Welcome to the New Education Matters

Paul Diego Holzer
Executive Director of Achieve Hartford

Our Education Matters! newsletter has been keeping you informed on the progress and challenges in the Hartford Public School District for the past seven years.  Providing a window into so many of Hartford’s reform efforts, we have largely been in the position of reacting to board of education and district decisions and commenting on the impact to student achievement.  But, upon reflecting on the impact of this reporting, it’s time to do things differently. As we move in a new organizational direction, to be announced publicly at our annual meeting on October 31^st, Education Matters! is moving in a new direction as well.

The new format will deliver stories at multiple times and in multiple mediums aimed at proactively bringing you deeper into systemic change work, through stories of leadership and best practice, words of truth, narratives of hope, and invitations to participate. You’ll still get an email from us every two weeks, but now it will contain summary links to articles, videos, podcasts and posts, all meant to accelerate our efforts to directly impact student outcomes, with you right beside us.

We invite you to “like” our new Education Matters! Facebook page and to comment and discuss education issues with our “tribe” of education champions in Hartford.

Together, as real partners, we will reshape the future of education in Hartford. Let us know what you think of the new format below, and all of our new communications as you experience them! Send a note to Nyesha, our storyteller and communication lead, anytime at [email protected].

Thanks for all you do for Hartford children and families, and for our great city.

Are You All IN?

Today, it’s imperative that we think about Hartford’s present and its future. The economic competitiveness of the city and the region requires that our attention become focused on and coordinated in developing the knowledge and skills of our future workforce – today’s 21,000 students spread across 46 Hartford Public Schools.

As the demographics of the State shift drastically over the next 10 years with more and more baby boomers retiring and more and more young people concentrated in our cities, the fierce competition for talent will only intensify.  Our state’s success in keeping businesses here while keeping costs down is directly correlated to our ability to cultivate a strong – and homegrown – talent pipeline.

The All IN! coalition was formed to support and energize existing groups of inspired stakeholders in the city who took the first steps in planning interventions to support Hartford youth advance through the education-to-workforce pipeline.

Together, bold post-secondary enrollment and completion goals will be hit by 2025 through better coordination and aligning of resources. Organizations that serve students must do so with seamless handoffs, shared data, and dialogue between partners that can serve as a flashlight to guide all efforts toward the vision of Hartford as a talent hub.

Join us on October 17, where we’ll come together to see how we are progressing towards our 2025 goals, announce new efforts, and illuminate specific ways you can be “ALL IN!” for Hartford students.

Event Info and RSVP

Designing a SuperSchool? – There’s a class for that!

In September 2015, Laurene Powell Jobs and the nonprofit Emerson Collective challenged the country to redesign the American high school with the launch of the XQ: Super School Project.

As part of the Weaver High School visioning sessions, we participated in the Super School Project when it initially launched last year and, although our proposal wasn’t selected, we are all still moving forward as a team rethinking Weaver High with ambition and optimism.

As participants in the project we have received a special invitation to join a unique online school redesign course.

The XQ SuperSchool Project in collaboration with MIT’s Teaching Systems Lab have announced an invitation-only, special edition online course titled, Launching Innovation in Schools: XQ Edition. It begins on October 12 and runs for seven weeks.

This course will support the current Weaver 2019 coalition work to design a learning experience for Weaver High school students that is unmatched in Hartford, and we invite you to be a part of our learning circle.

Our learning circle is a facilitated, in-person study group for school builders (like you!) who sign up for the course. We’ll work both online independently and then together to discuss what we’re learning in class sessions.

This course is offered free of charge but is limited as we want to keep this course to a reasonable size so we can build a productive and vibrant learning community.

If you are interested, please email Nyesha McCauley at [email protected] by Wednesday, October 11 for the enrollment link and class times.

Looking forward to learning with you!

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