CT's Education Reform

For the past few weeks, there has been news of the Governor's education reforms in order to close to achievement gap in CT. I am not sure how I feel about the whole entire proposal but I know that saying teachers need to do a better job will help close that gap. Yes it is important for teachers to continue to serve their students, they must improve and learn new skills all the time. Yet I don't believe that just changing the teachers will be enough. Connecticut is percieved as a rich state mostly from the Greenwich and Fairfield towns near New York. However, when one goes a little east towards Bridgeport and New Haven, the urban cities are what bring on this achievement gap. Many students who live in urban areas come from home lives that tend to not view education the same way white middle to upper class families do. I think that go really get every student to improve in school needs to start with the home. Parents need to value education even if they did not recieve the best education themself. Parents are the first role models that children have in their lives and it is easy to see that the children will follow in their footsteps. Many students in CT go home from school to no parents, or fighting, or violence, or neglect. For them learning starts and stops in the classroom and doesn't continue at home. I beleive that it is because of this students in CT are widening the achievement gap. Teachers can only do so much to get students motivated and prepared for school and standardized tests. The scores of students should not be solely based on the work of the teachers. Teachers can always do better to meet their students' needs but it can only go so far. I believe that CT needs to better educate many parents across the state first about the values and possible success education holds. From there, teachers will be able to better collaborate with parents  and both can work together for the children. I do not think that our Governor has thought of this as a vital reason why many schools are failing. It is not just CT but many other states as well. Improving tests scores are not the answer to this problem. We need to improve parent involvment in the education of their children.