Parents & Students
Educators

Policy Makers
Supporters

Research & Publications

Increasing awareness about facts and issues impacting the Hartford Public Schools is a key objective for Achieve Hartford! Accomplishing that objective in an independent and credible manner is critical to our ongoing work. We devote time and energy to gathering and publishing information that is timely and useful. Projects undertaken and information sought are designed to provide transparency to important issues and build conversations on how to improve student achievement and sustain district reform. Positive change cannot happen and challenging decisions cannot be made without relevant data.

Our latest report is School Governance Councils in Hartford, an evaluation of the Year 2 implementation of these school level bodies, which are designed under state law and local District policy to engage parents and community members in school budgets and priority decision making.

Another recent report is the 2011 CMT-CAPT Summary Report.  This report stems from the annual standardized tests given to students and released by the Connecticut State Department of Education.  The tests cover the 3rd through 8th grades (the Connecticut Mastery Test or CMT) and the 10th grade (the Connecticut Academic Performance Test or CAPT).   Last year's report also is available; please click here for the 2010 CMT and CAPT results.

In another recent report, Building Knowledge and Confidence, we provide an evaluation of the 2011 Choice Education program, in which our Parent Choice Advisers touched more than 900 parents during more than 80 site visits.

Another recent example of our analytic research concerns the impact on Hartford achievement data from the statewide Modified Assessment System that has been implemented statewide to accommodate children with disabilities.  We also feature this discussion in the March 10, 2011 edition of our weekly issues update, Education Matters!

For additional Achieve Hartford! reports, please see below.

Report on Hartford Public School District Strategic Profile:
In a recently completed report, Achieve Hartford! summarizes key information from the Hartford Public School District’s annual Strategic School Profile. Achieve Hartford!’s synopsis provides highlights and observations based on Hartford’s Profile, as well as additional information gathered from other sources. The report notes that Hartford is still performing well below most other school districts in the state, and that achievement gap between Hartford and the state remains large. However, a trend of improvement is emerging, and reform efforts underway appear to be having an impact.
Achieve Hartford!’s profile summary
State Issued Hartford Public District 2008-09 Strategic School Profile

Monitoring School Governance Council Effectiveness:
A School Governance Council (SGC) is the primary, local school decision-making body of an autonomous school and is devoted to achieving a school’s mission and vision. Consistent with the District’s reform plan, an autonomous school is one that maintains defined levels of performance and student achievement. The SGCs focus mainly on the analysis of student achievement, development of improvement plans, allocation of resources and programmatic and operational changes that enhance the quality of the school.

Achieve Hartford! will help measure and evaluate the effectiveness of the SGCs. We plan to work closely with the District and its training partner, Leadership Greater Hartford, in understanding expected outcomes, and we will then provide an independent perspective as to the SGCs progress and impact.
Achieve Hartford! Year 1 Evaluation of School Governance Councils
Achieve Hartford’s School Governance Council Evaluation Part I