State DOE
New Haven school district indicator scores.
A new state report card looks beyond tests scores to rate schools, concluding that New Haven is doing a good job preparing ninth graders to graduate from high school, but not adequately decreasing chronic absenteeism among high-needs students.
The report also designated two New Haven charter schools as “schools of distinction” in the top 10 percent of state results.
Meanwhile, one traditional public school in town — Hill Central Music Academy — shed its low-performing “turnaround” status.
The new state report was based on 2014 – 2015 data designed to give a more comprehensive view of student performance by district and by school than previous reports did.
Click here to see the full set of results.
The state Department of Education developed the new “Next Generation Accountability System” over the last two years to measure schools based on 12 indicators: Smarter Balanced and other state test results, academic growth, state test participation rates, chronic absenteeism, enrollment in AP and technical classes, exam results in AP and technical classes, graduation preparation rate for ninth-graders, four-year graduation rate, six-year graduation rate for high needs students, college enrollment, physical fitness and access to the arts.
Previously, state measures focused on state tests without delving into other factors.
New Haven Public Schools received its highest scores in the percentage of ninth graders on track to graduate high school and the college entrance rate for all students, with the former receiving 90.1 of 100 total points from the state and the latter 88.4 points.
Its lowest score was 0.1 points for chronic absenteeism among high-needs students — based on a high rate of 30 percent, compared to the state average of 17.3 percent. New Haven was the only district in the state to earn essentially no points for that indicator, said Imma Canelli, deputy superintendent.
New Haven schools also showed a stark disparity between the score for students who took AP classes and the score for those performing well on the exams, with 72.6 points earned for students taking classes and 21.2 point for those passing.
“Students have access to high-level AP courses and career courses. That’s a good thing. But their achievement in those courses is not as high,” Superintendent Garth Harries said. “Even if a student doesn’t get a 3 or above, we still think it’s useful for them to be exposed to that kind of rigor.”
State DOE
New Haven’s Next Generation Accountability Report.
New Haven could increase the indicator scores by limiting the students who take AP classes to those who are most likely to be successful. But that is not the priority of the district, he said.
Harries said he argued for second-year college enrollment to be included in the list of indicators, since it is a measure of success used in the district.
And he stressed that the indicators are measuring data from the previous academic year: “That is one thing with state reports is that they tend to lag. We’re already looking forward to next school year and they’re telling us about last school year while we’re all sitting in the middle of this school year.”
New Haven has targeted chronic absenteeism this year through the Attendance Matters campaign organized through its new department of youth, family and community engagement, headed by Gemma Joseph Lumpkin. Harries said he expects the score for that indicator to increase in next year’s report.
Lumpkin said the numbers have already improved. Chronic absence rates at high-needs schools have dropped eight points between last year’s second marking period and this year’s, she said.
Lumpkin attributed the jump directly to the “hard work of principals and the drop out prevention team” through the Attendance Matter campaign.
A separate part of the report designated “turnaround” and “focus” schools using a new set of definitions and measures.
Turnaround schools are either in the lowest scoring 5 percent of schools in the state, receiving School Improvement Grants (SIG), or have graduation rates below 75 percent. Of some of the New Haven schools designated turnaround, Troup School and West Rock Author’s Academy are SIG schools, Hillhouse High School and High School in the Community have graduation rates below 75 percent, and Clemente, Fair Haven, Lincoln-Basset and Strong Schools are in the lowest 5 percent, Canelli explained.
Hill Central Music Academy is no longer a turnaround or focus school— because it does not fit any of the new designations.
Focus schools are those whose high-needs students scored poorly on state exams in English Language Arts (ELA), math or science, prioritized in that order. King/Robinson School is a focus school for science, meaning it is in the lowest 10 percent for high-needs students in science scores. That means it is not in the lowest 10 percent of schools in ELA or math.
Schools must go to their individual data and see how they fared in each indicator, to determine what determined their overall performance, she said.
Two Achievement First (AF) charter schools — Amistad Academy and Elm City College Prep School — were among 84 schools among the state designated “schools of distinction,” meaning they received results in the top 10 percent of schools statewide.
Assistant regional AF superintendent Morgan Barth said the new indicators measure “both the absolute achievement of students at the school but also year-after-year growth. … It makes us equally if not more proud now, when it includes all of these other factors that speaks to everything that should go on at a healthy school.”
Charter schools receive misguided criticism when they get good scores, that their results are based on singleminded focus on state test preparation, Barth said. This holistic report shows the many other factors their schools are getting right, including enrichment programs as well as academic ones, he said.
The report is based on 2014 – 15 data, predating a new pilot program at Elm City College Prep called Greenfield, focused on incorporating self-directed learning and real-world experience into the classroom as part of a plan to create a K‑8 “school of the future.”
“If anything, that’s just doubling down on enrichment,” Barth said, which will likely increase their scores in future years. Achievement First will use the data to give feedback to school leaders and teachers, he said.