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(Hartford, CT) Over the past 20 years, demographics in U.S. public schools have changed. Currently, about 51 percent of children attending public schools are African American, Latino, and Asian or Pacific Islander. Forty-nine percent are Caucasian. Despite these numbers, achievement and opportunity gaps persist between Caucasian students and students of color and affluent and poor children. These gaps remain despite the No Child Left Behind Act requiring that demographic group achievement scores be compared and despite the implementation of numerous other initiatives and programs.Providing equitable and excellent education for all students is a challenge that all educators need to tackle, and school administrators need to think about how their school or district should act from a social justice position? First, a district must consider both the opportunities offered to, and the educational outcomes for, children of color. Additionally, districts must examine school policies, curriculum, and practices from an equitable and multicultural perspective. This is critical to improving education for children from underserved populations. Educators must also be willing to revise and replace policies, curriculum, and practices that do not support a quality education for students of color. To help ensure that all students have access to the best possible education, CREC’s Institute of Teaching and Learning is inviting educators in Greater Hartford to join its Social Justice and Equity Consortium. The consortium will meet three times in 2017 to examine local and state instructional practices, curriculum, student performance, school climate and culture, policies and programs, and leadership from a social justice perspective. The group will also identify and discuss best practices and share those best practices with their colleagues. The first consortium meeting of 2017 will be held in March, and participants will deepen their understanding and improve their practice of culturally responsive teaching. To learn more about the consortium, contact Ellen Retelle, director of CREC’s Institute of Teaching and Learning, at eretelle@crec.org. ###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) To ensure that area children stay warm this winter, the CREC Foundation has teamed up with the Hartford Police Department and Go Hartford! Mayor Mike’s Foundation for Kids to provide children in need with hats and gloves.Pooling together their resources, the nonprofit organizations and the police department were able to purchase 300 new hats and 300 new pairs of gloves. CREC school principals, Hartford Region Open Choice Program staff, and city police officers will give the items to those who need it. “It’s extremely cold this week, and winter officially starts next week,” said Aura Alvarado, CREC’s Director of Communications and Community Relations. “All families should be mindful of the frigid weather and wear clothing that is appropriate for the season, and I am happy that the CREC Foundation is able to work with Hartford police and Mayor Mike’s Foundation to help ensure that children stay safe and warm.”The CREC Foundation supports the CREC agency’s programs, missions, and members. This includes helping students and their families in their times of need—a cause in line with Go Hartford! Mayor Mike’s Foundation for Kids, an organization established to honor former Hartford Mayor Mike Peters. “We are happy to partner with CREC as the two organizations have supported kids and youth activities in Hartford,” said Christopher Peters, president of Go Hartford! Mayor Mike’s Foundation for Kids. “We think that a lot of good can be done when people come together. Every kid deserves to be safe and warm, and we are very excited to see our fundraising efforts pay off by giving back to the community in a city that Mayor Mike loved.”###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) CREC’s Kim Stroud recently became the first dance educator to ever receive a Connecticut Department of Education’s Excellence in Education Award.Stroud, who lives in Madison, serves as director of the arts at CREC’s Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School in Hartford and as general director for the Center for Creative Youth, an internationally-known summer arts program run by CREC and held at Wesleyan University. The Excellence in Education Award recognizes and honors exemplary individuals for their contributions to education in Connecticut. Award recipients are selected by their respective professional organizations.“I thank everyone for recognizing me and for recognizing dance as the valuable educational study that is,” Stroud says. “I respectfully receive this award for me, my colleagues, and my students—all who give so much to the study, elevation, and perpetuation of this beautiful form.”Stroud has worked at the CREC Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School since 1993, holding several different positions over the years. She’s also worked at various dance schools, was a principal soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company for 11 years, and danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. In addition, Stroud has been a master teacher at several colleges, including Connecticut College, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the University of Hartford.This is not the first time that Stroud has been recognized for her work as an educator. She’s been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and the Connecticut Dance Alliance. The National Dance Education Organization named Stroud its Outstanding Dance Educator of the Year in 2005, and Stroud was named the International Arts Schools Network’s Teacher of the Year in 2009. “Dance Teacher Magazine” named her its Outstanding Dance Educator in 2012.Stroud is a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s International Dance Council.###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) Two CREC soccer players have been named all-state athletes, further establishing CREC as a competitive athletic program. Victoria Piechota, a junior at CREC’s Academy of Science and Innovation from New Britain, was recently named to the girls all-state soccer team. Hartford’s Cristhian Zaldivar, a senior at the CREC Public Safety Academy, was named to the boys all-state soccer team. Both are the first student-athletes at their respective schools to receive this honor. Zaldivar is the first CREC male athlete to ever be named to an all-state team. Still in its infancy, CREC’s athletic program began in 2011 and competes in the Capital Region Athletic League conference. Soccer was offered for the first time as a junior varsity sport in the fall of 2013. Varsity teams were added in 2014, and the program has grown to develop outstanding and dedicated players like Piechota, Zaldivar, and Abbie Miller. Miller, a girls soccer player at the CREC Metropolitan Learning Center for Global and International Studies, was the first CREC student-athlete to receive all-state honors in any sport last fall. “We are committed to building a high-quality athletic program that will help keep our students physically fit, mentally tough, and compassionate and giving community members,” said CREC Athletic Director Jonathan Winer. “We congratulate Victoria and Cristhian on their success, and we look forward to following their future accomplishments.” ###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) More than 60 education professionals, including teachers, principals, and superintendents, attended the Hartford Region Open Choice Program’s recent Dine & Discuss event, which focused on how educators can counteract the impact of implicit bias by shaping their expectations of students of difference races.The event was hosted by the Berlin and Granby school districts and allowed participants to reflect on how their perspectives, developed through multiple social influences, affect how they may unconsciously perceive students of color. They also considered potential impact on their decisions and actions and how these instances of discrimination can occur repeatedly, resulting in unequal outcomes for children of color within education settings. “Joining in collegial conversations around implicit bias was a great opportunity for our community,” said Christopher Tranberg, director of teaching and talent development for Granby Public Schools. “We often talk about the importance of having difficult conversations, and there are few topics that challenge us more than acknowledgment and understanding of implicit bias. I was happy our district could host this event, allowing us to break bread with our community, as well as neighboring district colleagues. Whether reviewing relevant research or hearing participants discuss how implicit bias has impacted their own lives, we were all able to leave the event full on many levels. Dine & Discuss gave us all an opportunity to think about what we believe, ask ourselves why, and decide how we are going to make things better for all of the students we serve every day.”Dine & Discuss event participants, such as Tranberg, learned that implicit racial bias in education can lead to lower teacher expectations, disproportionate discipline, the suspension and expulsion of students of color, and higher expectations of problem behavior within this group beginning in preschool. Other examples of implicit racial bias in education include disproportionate tracking of students of color for special education and the underrepresentation of students of color in honors and Advanced Placement classes. Teachers’ repeatedly low expectations can result in low self-esteem, lack of motivation, and poor academic performance.“Prejudice is in your head, and acting on those thoughts is discrimination,” said a Dine & Discuss participant who wished to remain anonymous. “When you become conscious of implicit bias, you can begin to be purposeful about stopping it. You tend to see what you look for. If you start to look for the good in people, you will begin to notice it. If you expect someone to act out, you will be focusing on looking for that instead of the good they do.” During the event, the group collectively identified several ways to reduce implicit racial bias. They suggested that educators analyze data to identify and correct the policies and practices that perpetuate racial and ethnic inequities and participate in facilitated race dialogues, develop relationships with people from different racial and ethnic groups, and become more cognizant of negative race-related messages that are evident in our culture and the impact they have. They also stressed the importance of practicing empathy and taking the time to get to know and build trust with students who reside in Hartford.Participants were reminded that implicit bias is a universal human condition—not a personal defect. Open Choice staff explained that everyone has to quickly categorize to make sense of the world and said that hope lies in the fact that implicit racial biases are malleable. By slowing down and reflecting upon first impressions before taking action, negative impacts on all students can be minimized, they said, adding that recognizing students of color as individuals and taking the time to hear their stories will move educators toward ensuring success for all students.###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) Throughout the country, 49 states are reporting a shortage of special education teachers, making the Advanced Route to Certification for Special Education Cross Endorsement program very important. The cross endorsement allows certified teachers to earn an additional certification in comprehensive special education. CREC is pleased to offer this program as a way to help school districts, and it is proud to announce that the Connecticut State Department of Education has granted approval for CREC to continue to administer the program for another three years—until 2019.According to the Connecticut State Department of Education, 27 special education teacher positions in Connecticut could not be filled with qualified applicants during the 2014-2015 school year. This represents an estimated 500 or more students with disabilities who struggled without a certified special education teacher. The Advanced Alternate Route to Certification for Special Education Cross Endorsement has helped reduce this crisis shortage area by offering teachers an economical, but rigorous, approach to teaching students with disabilities. “By recruiting certified teachers, we can focus our curriculum on what makes special education ‘special,’” says Mary-Jo Terranova, a CREC employee and the program’s director. Melissa Colby, a team leader at Woodbury Middle School, has seen the benefit of CREC’s Advanced Route to Certification for Special Education Cross Endorsement program. “The Advanced Route to Certification candidate (hired by the district) came prepared and able to jump in and differentiate,” Colby says. “She was able to work with all our students and demonstrates strong collaboration skills. She knows how to balance the difference between the curriculum and working on IEP (Individualized Education Program) goals and objectives. With a general education background, and now a special education focus, she is highly adept at applying specially designed instruction practices for students with disabilities.” Learning to meet the educational and legal demands that come with special education can be advantageous for both special education teachers and teachers who remain general education teachers. CREC’s Advanced Route to Certification for Special Education Cross Endorsement provides an opportunity for all teachers to be better prepared for any situation that comes their way. “The exceptional training I received in the Advanced Route to Certification program (AARC) has prepared me well—to not only be a special educator, but a more dynamic teacher,” says Russel McCallum, a graduate of the program who is an instructor of English learners at J.M. Wright Technical High School in Stamford. “I would highly recommend the AARC program to any teacher who wants to learn cutting-edge special education practices and who wants to become a better teacher.”With a 99 percent job placement rate for graduates, the Advanced Route to Certification for Special Education Cross Endorsement program’s success can be measured by the number and quality of its candidates. To date, the program has endorsed more than 250 special education teachers. While the retention rate of graduates from more traditional programs is 75 percent, CREC’s Advanced Route to Certification for Special Education Cross Endorsement program’s graduate retention rate is nearly 100 percent. Margaret MacDonald, director of CREC’s Technical Assistance and Brokering Services Division, attributes the success of the Advanced Route to Certification for Special Education Cross Endorsement is due to three important factors: high quality faculty and students, the portfolio nature of the program requirements, and accommodations that are made for working adults. “We are proud to offer this useful, robust program, which is designed with the working teacher in mind,” MacDonald says. “CREC continues to find ways to help Connecticut teachers, and this cross endorsement provides an exciting career ladder for teachers, support to schools, and most important, it makes a difference in the lives of the many students with special needs.” For more information on the Advanced Route to Certification for Special Education program, contact Mary-Jo Terranova at 860-233-1940 or visit www.crec.org/aarc. ###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Wethersfield, CT) Deciding what materials to use when building a boat is not an easy task. Thankfully, CREC Discovery Academy second-grader Evan Vernali had the opportunity to determine whether fabric, tin foil, and other items would float before designing his blueprint. Vernali, of Colchester, is learning about the engineering design process in his school’s Design Lab. Similar to art and gym, all 483 CREC Discovery Academy students take Design Lab, a weekly class that is being offered for the first time this year.“We’re now planning,” said Marjorie Bruch to Vernali and his classmates during a recent class. “We’re getting ready to build.” Designing boats is an activity that aligns with a unit the second-grade class is working on in science. They are learning about states of matter, and Bruch said she always keeps in mind what students are studying in their core academic subjects as she plans her lessons. Design Lab exposes students to engineering principles, robotics, and coding at an early age, and it keeps with the school’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics theme. While second graders are focused on constructing boats, students in other grades were working on different projects. For example, first-grade students are building bridges and fourth-grade students are building water filtration systems. “It’s really great to get them in young,” Bruch said.Vernali says he likes Design Lab and enjoys building things, especially boats. Laila Pejmanovic, a second-grade student from Hartford, agrees. As she worked on the blueprint for her boat with a few classmates, Pejmanovic touted her boat-making experience. She said she’s designed boats before. “Some people might say, ‘why use a paper plate?’” Pejmanovic said. “We have a plan.”CREC Discovery Academy Principal Kurt Stanco said he is excited about his school’s new Design Lab “The Design Lab provides us with the opportunity to make our STEM theme come alive for all students in exciting ways each and every week,” he said. “They engage in fun, hands-on experiences that provide them with many necessary foundational skills.”The CREC Discovery Academy is one of 17 award-winning CREC interdistrict magnet schools. To attend the school, students must apply through the Greater Hartford Regional School Choice Office lottery. Lottery applications will be accepted through February 28, 2017. For more information about CREC schools and the lottery process, visit www.choosecrec.org. ###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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