City students’ scores improving, Several schools recognized for advances
By Maria Garriga, New Haven Register, September 27, 2006

NEW HAVEN — In its first report card on the state’s progress in closing the education achievement gap, a school reform advocacy group gave Connecticut a solid “F,” but ranked several of the city’s traditional public schools on the top 10 list of schools closing the gap.

ConnCAN’s report card, “The State of Connecticut Education,” released Tuesday, shows Nathan Hale School, Katherine Brennan School and Ross/Woodward School have joined Amistad Academy and Elm City College Preparatory School in achieving the greatest score gains in the state for minority and low-income students.

“This is more fair,” said New Haven Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo about how ConnCan is evaluating student performance school-to-school instead of district-to-district. “I’m not surprised (that the city schools did well).”

ConnCAN, a school reform group based in New Haven, is trying to close the achievement gap by giving parents detailed data analysis on test scores. While barely two-thirds of white students attained state goals on the Connecticut Mastery Test, only one-third of blacks and Hispanics scored at or above state goals. Also, only one-third of low-income students scored at or above the goals. The gap increases through the grade levels.

“We see this as the first phase to raise awareness of where we are and talk about the facts. The next phase is to focus on solutions,” said ConnCAN spokesman Marc Porter Magee, who also took part in the extensive number crunching.

The public can access individual school report cards by going to the agency’s Web site at www. conncan.org.

ConnCAN rated the schools on student performance on the Connecticut Mastery Tests in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Seven of the state’s most troubled districts contained 51 percent of the schools on the top 10 school lists compiled by ConnCAN. New Haven is the most well-represented, with city schools occupying five of the top 10 slots. New Haven’s charter schools, Amistad and Elm City Prep, appear five times in the top 10 middle school lists.

Magnet schools comprise just over four percent of the state’s public schools, but make up 20 percent of the top 10 schools. Charter schools make up just over 1 percent of public schools, yet they occupy 25 percent of the first- and second-place slots.

Jumoke Academy, a public charter school in Hartford, dominated the rankings, taking first place on four top 10 lists for middle schools.

Nathan Hale School in New Haven beat Jumoke as the top school in the state for performance gains among elementary schools, with students gaining an average of 28.5 points between fourth and fifth grade.

East Haven’s Momaguin School ranked 10th in the state for performance gains among elementary schools; students gained an average 20.8 points between fourth and fifth grade. The D.C. Moore School in East Haven ranked 10th in the state for most improved. Branford’s Mary T. Murphy School ranked first in the state for how well its low-income students performed, with 71.6 percent of poor students scoring at or above state goals.

Bishops Woods School in New Haven ranked ninth in the state for black student test scores, with 43.2 percent of the school’s black students scoring at or above state goals for their grade level.

Amistad Academy in New Haven ranked first in performance gains among middle school students; its students gained an average of 20.4 points between sixth and seventh grades; Katherine Brennan School in New Haven ranked fourth with an average gain of 13.8 points; and Ross Woodward School ranked fifth with an average gain of 13.7 points.

Nathan Hale School ranked third for middle school improvement between 2004 and 2006; students there gained an averaged of 16.9 points in that period.

“If every school in Connecticut made those kind of gains every year, then the achievement gap would quickly disappear,” said Magee.

The top 10 districts in the rankings were all suburban. Trumbull ranked highest in the state for black students’ test scores, with more than 69 percent scoring at or above state goals. Milford ranked third, with 61.1 percent; Milford also ranked as first for Hispanic test scores, with 76.1 percent scoring at or above state goals, with Trumbull just behind at second with 66.3 percent.