community service is an important opportunity for learning and an essential component of every school's curriculum.
Students need a rich variety of educational choices beyond the core program required of all.
Effective schools are safe, orderly and nurturing environments, open and accessible to their communities.
The best decision-making and school governance reside as close to the child as possible: with teachers, parents and principals.
Grouping students by ability is constructive only when done for explicit, compelling needs of the individual.
Racially and socioeconomically integrated schools provide not only equal access to educational opportunities for all students, but also the best learning experiences.
Every school needs to be a learning organization, continuously evaluating itself in the context of its mission and, with the help of its students and their families, renewing itself.