Number of Special Education Students in CT Schools Continues to Increase, Data Shows

The number of Connecticut students in kindergarten through 12^th grade with disabilities eligible for special education and related services has increased by nearly 6,000 between the 2008-09 school year and the current school year, as the overall student population has dropped by more than 32,500 students in that time. Data included in a new website developed by the Connecticut State Department of Education indicates that the prevalence of special education in Connecticut schools has increased from 11.6 percent of students to 13.4 percent of students over the past seven years.

The prevalence of autism has doubled in the overall school population, from eight-tenths of one percent in 2008-09 to 1.6 percent in the current year.  The percentage of students with learning disability has also increased, while the percentage with speech or language impairment has dropped, as a percentage of the overall student population.

Overall, the Special Education K-12 count in 2008-09 was 64,187 students.  In the 2015-16 school year, the number has climbed to 70,055, an eight percent increase, even as the total student count has gone from 555,411 to 522,906.

The website points out that “Prevalence rate is a statistic about the identification of students with disabilities eligible for special education and related services,” adding that “Connecticut has seen increases in the number and percent of students with disabilities statewide over the last five years.”

The site also notes that the overall decreasing public school enrollment causes the prevalence rate to appear to grow at a must faster rate than one would perceive from actual special education count data.

Connecticut State Department of Education Commissioner Dianna R. Wentzell launched the new website, www.edsight.ct.gov, in late April.  It is designed to strengthen transparency and streamline online access to important school and district information.  The site integrates information from over 30 different sources – some reported by districts and others from external sources.

“The launch of our new data portal is a critical step in our mission to ensure all Connecticut students have access to the kind of high-quality education that prepares them for success in college, career and civic life,” Commissioner Wentzell said.

Over the coming months, additional information and reports will be made accessible to the public through this portal. The site is the culmination of more than two years of work and development by the Department with support from important partners, including the state Department of Administrative Services.

The Department also joined the world of social media last week with the launch of an official Facebook page and Twitter account. The Department’s Facebook page address is http://www.facebook.com/ctdepartmentofeducation. On Twitter, the Department is @EducateCT.

Chronic Absenteeism Declining in CT Schools, Except Among African-Americans

Chronic absenteeism in Connecticut schools declined overall between 2011-12 and 2014-15, but increased among African American students, according to data from the State Department of Education (SDE). In the four-year period, chronic absenteeism among white students dropped statewide from 8.1 percent to 7 percent, among Hispanics from 18.4 percent to 18 percent and among Asians from 7 percent to 6.1 percent.  Hispanic students had the highest chronic absenteeism rate all four years.

Among African American students, the percentage of students chronically absent climbed from 15.2 percent in 2011-12 to 16.1 percent in 2014-15. 

Chronic absence is defined as missing 10 percent, or more, of school days for any reason, including excused, unexcused and disciplinary absences. The statistics are included in the Connecticut Department of Education’s new data website, www.edsight.ct.gov

Chronic absenteeism is declining among both male and female students, with males maintaining a slightly higher percentage (one-tenth of one percent) in the 2011-12 and 2014-15 school years as both rates declined.

While English-Language-Learners had a consistently higher percentage of chronic absenteeism than non-English Language Learners, the percentage was dropped at a higher rate, one percentage point versus four-tenths of a point.

The only other sub-category of students to see a higher percentage of chronically absent students when comparing the 2001-12 and 2014-15 school years, in addition to African American students, was Special Education students, according to the data.  In 2011-12, 18.6 percent of special education students were chronically absent.  By 2014-15 the percentage was 19 percent, which was, however, lower than the two previous years (19.4 percent and 19.1 percent).

Overall in Connecticut, the chronic absenteeism rate dropped from 11.1 percent in 2011-12 to 10.6 percent in 2014-15.  The State Department of Education website explains that “improving and sustaining good attendance requires the active engagement of district and school-based leaders and administrators along with a clear articulation of roles and responsibilities.”

In comprehensive guidance provided to local school districts nearly three years ago, the state Department of Education explained that “chronic absenteeism is also emerging as an early indicator of future academic difficulty. Children who are chronically absent in both kindergarten and first grade are much less likely to read proficiently by the end of third grade.”

The guidelines also indicated that “If chronic early absence is not addressed at the elementary level, then it may worsen in the higher grades (Chang and Romero, 2008). By sixth grade, chronic absence is a key early indicator of dropout from high school (Baltimore Education Research Consortium, 2011). By ninth grade, attendance may be a better indicator of dropout than eighth-grade test scores (Allensworth and Easton, 2007).”

The 17 pages of guidelines, which outline how various absences are defined, documented and prevented in accordance with “nationally recognized best practices,” aimed to serve “as a valuable resource to help decrease rates of chronic absenteeism and enhance student outcomes,” former commissioner Stefan Pryor said in a memo to school superintendents and principals in May 2013.

Public Act 15-225, passed by the legislature a year ago, requires schools to track and publish chronic absenteeism data. Schools and districts that exhibit a certain percent of chronic student absenteeism must institute Student Attendance Review Teams (or use an existing body for this purpose), to coordinate interventions for students who are chronically absent.  The legislation requires SDE to help develop prevention and intervention plans for districts in tackling chronic absenteeism.

Link Literacy and Social-Emotional Skills to Improve Children’s Success in School, Report Urges

Experts agree that there is a deep connection between social-emotional development and literacy in children’s early school success including achieving reading proficiency in the early grades – and it turns out that the benefits of effectively making those connections sooner rather than later are significant, and can endure for a lifetime. A new report from the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut (CHDI), “Connecting Social and Emotional Health and Literacy: Critical for Early School Success,” explores the interplay between young children's social-emotional development and early literacy and language skills, and “elevates awareness of the connections between these essential competencies,” according to CHDI and the report’s researchers.

The detailed 36-page report provides examples of linking strategies and outlines recommendations with the goal of accelerating actions by states and communities to advance children's readiness for school and successful educational achievement.

“Early cognitive and social-emotional skills are interactive and woven together - like strands of a rope,” notes Ann Rosewater, lead author of the report and co-leader of the Connecticut Peer Learning Pilot on Social-Emotional Development and Early Literacy. “The strategies and tools in this report will help communities implement approaches to align children’s literacy and social emotional health.”

The report urges a series of coordinated state actions to advance the linkage and integration of supports for children’s social-emotional health and learning:

• Align systems that address social-emotional development and literacy
• Increase support and education for parents
• Invest in professional development for those working with young children
• Institute universal and routine screening for social-emotional development and
• appropriate follow-up
• Expand the reach of evidence-based practices and programs
• Focus attention on special populations

The recommendations are drawn from the experiences of nine communities in Connecticut that explored researched-based strategies over the past year, to link supports for social-emotional and literacy skills. The effort was part of the Connecticut Peer Learning Pilot on Social-Emotional Development and Early Literacy, developed and led by the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, in partnership with the National Center for Children in Poverty and with support from the Irving Harris Foundation and others.

Participating community teams represented Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund Discovery Initiative coalitions from Bridgeport, Colchester, Danbury, Enfield, Norwalk, Torrington, Vernon, West Hartford, and Winchester.  Their involvement, according to the report, “catalyzed notable progress in most participating communities, building on significant efforts their collaboratives had undertaken before engaging in the initiative.”  The communities “found reinforcement, inspiration and impetus to pursue as vigorously as their circumstances allowed strategies that recognized and promoted the relationship between children’s social-emotional health and literacy and language skills,” the report concluded.

In addition to urging state action, based on these experiences the report highlighted steps that can be taken at the community level to promote school success by reflecting the understanding that literacy and social-emotional development build on and reinforce each other.

Promising strategies used by communities include the following:

• Raise community awareness and reinforce community efforts to integrate social emotional and literacy skills fundamental to success in school and life
• Promote nurturing parent-child relationships, which are essential to children’s social-emotional development and can simultaneously stimulate literacy learning
• Screen for social-emotional competencies, with appropriate follow up and intervention
• Enhance home visiting and book distribution programs
• Incorporate professional development related to the connections between social-emotional development and literacy for those working with young children
• Promote attendance in early education programs and the early grades
• Support special populations, particularly children living in poverty, dual language learners or those faced with potentially unstable environments (foster care or homelessness)

The report indicates that “Far too many children are at a disadvantage in their development because they lack the language and literacy competencies they need to enter kindergarten, significantly hobbling their success in reading proficiently by the end of third grade. Disparities begin as early as infancy and become more pronounced in the toddler years, with children from families below 200 percent of poverty scoring lower than children from higher income families on measures of cognitive development.”

The report goes on to state that “At kindergarten entry age, only 48 percent of poor children are ready for school, compared to 75 percent of children from families with moderate or high income.”

The Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut (CHDI), a subsidiary of the Children’s Fund of Connecticut, is a not-for-profit organization established to promote and maximize the healthy physical, behavioral, emotional, cognitive and social development of children throughout Connecticut.  CHDI works to ensure that children in Connecticut, particularly those who are disadvantaged, will have access to and make use of a comprehensive, effective, community-based health and mental health care system.

Public Supports Action to Protect Youth From Weight-Based Bullying

Parental support for enactment of laws and policies to protect youth from weight-based bullying is “present, consistent, and strong,” according to a new study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut. All 50 states currently have anti-bullying laws, but only three states – New York, Maine and New Hampshire - include body weight as a characteristic that places youth at risk of being bullied.

Many school districts have anti-bullying policies, yet body weight is often overlooked, stating that “evidence from students, parents and teachers indicates that weight-based bullying is one of the most prevalent forms of peer harassment towards youth in the school setting.”

The study found that support for including weight-based bullying in anti-bullying laws has grown during the past two years, stressing that “the omission of body weight in existing policies has important implications for youth who face weight-based bullying.”

“Parental voices can be influential in mobilizing advocacy efforts, and enacting policy change affecting children’s health,” said Rebecca Puhl, a study author, professor in UConn’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies, and deputy director of the Rudd Center.

The study findings, published in the journal Pediatric Obesity, can inform policy discussions about remedies for weight-based bullying among youth as increasing national attention is being paid to this issue.  The study indicated that “parental support is an influential catalyst motivating political will for policy decisions affecting youth, but has received limited research attention.”

Specific findings of the study include:

• Parental support has been consistently high (at least 81 percent) over the past two years for policies to address weight-based bullying among youth at the school, state, and federal levels.
• Support appears to have increased over the past two years for measures to better protect youth from weight-based bullying through improvements to state anti-bullying laws (87.9 percent – up from 84.7 percent) and through enactment of federal legislation (86 percent – up from 81 percent).
• While previous research has shown that mothers express more support than fathers for similar types of policies, this new study found no gender difference, suggesting that fathers’ support for these measures may be increasing.

“As a next step, it will be important to communicate with policy makers and school officials to identify interest and feasibility of viable policy initiatives,” said Puhl, “and to examine potential avenues for enacting change through law.” Puhl told CT by the Numbers that Connecticut’s law includes “physical appearance” but not body weight. There is, therefore, room to strengthen the state law, she pointed out, because physical appearance is a broad category that can include everything from clothing style to hair color, and body weight could easily slip through the cracks if it is not specifically enumerated.

The study involved online questionnaires of diverse national samples of parents in 2014 and 2015, totaling 1,804 parents over the two years. The research was funded by a donation from Rudd Foundation and a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The study co-authors include Young Suh and Xun Li of the UConn Rudd Center. The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity is a non-profit research and public policy organization devoted to promoting solutions to childhood obesity, poor diet, and weight bias through research and policy.

Connecticut Earns A+ in Government Data Transparency

Connecticut is one of five states providing state residents with the most comprehensive online access to government spending data, according to an analysis by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG). Nationwide, government spending transparency is improving, but many states still lag far behind, according to “Following the Money 2016: How the 50 States Rate in Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data,” the sixth annual report by the organization’s Education Fund.  Some states have improved their spending transparency web portals significantly, earning perfect scores in this year’s report, while others are still barely achieving the minimum standards.

Based on an inventory of the content and ease-of-use of states' transparency websites, the report assigns each state a grade of “A+” to “F.” The leading states with the most comprehensive transparency websites are Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Oregon, and Connecticut, with each receiving an A+ grade.

“This A+ is great news – and comes at an important time as Connecticut navigates new fiscal challenges and prickly public policy debates. Facts and truth – not shadowy special interests – should be driving our discussions here at the capitol. The only way to ensure an honest discussion about our financial future is to open government and deliver the truth to the public," said State Comptroller Kevin Lembo. "We are doing everything we can to deliver state financial information in bigger and better ways each year. With a few keystrokes, all of us can find out where state money is going and where it came from. Most recently we have been working to extend that transparency to our quasi-public agencies, as well as towns and cities across the state. We are grateful that ConnPIRG recognized our efforts – and promise that we will treat this grade as a starting point, not a finish line, in making Connecticut the most open and accountable state in the country.”

The Comptroller’s Office website providing state government financial data is www.osc.ct.gov/openCT

The report indicates the cost to maintain the website at $18,000, with start-up costs from existing budgetary resources.  Among the state programs cited as providing easily accessible data to the public are the Enterprise Zone and Urban Jobs Tax Credit, Film and Digital Media Tax Credits, Jobs Creation Tax Credit, Manufacturing Assistance Act, and Small Business Express programs.

Connecticut’s most significant improvements include the addition of a page that details what data is excluded from the site, allowing citizens to better understand the universe of information the state is providing, according to the state Comptroller's Office. The state also added more information about the projected and actual public benefits of some of its largest subsidy programs. The state could continue to improve its transparency efforts by expanding its site to include spending information from municipalities and more local government bodies, the report noted.

USPIRG officials point out that states that have created or improved their online transparency have typically done so with little upfront cost. Top-flight transparency web portals can save money for taxpayers, while also restoring public confidence in government and preventing misspending and pay-to-play contracts.

“Citizens deserve to be able to follow their tax dollars, from the most minor state expenditures to the most major development subsidies,” said Michelle Surka, program associate with U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund. “This year, it’s clear that several states made a commitment to meeting the high national standards for spending transparency. Other states continue to lag behind, unable to overcome some of the barriers that prevent comprehensive spending disclosures.”

“States’ online spending transparency efforts are paying off in better informed citizens and a more efficient government,” said Elizabeth Ridlington, policy analyst with Frontier Group and co-author of the report. “Our research found that top-ranked states have been making steady improvements to their transparency websites over the years, giving citizens in most states unprecedented access to information on where their tax money goes.”

While many states continue to improve, the states that most distinguished themselves as leaders in spending transparency are those that provide access to types of expenditures that otherwise receive little public scrutiny. Only 11 states- including Connecticut - provide checkbook-level information that includes the recipients of each of the state’s most important subsidy programs.

This year, most states have met basic standards for providing online access to information about state contracting and an increasing number provide information about economic development subsidies and off-budget agencies.  Several states have made substantive upgrades to their transparency sites or added new features that give the public unprecedented ability to monitor how their government allocates resources. Of particular note, as highlighted in the report:

• Michigan streamlined its transparency data and added functionality to its transparency website, including allowing bulk download of all its data.
• West Virginia launched a new site with data on projected and actual public benefits of the state’s major subsidy programs.
• Utah and Arizona have joined several other states in adding data from localities, municipalities and school districts to their state transparency portals. This provides an inexpensive way to improve the transparency of the spending that often affects ordinary citizens most directly.
• Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Washington now prominently feature data on quasi-public entities with web pages dedicated solely to these agencies, boards, authorities and commissions.

State spending transparency is a non-partisan issue, USPIRG stressed. The report compared transparency scores against party control of Governors’ offices and the state legislatures. For neither measure did higher levels of spending transparency correspond to Republican or Democratic control, according to the report.

Conversation in the Digital Age: Panel of Experts Will Discuss How We’re Changing

The topic of the evening is an exploration of conversation in the digital age, as two Hartford institutions come together to bring some perspective to how we communicate in the age of technology, and how we don’t. On Wednesday, May 4, The Connecticut Forum in partnership with the Mark Twain House & Museum will present DISCONNECT: Conversation in the Digital Age. The event is described as an (old-fashioned) conversation with three nationally-recognized digital experts to discuss “how social media and our ubiquitous devices have impacted the art of authentic conversation.”  They pose the question: if conversation is how we truly connect to others, what happens when face-to-face communication decreases?

The panel will feature Dr. David Greenfield from the Center for Internet & Technology Addiction, Slow Tech Movement founder Janell Burley Hofmann, and tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar. Jamie Daniel, director of programming at The Connecticut Forum, will moderate the conversation.

Polgar says that opportunities for fluid conversations have diminished, to our detriment. “We have adapted technology faster than we can adjust our norms or our etiquette.  Do we ever have a prolonged conversation anymore?  There’s a difference between communication and conversation,” he suggests.

“We’re constantly packaging ourselves – exercising brand management in our conversations,” he observes.  “We’re so plugged in, we don’t do eye-to-eye communicating much anymore – there’s a need to increase facetime in our communication.”

Polgar is a frequent speaker and respected tech commentator/writer, and has been featured in The Boston Globe, Financial Times, BBC, SiriusXM, Sydney Morning Herald, VentureBeat, US News & World Report, TEDx, and Forbes, among other publications. He is also co-founder of the Digital Citizenship Summit, a global network of summits focused on safe, savvy, and ethical use of social media and technology. With a background as an attorney and educator, he examines tech use from an ethical, legal, and emotional perspective, providing a unique look into emerging trends and business insight.

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with the Twain House on this timely event,” said Connecticut Forum Executive Director Doris Sugarman. “We welcome opportunities like this to facilitate and encourage dialogue about compelling topics that impact our communities and our lives.”

Individuals planning on attending can send in a question in advance of May 4, via a link  that provides a form for questions to be directed at a specific panelist, or the entire panel.

Janell Burley Hofman is the author of the book, iRules: What Every Tech-Healthy Family Needs to Know About Selfies, Sexting, Gaming and Growing Up. She is also a speaker and consultant on topics like technology, media, health, relationships and personal growth. She will be signing copies of her book after the program.

Dr. David Greenfield is the founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He is recognized as one of the world’s leading voices on Internet, computer, and digital media behavior, and a pioneer concerning compulsive and addictive use. He is the author of the Virtual Addiction, which rang an early warning bell with tech overuse when it came out in 1999.  He lectures to public and medical/psychiatric groups throughout the world, and has appeared numerous times on national media and publications.

“I am looking forward to hearing from this panel of experts on questions that we consider every day,” said Jamie Daniel, Director of Programming at The Connecticut Forum, who will be moderating the discussion.  “How is technology changing the way we make friends, fall in love, and parent our kids? How is our online discourse impacting the way we engage in politics? Connect with one another? Shape our communities? And how is social media changing our relationships - and our brains? This amazing panel will help us consider all of this, and more.”

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The Connecticut Forum is a (c)(3) nonprofit organization serving Connecticut and beyond with live, unscripted conversations among renowned experts and celebrities, and community outreach programs including the Connecticut YOUTH Forum.  The Mark Twain House & Museum has restored the author's home, where the author and his family lived from 1874 to 1891. In addition to providing tours of the National Historic Landmark, the institution offers activities and educational programs that illuminate Twain's literary legacy and provide information about his life and times.

Tickets for DISCONNECT are $10. ($5 for Mark Twain House & Museum members and Connecticut Forum subscribers) The program on Wednesday, May 4 begins at 7 PM.  Photo: (l to r) David Greenfield, Jannell Hofmann, David Ryan Polgar.

CT Ranks As 7th Greenest State in the Nation, Analysis Says

Earth Day 2016 – celebrated on April 22 – will be observed in communities throughout Connecticut this weekend, against the backdrop of a new state-by-state analysis that ranks Connecticut as the 7^th “greenest” state in the nation. WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: 1) Environmental Quality, 2) Eco-Friendly Behaviors and 3) Climate-Change Contributions, including 17 key metrics that “speak to the health of the current environment as well as the environmental impact of people’s daily habits.”

Topping the list were Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Oregon, Minnesota, Maine, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire and New Jersey.  The data set ranges from “Total Municipal Solid Waste per Capita” to “Energy Efficiency Score” to “Carbon Dioxide Emissions per Capita.”

Connecticut’s highest ranking in the individual categories was in Water Quality, where the state ranked first.  Other top finished include Energy-Efficiency (6^th), Carbon Dioxide Emissions per Capita (6^th), and Gasoline Consumption per Capita (12^th).

The state ranked in the middle-of-the-pack in Percent of the Population Not Driving to Work (22^nd), Air Quality (24^th) and Percentage of Recycled Municipal Solid Waste (25^th).

In the three overall categories, Connecticut ranked 2^nd in Climate Change Contributions, 5^th in Environmental Quality, and 23^rd in Eco-Friendly Behavior.

At the bottom of the WalletHub ranking were Oklahoma, Nebraska, West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.

Baseball Cards, eBay and Racial Discrimination Drive Research Study

Racial discrimination is often difficult to prove, with a variety of influencing factors making a clear cut determination often impossible.  But it is also widely recognized that racial discrimination is also difficult to eliminate. Now, academic researchers have found yet another way of demonstrating that racial prejudice continues to impact daily lives – often in ways we are unaware of or hadn’t considered. In the 27-page study, published this past winter in the RAND Journal of Economics, Ian Ayres and Christine Jolls of Yale University, and Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard University investigated the impact of a seller’s race in a field experiment involving baseball card auctions on eBay. The results, according to the researchers, left little doubt.

In the experiment, photographs posted on eBart showed the cards being held by either a dark-skinned/African-American hand or a light-skinned/Caucasian hand. The study found that cards held by African-American sellers sold for approximately 20 percent ($0.90) less than cards held by Caucasian sellers.

“Our evidence of race differentials is important,” the researchers said, “because the online environment is well controlled (with the absence of confounding tester effects) and because the results show that race effects can persist in a thick real-world market such as eBay.”

They added that the experiment is “well suited to studying and isolating race effects because online bidders have no access to the types of seller information—such as demeanor and socioeconomic background—that are usually observable in field experiments examining the effects of race on economic behavior.”

The study, “Race Effects on eBay,” was featured in the Winter 2015 edition of the Journal, and has been referenced in national publications thereafter.  The Washington Post reported that “the cards that were held by the African-American hand actually ended up being worth more, suggesting they should have sold for more than the other batch. That is, when the researchers added up how much they had originally paid for all of the cards sold by the black hand versus the white hand, the first total was larger.”

The Post also reported that researchers found that cards sold by the African-American seller to bidders living in Zip codes with a higher proportion of white residents sold for less than those sold to in Zip codes with a larger Black population. In addition, the Post pointed out, “one interesting feature of the study is that, on eBay, the value of the auctioned good is decided in a kind of collective process. Buyers are not just trying to determine how much the good is worth to them; they are also trying to figure out how much everyone else is likely to bid for it. In an eBay auction, buyers can see others’ bids and continue to submit their price until the last minute. In other words, buyers might submit lower bids for the African-American seller not because they personally are biased, but because they expect everyone else to be.”

Christine Jolls (left) is the Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor at Yale Law School and the Director of the Law and Economics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ian Ayres (center) is a lawyer and an economist. He is the William K. Townsend Professor at Yale Law School, the Anne Urowsky Professorial Fellow in Law, and a Professor at Yale's School of Management. Mahzarin Banaji (right), a psychology professor at Harvard University, studies unconscious thinking and feeling as they unfold in social context, relying on multiple methods including cognitive/affective behavioral measures and neuroimaging (fMRI).  Previously, she was Director of Undergraduate Studies at Yale.

Former Hometown Stamford, Public Television Launch Ken Burns' Documentary on Jackie Robinson

As the 2016 major league baseball season begins, the eyes of the nation – and his former hometown of Stamford – will once again turn to the remarkable legacy of Jackie Robinson. A new documentary by acclaimed film director Ken Burns, titled Jackie Robinson, premieres Monday, April 11 at 9 p.m. and continues Tuesday, April 12 at 9 p.m. on PBS and CPTV. To kick-off the program’s debut, the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network (CPBN) will host a special tribute to Jackie Robinson at The Palace Theatre, Stamford on Friday, April 8 at 7 p.m. The event will include live jazz music by award-winning saxophonist Albert Rivera, and commentary and a Q&A session with ESPN commentator and former Major League Baseball player Doug Glanville.

Although not a Connecticut native, Robinson lived in Stamford for nearly 20 years, having moved to the community while a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954.  Robinson, known world-wide for breaking the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947, died of a heart attack in 1972, at age 53.

The evening will include an advance preview screening of the new two-part documentary by Ken Burns. The story of the first African American to play baseball in the major leagues features interviews with President Barack Obama, Harry Belafonte, Tom Brokaw, and others who share how Robinson’s determination and heroism influenced generations.

Upon arriving in Stamford, Robinson and his family lived with Richard Simon, co-founder of Simon and Schuster, and his wife, Andrea and their family at their North Stamford home before building a home on Cascade Road in North Stamford. The Simons’ daughter, singer/songwriter Carly Simon, recalled going with Robinson to Ebbets Field to see the Brooklyn Dodgers when she was young, the Greenwich Time recently reported.

Stamford has a public park named in his honor, recalling that Robinson represented tolerance, educational opportunity, and the confidence that inspires personal achievement and success. A life-size bronze statue of Jackie Robinson with an engraved base bearing the words “COURAGE,” “CONFIDENCE,” AND “PERSEVERANCE” stands in the park located on West Main Street, the gateway to downtown Stamford.

Just weeks ago, Jackie Robinson’s daughter Sharon and her mother Rachel accompanied President Obama to Cuba, and joined him and the United States delegation at an exhibition baseball game.  She told mlb.com:

“It brought back very personal memories of my father talking about his trip to Cuba in 1947, when the Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Havana. At the time, dad was a member of the Dodgers' farm team, the Montreal Royals. Branch Rickey arranged for him to fly to Cuba for an exhibition game, just a couple of months before he broke down baseball's color barrier in the United States. To me, this connection to my father almost brought me to tears. I was watching a baseball game in the same stadium nearly 70 years later.”

In the two-part documentary, Ken Burns “reveals fascinating stories about the legend’s life on and off the field.”  In part one, Robinson “rises from humble origins to integrate Major League Baseball, performing brilliantly despite the threats and abuse he faces on and off the field and, in the process, challenges the prejudiced notions of what a black man can achieve,” according to PBS.  In part two, Robinson” uses his fame to speak out against injustice, alienating many who had once lauded him for ‘turning the other cheek.’” After baseball, during his years in Stamford, “he seeks ways to fight inequality, but as he faces a crippling illness, he struggles to remain relevant.”

The documentary “paints the picture of a man who challenged institutional racism in the face of harsh criticism. It also delves into his close-knit relationship with his wife, Rachel, and their children through candid interviews and personal family photos.”

In 1997, Major League Baseball “universally” retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams; he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored. Initiated for the first time on April 15, 2004, Major League Baseball has adopted a new annual tradition, “Jackie Robinson Day,” in which all players on all teams wear #42.

Of his interest in sharing Robinson’s story, director Ken Burns said, “There was so much more to say not only about Robinson’s barrier-breaking moment in 1947, but about how his upbringing shaped his intolerance for any form of discrimination and how after his baseball career, he spoke out tirelessly against racial injustice, even after his star had begun to dim.”

My dad once said, "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives," Sharon Robinson recently recalled.

CT Women of Innovation To Be Honored This Week

The 12^th annual Women of Innovation® awards gala this week will recognize 52 women who are accomplished in science, technology, engineering, math and who are involved in their community, five college students and seven high school students who have already begun to demonstrate similar accomplishment. The annual awards event is “a time for like-minded, successful women to network and celebrate their accomplishments,” continuing a tradition led by the Connecticut Technology Council aimed at recognizing women in a range of innovative businesses, education and communities, and highlighting role models for young women looking ahead to career pursuits.

The categories include:

• Youth Innovation and Leadership
• Collegian Innovation and Leadership
• Community Innovation and Leadership
• Research Innovation and Leadership
• Academic Innovation and Leadership
• Entrepreneurial Innovation and Leadership
• Small Business Innovation and Leadership
• Large Business Innovation and Leadership

One woman in each of the eight categories will be selected as a top Woman of Innovation in her category, at the April 6 awards ceremony.

Among the nominees, in the Entrepreneurial Innovation and Leadership category, are Marcia Fournier, Founder & CEO of BioArray Therapeutics, Inc.; Gloria Kolb, CEO/Owner of Elidah, Inc.; Wendy Davis, CEO of GestVision, Inc.; Amy McCooe, Co-CEO of Level Up Village; Nicole Bucala, CEO of MIFCOR; Kelly Simpson-Angelini, CEO and Chief Strategic Officer of Simpson Heathcare Executives; Janine Darling, Founder & CEO of STASH America, LLC; and Anuja Ketan, Chief Technology Officer at Zillion Group Inc.

The women nominated in the Small Business Innovation and Leadership category include Melissa Casini – etouches, Norwalk, (Director of Account Management); Dina Dubey – Z-Medica, Wallingford,  (Executive VP, Corporate Development); Merrie London – Connecticut Innovations, Rocky Hill (Manager, SBIR and Federal Leveraging Programs); Jackie Mulhall – SMC Partners, Hartford (Director); Pam Perdue – Continuity Control, New Haven (Founder, EVP Regulatory Operations); and Kathleen Roberge – etouches, Norwalk (VP of Global Sales).

The full list of nominees includes individuals at some of Connecticut’s leading companies, including Sikorsky Aircraft, Frontier Communications, Hartford Hospital, Pfizer, and Pratt & Whitney. Academic institutions with Women of Innovation include the University of Connecticut, Wesleyan University, University of Bridgeport, and Yale University.

The keynote speaker for the April 6 awards program will be Congresswoman Elizabeth H. Esty, U.S. Representative for the 5th Congressional District of Connecticut. During the past 11 years, more than 500 women have been honored by Women of Innovation.

“Our state’s innovation sector recognizes the essential contributions its female engineers, scientists, programmers, physicians, mathematicians and teachers make in developing new products and services, advancing health technologies and serving as educators and role models for generations of women that follow,”said Connecticut Technology Council President and CEO Bruce Carlson. “Women of Innovation® allows us to put the spotlight on these exceptional innovators and leaders and connect them with a professional network of other women who strive for excellence.”

https://youtu.be/Uz1gQ96Yk1c