[SunFlower33]

Is anyone else impatiently awaiting the CREC lottery results?

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by SunFlower33

Is anyone else impatiently awaiting the CREC lottery results?

I called last week and they said "within 2 weeks" but would not give a firm date. Supposed to be by the end of April, then it was changed to mid-May.

[SunFlower33]

I called yesterday and was told later this week. I read elsewhere that they were waiting for town budgets to be approved to know how many RSCO spots they have for the suburb schools. Understandable, I guess... but so frustrating.

[parentologist]

They really need to open the process up, to make it completely transparent, to avoid diversion of the valuable free nursery school spots. I have personally encountered situations where people who worked for the Hartford school system, or for CREC, or for an institution "hosting" the CREC school. were able to get their children into the free all day preschools, without having to go through the lottery, or at a clearly highly preferential rate. That's about a 10K/year value - certainly valuable.

[SunFlower33]

Results are in.

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by SunFlower33

Results are in.

did you get the results you were seeking?

[SunFlower33]

Yes. I mean, I hope so. My daughter applied for only one high school (9th grader coming from Newington) and got in. I'm still reluctant, but she's going. Thank you.


How about you?

[Tomhpo]

Parentologist --

Ugh. Stories like this are why no one believes Hartford can right itself. Every good program quickly molders into a patronage mess. Is it true that crec was once a merit based system and now is lottery? How are we supposed to feel about that? Why can't we dedicate ourselves to building something truly great? Where is the greatness here? Is it reserved for the hedgies in ffc?

I know I compare to Chicago too much - but allow this one more time: the absolute best thing Chicago public schools did to pull out of a death spiral was to establish charter specialty schools (math and science academy, etc) that are competitive admissions. Yes, they also have a lottery for better performing local schools, but you CAN get a world class education now in the Chicago public schools, if you test in. NYC same. It's necessary. Why not here?

[Sigequinox]

Originally Posted by Tomhpo

Parentologist --

Ugh. Stories like this are why no one believes Hartford can right itself. Every good program quickly molders into a patronage mess. Is it true that crec was once a merit based system and now is lottery? How are we supposed to feel about that? Why can't we dedicate ourselves to building something truly great? Where is the greatness here? Is it reserved for the hedgies in ffc?

I know I compare to Chicago too much - but allow this one more time: the absolute best thing Chicago public schools did to pull out of a death spiral was to establish charter specialty schools (math and science academy, etc) that are competitive admissions. Yes, they also have a lottery for better performing local schools, but you CAN get a world class education now in the Chicago public schools, if you test in. NYC same. It's necessary. Why not here?

It's called "striving for mediocrity". Plot the aptitude of children on a 2-D graph. Some of these points will be off the charts high, some will be off the charts low, most will cluster around the mean distribution. Instead of aiming to make that cluster look more like the higher "outliers" we force the gifted children to be merely "average". Throw in some nanny state liberal ideology where you can't even put gifted children in a challenging environment because it necessarily separates them from their normal counterparts and you have...

[Tomhpo]

....Connecticut circa 2016.

Sigh. You're right.