Public Schools Mark Demographic Shift

The typical students in Connecticut’s public schools are now more likely to show up to class with a significant obstacle to their education, yet they continue to outperform most of the country on a major national exam — even after a recent slip in scores this year.

Last summer, state officials noticed that, for the first time, a majority of the students in Connecticut’s public schools are classified as ​“high-needs,” the state’s term for students growing up in poverty, learning English for the first time or living with a disability.

Despite those barriers, Connecticut’s public school students are outperforming the rest of the country on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the biannual test for Grades 4 and 8, better known as the ​“Nation’s Report Card.” Officials released the report last week.

It showed that, despite a major demographic shift, the state’s public school students (including those in charter schools) are still coming out ahead.

Especially as they finish middle school, Connecticut’s students seem to excel ahead, compared to the rest of the country.

By eighth grade, only nine states do better in math, and only two do better in reading. Massachusetts, New Jersey and Minnesota are the only ones ahead by a statistically significant difference in either subject.

Yet few states see as much variation in their scores by race and class as Connecticut, where some of the largest gaps in the country have continued to widen.

“Connecticut continues to struggle with an extreme educational achievement gap that disadvantages black and brown children and children that come from low-income families,” said Tami Christopher, the deputy director for education research and policy at CT Voices for Children. ​“This gap is not unique to Connecticut and is perhaps the most urgent dilemma in the country as our population demographic shifts to minority-majority, and the wealth gap between rich and poor grows. We must provide equitable access, opportunities and supports to ensure that our youth are lifelong learners, able to pursue success in work and community.”

Over the last decade, Connecticut’s average scores have basically stayed the same on the 500-point test, declining by a handful of points.

Since 2009, scores in mathematics declined by 1.5 points for Grade 4 (down to a 3.3‑point edge over the rest of the country) and 2.5 points for Grade 8 (down to a 5.2‑point edge). Scores in reading declined by 4.6 points for Grade 4 (down to a 4.9‑point edge over the rest of the country) and 2.1 points for Grade 8 (down to a 7.7‑point edge).

During the same time period, Connecticut’s school system has contracted by 41,000 students out of a current 531,000 total. That means, on average, two students are now missing what could’ve been 30-desk classrooms.

There are now 89,000 fewer white students and 12,000 fewer Black students, while there are 38,000 more Hispanic students and 3,700 more Asian-American students.

Meanwhile, for elementary school, the number of poor kids increased by half over, the number of special-needs kids increased by a third, the number of English learners more than doubled.

Among the state’s half-million students, 35.4% now qualify for subsidized school lunch because of their family’s poverty, 14.5% have individualized education programs because of their special needs, and 6.8% have language supports because of their limited English.

The state labels them as ​“high needs,” a term that one expert says should change, especially as those have become the norm in Connecticut’s public school classrooms.

“The term ​‘high needs’ is defined in different ways depending on the context and is typically positioned with a deficit perspective and contributes to unconscious bias,” Christopher, from CT Voices, said. ​“Connecticut should consider reframing our lens.”

Even as its students face more challenges, Connecticut might be doing so well on the standardized tests because it’s still generally one of the country’s wealthiest states. The median family makes just over $74,000.

Still, within Connecticut, there are significant gaps in test scores, especially by race and language, reflecting inequalities that exist outside the classroom.

Most of Connecticut’s high scores have been driven by its white students. They score better than other white students across the country in every grade and every subject.

Connecticut’s Asian-American students also do significantly better than their peers in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math, and Connecticut’s Black students also do significantly better than their peers in 8th grade reading.

But other racial groups are basically tying their peers in the rest of the country on the standardized test. Or, in the case of Connecticut’s Hispanic students, they’re doing significantly worse than their peers on 8th grade math.

English learners, in particular, scored way below their peers around the country in 8th grade math, with a 15-point gap for similar students. They scored 58 points behind the state average.

(Officials point out that NAEP only counts students as English learners if they have limited proficiency in the year that they took the test, not the bilingual students who’ve already caught up and exited the status.)

To undo those achievement gaps, the state says that it wants to make sure districts are using a ​“rigorous curriculum,” with ​“engaging instruction and aligned assessments”; hiring ​“skilled and qualified educators”; and have multiple levels of intervention, especially to deal with trauma.

Officials add that they will provide ​“financial and technical assistance” to the districts with the ​“greatest need.”

“While we are pleased to see that overall our students in Connecticut performed better than most of their peers across the country, we still have much more work to do to close the disparity gaps that exist around the state,” Miguel Cardona, the state’s education commissioner, said in a statement.

Wendy Lecker, a senior attorney at the Education Law Center, said the state’s flat-lined scores show that years of reforms, especially around ​“test-based accountability,” haven’t made much of a difference. She said schools need more money to succeed, as a growing body of research suggests, especially as student needs increase.

“Need has been going up in states I’ve seen. What that means is school spending should be going up. Kids with higher needs are more expensive to educate, [because] as Justice Palmer said in a concurrence [in CCJEF v. Rell] kids with those needs have to attend to a lot before they get to fractions and Fitzgerald,” Lecker said.

“We can afford what we value,” she added. ​“What we’ve told the citizens of Connecticut we value are tax breaks for hedge funds and insurance companies, which we know really doesn’t affect the behavior of companies in whether they come and go. We can pay for what we value.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of New Haven, who chairs the House subcommittee that appropriates federal education dollars, called the national results ​“disappointing.”

DeLauro said that means the federal government needed to invest more in public schools (as she had proposed doing by $3.5 billion), rather than diverting money to private-school vouchers (as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had proposed with $5 billion in tax credits).

“Our nation’s public schools are in dire need of robust investments — not Secretary DeVos’ cuts and privatization plans,” DeLauro said.