4th Annual Connecticut Data Conference

... to recognize and replicate our best practices

May 13th, 2009
Registration 7:45 - 8:45   Conference 8:45 - 2:45
Holiday Inn, Waterbury, Connecticut

Full registration fee $60.00 *
Sponsored by the Connecticut Association of Schools, the Connecticut State Department of Education, and the RESC Alliance

Directions to Holiday Inn


FROM POINTS WEST & SOUTH (NEW YORK): Take Route 84 East to Exit 25A (Austin Road). Take a left off the exit over Route 84. Take a right 1/4 mile ahead at the light onto East Main Street. The hotel will be immediately on the right.

FROM POINTS EAST & NORTH (HARTFORD): Take Route 84 West to Exit 26. Take a right off the exit and the hotel is 3/4 mile on your left

Registration is Full

With Keynote

“Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Inquiry - Connecting Data to Results”

Learn about the professional development, leadership, tools, and processes that are unleashing the power of data teams to improve student learning.

Presented by Nancy Love

Director of Program Development, Research for Better Teaching

To register, select a morning and afternoon breakout session from the list below and click the button at the bottom of the page to continue! If you have any registration issues, please contact the EASTCONN Conference Office at (860) 455-0707

Morning Breakout Sessions

Engaging in Data-Driven Dialogue with Student Work
In this session, participants will gain skills in facilitating powerful conversations about student work using a structured, four-phase dialogue process. Through a simulation, participants will experience first-hand how to make student-work analysis a positive, collaborative, and productive experience for teachers, leading to instructional improvement for students. Learn how to work with data teams to:
  1. deconstruct the knowledge and skills in an assessment task;
  2. activate their prior knowledge and surface assumptions;
  3. separate observation from inference;
  4. create colorful and visually vibrant data displays;
  5. invite multiple perspectives; and
  6. plan for re-teaching and extending learning based on evidence.


Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by Nancy Love, Director of Program Development at Research for Better Teaching in Acton, Massachusetts
Engaging Families for Student Success: Lessons from Connecticut Data
This workshop will highlight successful strategies at the school and district levels that are engaging families in their children’s education. These strategies are built on social marketing research from Connecticut that reveals the messages and messengers that parents find most credible and include models from the National Network of Partnership Schools and the Welcoming Schools assessment. The panel will discuss both the quantitative and qualitative data being gathered to document progress. Sample tools for planning and evaluating parent engagement activities will be provided.

Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by
  • Joe Cassella, Principal, Wesley Elementary School, Middletown
  • Donna Marino, Parent Resource Coordinator, Middletown
  • Carol Marinaccio, Instructional Specialist for Grants, Norwalk
  • Mary Peniston, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, Norwalk
  • Mary Budrawich, Instructional Specialist for Early Childhood, Norwalk
  • Barbara Slone, Consultant, CT Parent Information and Resource Center, SERC
  • Judy Carson, Consultant, CT State Department of Education
Introduction to "Instructional Best Practices for English Language Learners"
"Instructional Best Practices for English Language Learners," a new CALI component, is a ten hour workshop developed by Southern CT State University's Training for All Teachers Program. Participants will be introduced to topics covered in the workshop's four modules to include: debunking myths about ELLs, employing research-based sheltered strategies to make course content comprehensible, and practicing instructional strategies to increase ELL’s opportunities to engage with the content and to develop their academic language abilities. As part of the workshop introduction, participants will successfully engage in an interactive sheltered science lesson in a foreign language, thus illustrating many of the proposed instructional strategies.

Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by Marisa Ferraro and Lorrie Verplaetse, SCSU
Creating, Selecting and Assessing Curriculum Benchmarks- Glastonbury’s Efforts at the District and School Levels
Since the release of national and state standards and benchmarks in most curricular areas, the Glastonbury Public School district has created several efforts at setting common benchmarks in curricular areas and then planning for the assessment and data analysis of student performance against the benchmarks. This presentation will focus on the graduation benchmarks, rubrics, and related assessments at Glastonbury High School as well as benchmark assessments underway in Language Arts, Music and Science.

Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by
  • Christine Brown, Assistant Superintendent
  • Matthew Dunbar, Principal, Glastonbury High School
  • Catherine Buchholz, Director of Language Arts K-12
  • Patti Lignelli, Director of Music K-12
  • Fred Myers, Director of Science K-12
"Time Flies When You Are Talking Data - Getting More From Your Building Schedule!"
Are you struggling to find time for your data teams to meet? Are your teams meeting but work production stymied? Hear how three principals have approached finding the time for their grade level and data teams to meet within the school day at all three levels: elementary, middle and high school. Administrators will share both the struggles and successes of their building schedules and the creation of meeting times.

Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by
  • Catherine M. Carbone, Principal, Chippens Hill Middle School, Bristol
  • Steve Strand, Assistant Principal, New Britain High School
  • Linda Boyle, Vice Principal of Robert J. O'Brien School, East Hartford
No Morning Breakout
I do not want to attend a morning breakout session.

Afternoon Breakout Sessions

Engaging in Data-Driven Dialogue with Student Work
REPEATED SESSION FROM MORNING
In this session, participants will gain skills in facilitating powerful conversations about student work using a structured, four-phase dialogue process. Through a simulation, participants will experience first-hand how to make student-work analysis a positive, collaborative, and productive experience for teachers, leading to instructional improvement for students. Learn how to work with data teams to:
  1. deconstruct the knowledge and skills in an assessment task;
  2. activate their prior knowledge and surface assumptions;
  3. separate observation from inference;
  4. create colorful and visually vibrant data displays;
  5. invite multiple perspectives; and
  6. plan for re-teaching and extending learning based on evidence.


Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by Nancy Love, Director of Program Development at Research for Better Teaching in Acton, Massachusetts
Developing a District-wide Accountability System - Building Capacity for Change in Every Classroom
Members of Middletown's District Data Team will review the process the district has implemented to assure that SRBI’s Tier II Goals - "Adult Work" established in the District Improvement Plan and each of the eleven School Improvement Plans - is occurring in all classrooms. Panel/district data team members from central office, school administration, and classroom teachers will discuss the challenges, pitfalls and successes of the process and its implementation at their level. The panel will also respond to questions from participants.

Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by
  • Ms. Barbara Senges - Assistant Superintendent for Administration - District Data Team Facilitator
  • Dr. John Hennelly - Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum
  • Mr. Craig Creller - District Mathematics Supervisor
  • Ms. Laurie Slade - Supervisor for Special Education
  • Mr. Robert Fontaine - Principal, Middletown High School
  • Mr. Jim Gaudreau - Principal, Snow Elementary School
  • Mr. Martin Skelly - Fourth Grade Teacher, Bielefield School
  • Ms. Lisa Sherman - Grade Eight Language Arts Teacher, Woodrow Wilson Middle School
  • Mr. Harold Panciera - Science Teacher, Middletown High School
  • Mr. Jared Morin - District Data Manager
Building Teacher Capacity Through Data Teams
Are you doing data teams, but feel like you are just going through the motions? Join us to fine tune your practices and make data the driving force behind your instruction. Learn about data teams through the perspectives of Middletown reading coaches and classroom teachers who have experienced success as one of ConnCAN’s TOP 10 SCHOOLS in 2008

Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by
  • Kristen Bradley (External Literacy Facilitor)
  • Suzanne Shippee-Lopez (Internal Literacy Facilitator)
  • 2nd Grade Teachers: Nancy Liquori, Erin DeToro, Julie D'Amico
  • Joanne Manginelli (ACES Data Facilitator)
Improve Your CAPT Scores: High (and Middle) School Data Teams that Raise Achievement
This session will present a model of three data teams that have helped students dramatically raise CAPT scores in all four CAPT areas. The model can be adapted to work at the middle-school level. The three teams are an English/Language Arts Team, a Math Team, and a Content Area Team. The latter focuses on teaching reading strategies to improve reading of academic material in each subject area. Participants will learn about this model and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of teams initiated at other schools.

Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by Oliver Barton (Director) and Liz Cox (Dean of Students), Common Ground High School, New Haven, CT
Using Data to Improve School Climate
The CT Technical High School System has launched a district-wide school climate improvement effort (17 schools, 10,000 students). The content of this session will be devoted to sharing the decisions behind this initiative as well as the process and challenges involved in moving the data collection process forward and incorporating the results into school and district improvement action plans.

Show/Hide Presenter(s)
Presented by
  • Jo Ann Freiberg, CSDE Consultant, School and District Improvement/School Climate
  • Patricia A. Ciccone, Asst. Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction CTHSS
  • Carrie Leib, Consultant, Special Education CTHSS,
  • and members of the CTHSS Data Teams.
No Afternoon Breakout
I do not want to attend an afternoon breakout session.

*Fee waivers will be applied during registration