The State of Connecticut Public Education: A 2007 Report Card for Elementary and Middle Schools

 PDF version of full report

Preface
Alex Johnston, Ph.D.
Executive Director
alex.johnston@conncan.org

This study is the second annual “State of Connecticut Public Education” report and serves as a revised and expanded follow-up to ConnCAN’s first report, issued in fall 2006.

The goal of this report series and ConnCAN’s other research efforts is to provide an insightful and informative look at how well our public schools are meeting the needs of all students and to help state and district leaders, policymakers, journalists, and parents gain a better understanding of the challenges and the opportunities ahead of us in ensuring “Great Schools for All.”

This research report is one element of a three-part initiative focusing on school performance across the state. I encourage you to visit the two other elements of this project: 1) the online School and District Report Cards, with letter grades for more than 1,000 Connecticut public schools and 160 school districts, and 2) the Success Stories, which profile Connecticut public schools that are demonstrating that the achievement gap can be closed through dramatic gains in students’ academic performance.

ConnCAN’s mission is to close Connecticut’s achievement gap, which, as this report documents, is the largest gap of any public school system in the nation. To advance this goal, ConnCAN’s research both draws upon and helps inform our other efforts to raise awareness, empower parents, and build consensus for change.

I hope you find this report helpful in developing a more complete understanding of the state of Connecticut public education, and I invite you to contact me directly to learn more about our work.

Introduction
Marc Porter Magee, Ph.D.
Director of Research
marc.magee@conncan.org

The single most pressing issue facing public education in Connecticut is the achievement gap, the persistent and significant disparity between the academic achievement of low-income and minority children and their white, middle-class peers. This report is designed to provide a concise overview of what state and national student achievement data can tell us about the challenge of raising the achievement levels of all Connecticut students.

In the sections that follow, this report builds on ConnCAN’s school and district report card database to provide analysis and key findings for Connecticut, its districts, and its schools. Results from this 2007 analysis include:

Are Connecticut Schools Making the Grade?

• Overall, two out of three students in Connecticut elementary and middle schools are meeting state goals on the Connecticut Mastery Test. However, just one-third of African American, Hispanic, and low-income students are meeting these same goals.
• The gap between low-income and minority students and their white, middle-class peers actually increases between elementary and middle school. Between fifth and eighth grade the annual performance gains of white students are twice those of African American students and three-and-a-half times those of Hispanic students.
• Compared nationally, Connecticut’s achievement gap between poor and non-poor students ranks us 50th lowest of 50 states. Compared to low-income students in other states, Connecticut’s low-income eighth-graders rank 42nd in reading and 49th in math.

Are There Districts That Are Closing the Gap?

• Of the 101,000 poor students below grade level in Connecticut public schools in 2007, the majority are in just five school districts: Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and New Britain.
• While there are districts making double-digit gains in the percentage of students meeting the state goal on the Connecticut Mastery Test, the average annual gain for students in the five districts with the most low-income students is just one percentage point.
• Since 1993, the gap between Connecticut’s three largest school districts (Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven) and the state average on the fourth- grade Connecticut Mastery Test has increased in reading and writing while decreasing in math. The writing gap is now 50 percent larger than it was 14 years ago in these three cities.
• While almost half of the large districts in Connecticut spending less than $12,000 per student have annual performance gains of two points or greater, none of the large districts spending more than $12,000 per student have annual performance gains of two points or greater.

Are There Types of Schools That Are Closing the Gap?

• Connecticut’s magnet schools and public charter schools, on average, have student bodies with twice the percentage of low-income students and three times the percentage of minority students as traditional public schools.
• In general, African American and low-income students perform better in magnet schools and public charter schools than in traditional public schools.
• Public charter schools had higher average annual performance gains than traditional public schools, with charter students making twice the gain in elementary school (10.1 points versus 4.1 points) and three times the gain in middle school (6.9 points versus 2.0 points) as their counterparts in traditional schools.
• One factor contributing to charter schools’ larger performance gains may be “time on task,” with charter schools providing their students with 18.2 percent more hours of instruction than traditional public schools in elementary school and 12.2 percent more hours of instruction than traditional public schools in middle school.

Connecticut’s Top 10 Schools

• The schools appearing most often on the 2007 Top 10 lists are Hartford’s Jumoke Academy, Bridgeport’s New Beginnings Family Academy, Stamford’s Rogers School, New Haven’s Amistad Academy, and New Haven’s Elm City College Preparatory School.
• Traditional schools occupy 61 percent of the slots, magnet schools occupy 22 percent of the slots, and public charter schools occupy 17 percent of the slots.
• The districts with the greatest number of schools holding Top 10 slots are Stamford, Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven.
• The Success Stories section of ConnCAN’s website will serve as a growing repository of the lessons learned from these Top 10 schools.