The State Department of Education reports that Hartford students attending a magnet or suburban school significantly outperform their peers who attend their neighborhood schools run by the Hartford Public School system.
“The performance of Hartford youth soars once they attend magnet schools and schools in the suburbs,” said Martha Stone, the lawyer behind the successful school desegregation lawsuit that led to the Connecticut Supreme Court’s ordering the state to reduce the inequities caused by the capital city’s predominantly black and Hispanic student population.
Released Wednesday, it is the first report the education department has offered on the achievement of Hartford students who leave their neighborhood school in the 17 years of the state attempting to comply with the Sheff vs. O’Neill court decision.
“The data indicate that Hartford-resident students enrolled in choice programming opportunities perform at higher levels than those who are enrolled in the city public schools,” said Kelly Donnelly, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Education. “In terms of change in performance at the goal level from 2012 to 2013, the results were mixed… We’re in the process of looking at these and other data in a variety of additional ways that have the potential to shed further light on results in the Sheff region and beyond.”
The differences in the achievement of Hartford students in math, reading, writing and science are huge, depending on the type of school they attend. When city students attend schools that enroll a mix of suburban and Hartford students, city students test higher.
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