Inequitable funding between schools, block scheduling, inadequate teacher pay and supports creating a negative classroom climate, terrible lunches, no libraries, always taking tests, data-driven science ignored: are these elements of the Hartford school system driving kids out of the district? 

Do students like going to their Hartford school?  The Superintendent’s Fall 2022 Survey said, not very much.  Only 56% of students who responded said that they liked going to school.  However, 20% of those who we are told filled out the survey, were Hartford 3rd graders, 84% of them gave a positive response.  Only 46% of seniors answered the same way.

There is much research that will agree that a superintendent’s effect on student “achievement” is negligible.  The folks at Brookings, a nonprofit public policy organization in D.C. which conducts research and provides policy recommendations and analysis on a wide range of public policy, published a report in 2014 with the title, “School Superintendents: Vital or Irrelevant?” While they agreed with the research, they did say that “in the end, it is the system (emphasis mine) that promotes or hinders student achievement.” 

Well, who the hell designs the “system?”  It is the superintendent who designs, or contracts out for, and carries out the programs in the district.  It is the superintendent who ensures that high-quality services and supports are available to the students – HPS has over 200 teacher vacancies.  It is the superintendent who develops programs to engage families and communities – 23% of parents took the superintendent’s Fall 2022 Survey.  It is the superintendent who distributes leadership and responsibilities around the district – even third parties looking to hookup with HPS must run their pitches through the superintendent’s office, and use the same pdf design as they do, before presenting to the Board of Education for, most likely, approval.  It is the work of the superintendent that creates a welcoming and safe environment for students – neither one of these elements reached the 70% level on the superintendent’s survey.

This is not about achievement.  It is about what may lead to achievement, liking and coming to school.  And in Hartford, they are not.  Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez has been sitting in the captain’s chair since December of 2016, and the one next-in-line before that.  Since that time, Hartford Public Schools has seen a decrease in enrollment for 7 consecutive years.  Hartford has lost more than 4,000 students since that time, nearly 700 each year.  It’s like the damn Bermuda Triangle here.

Yes, dropping enrollment is like COVID, it’s a state and national issue.  However, no other district in the Hartford region has been on the same downward spiral as Hartford Public Schools.  Is the superintendent’s job like that of a baseball managers?   When the team wins, he takes too much of the credit.  When the team loses, he takes none of the blame.

Perhaps nobody is to blame.  As the great baseball sage Yogi Berra once said, “"If people don't want to come out to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?"