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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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(Windsor, CT) Twice each week, several members of the CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering basketball team perform several drills, stopping only to catch their breath and grab some water. Their season hasn’t started yet, but they are working hard to strengthen their skills—and to make sure they stay injury free.The intense workouts are run by the division of sports physical therapy at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and the goal is to help the student-athletes learn to decrease the risk of knee injury while improving athletic performance. “We feel like there is a big need,” said Nick Giampetruzzi, a physical therapist who works with the program. The after-school program is free for CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering student-athletes, and it supports the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center’s overall mission: to improve the physical and emotional health of children through family-centered care, research, education, and advocacy. The center is trying to grow its preventive programs, and this is one way to do it, Giampetruzzi said. During their sessions with Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, the student-athletes participate in diverse drills that allow them to develop base workouts. They use bungee cords and harnesses to run with resistance, practice how to land properly, and strength train. At the beginning of the program, they were screened to identify risk factors for lower extremity injuries and tested to assess landing mechanics, power, speed, and agility. They will be tested again at the end of the program in November—just before their basketball season starts.Joshua Riggs, a CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering senior from Bloomfield, has shown commitment to the program, attending each session with enthusiasm and expressing a desire to get faster and stronger. He wants to lead by example. “I want to win a championship for my school,” the varsity basketball captain said. Giampetruzzi says injury prevention programs, such as the one offered at CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering, may decrease knee injuries by 25 percent and ACL injuries by as much as 50 percent in certain populations, and those numbers are important to CREC Athletic Director Jonathan Winer. “Knee injuries are becoming more prevalent in high school athletics,” Winer says. “We are very fortunate to have Connecticut Children’s Medical Center working with our student-athletes in an effort to decrease their likelihood of incurring substantial injury. The skills that our students are learning will not only assist them in their high school athletic careers, but will also help them as they pursue, or participate in, athletics in college or recreationally.” ###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) Seven-year-old Sadie Palker, of Stamford, stood before a large crowd at CREC Soundbridge’s recent 50th anniversary celebration and read her two-page speech in a confident, clear voice, pausing for jokes and eliciting laughter and applause. If it wasn’t for the text of her speech, audience members would never know how far she has come—how hard she and her parents had to work to get to this moment. Palker wears both a cochlear implant and a hearing aid, and she’s received services from CREC Soundbridge since she was an infant. Like many others who are deaf, or who have hearing loss, Parker has CREC Soundbridge to thank for her success and continued improvement. For 50 years, CREC Soundbridge has helped thousands of families, giving children a chance to overcome challenges to live happy, successful, and productive lives by learning to listen and talk. The program, which is celebrating its golden anniversary this year, provides a wide array of services that support listening and speaking development in children with hearing loss from birth to age 21.In 1966, CREC Soundbridge, then known as The Hearing Impaired Program, was established by the parents of five children born with severe and profound hearing loss as a result of a Rubella epidemic. The parents of these children believed strongly in the benefits of a public school education, and they wanted their children to learn to talk. This seemingly simple desire led to the start of a robust program that continues to grow and flourish. CREC began operating CREC Soundbridge, its first special services program, in 1970. Over the years, audiological technology and pedagogy has advanced tremendously, making it possible for the program to make a substantial difference in the lives of the many families who choose spoken language for their children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Today, with the support of 102 school districts throughout Connecticut, CREC Soundbridge provides audiological and educational services to more than 900 children—a statistic that clearly illustrates the program’s notable growth and success. Many of its students go on to attend college and pursue careers in a variety of areas, including biochemistry, culinary arts, and education. In recognition of its 50th anniversary, CREC Soundbridge held its special celebration at the Indian Hill Country Club in Newington. The October 20 event brought together the CREC Soundbridge community, and several parents and former students, including Palker, shared their very moving success stories.“I was so tickled that such a diverse group came to our anniversary party, including representatives of four of the first five families,” said CREC Soundbridge Director Elizabeth Cole. “This was a true celebration of the initial vision of those first five families, as well as of the mission that we have pursued for 50 years.”In recognition of its milestone anniversary, CREC Soundbridge received a citation from Wethersfield state legislative delegation, and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D- Conn., sent a congratulatory letter.“The benefit Soundbridge continues to provide in the lives of students, staff, alumni, and families brings tremendous pride to our state,” Murphy wrote. “I cannot overstate the importance of your compassionate role in uplifting and educating those in need of hearing assistance.”To learn more about CREC Soundbridge, visit www.crec.org/soundbridge.###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) Exemplary teacher leaders are skilled at matching instructional practices to students’ learning, utilizing cutting-edge curriculum and thought-provoking content and resources and collaborating with and leading their colleagues. They also engage in continuous improvement to engender student learning and work closely with principals to enrich student learning and increase achievement.Charlotte Danielson, an internationally-recognized expert in the area of teacher effectiveness, says teacher leaders and principals can engage in several actions to help students. These include taking initiative when an opportunity arises, enlisting colleagues to focus on common goals, finding and obtaining resources to support goals, and monitoring, adapting, and adjusting actions as needed. They can also make evidence-based and data-based decisions, support colleagues as they focus on goals, and face and deal with pessimism. There are formal and informal teacher leaders in every school. Some teacher leaders emerge, while others are identified by school principals to be teacher leaders. Either way, how do principals create and sustain a culture for teacher leaders? Principals can cultivate teacher leaders by creating and sustaining a culture of risk taking. They can institute democratic norms, respect the professionalism of teachers, provide opportunities for teachers to become involved in decision making, elicit and act on teacher ideas, support collaboration by changing schedules, and ensure professional learning opportunities to all teachers. As Marilyn Katzenmeyer and Gayle Moller succinctly state in “Awakening the Sleeping Giant,” “Within every school there is a sleeping giant of teacher leadership, which can be a strong catalyst for making change.” To support teacher leadership, CREC offers various workshops. During these workshops, teacher leaders develop essential competencies that are based on Teacher Leader Exploratory Consortium’s Teacher Leader Model Standards. Candidates will also be provided with content that will increase their understanding of facilitation skills and protocols, adult learning theory, working with diverse faculty members, instructional coaching, data analysis, and presentation skills. For more information, 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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