Founders, Board & Team

Roots are important. It is from our roots that we can grow.

That’s why we remain incredibly grateful to the committed men and women who brought our organization to life.

A brief history

In 2010, Gov. M. Jodi Rell commissioned a task force to examine the achievement gap — the difference in academic performance between Connecticut’s low-income and non low-income students. At the time, Connecticut had one of the worst achievement gaps in the country, largely because the state’s low-income students were performing in the bottom third of the nation.

That task force was led by Steven J. Simmons, who submitted the task force report to Gov. Rell in 2011; his commitment to advancing the policy recommendations in the task force report led him to establish the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER), now known as ReadyCT. As CCER, the organization successfully advocated for nearly 100 legislative outcomes to improve Connecticut public education.    

Today, ReadyCT maintains a policy presence while growing career-connected programming efforts for Connecticut’s public school students. 

Founders & Board Members

Since the beginning, our founders and board members have steered us toward success. ReadyCT has been involved in nearly 80 separate legislative efforts to improve education in Connecticut, with over half of them reaching implementation! This happened because of the dedicated individuals who have worked tirelessly to ensure opportunity reaches all Connecticut public school students.