Today the State Department of Education released the 2010 Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) scores for elementary and middle school students, and our research department didn't waste any time in analyzing the numbers. Here's what we found: overall, Connecticut saw slight improvements over the past year in closing America’s worst achievement gap. These changes were largely driven by improvements in the large cities of Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport.

Download our full analysis here.

The three major findings of our analysis:

• In our measurement of the performance gains made by cohorts of students over the past year, New Haven far outpaced the statewide average with a 4.0 point gain in the percentage of students at goal, compared to a statewide gain of 2.8 points. Hartford (2.9) and Bridgeport (2.7) showed gains comparable to the statewide average, while Stamford (1.7) and Waterbury (-0.2) actually lost ground compared to the state.
• Overall district-level improvement saw similar trends in the five largest cities, with Hartford (2.5), New Haven (2.4) and Bridgeport (2.3) doubling the statewide average (1.2), while Waterbury (0.8) and Stamford (0.2) significantly underperformed compared to the changes statewide.
• On the strengths of the gains made by the three largest districts, Connecticut’s average achievement gap between minority and low-income students and their white and middle-class peers declined 0.5 points in elementary school and 2.6 points in middle school.

So what does all this mean? The numbers show that Connecticut is capable of progress, but we still have a long way to go. We need our state leaders to push for fundamental reforms that will make a real difference in how well our kids learn. That's why we launched our Vote for Ed! campaign yesterday--Ed is pushing to ensure that education reform is front and center in the governor’s race. But to win, he needs your vote. Find out how you can vote for Ed here.