There are three facts tied to the pandemic’s effects on education.  Number one, there was “learning loss” across the nation.  Number two, with most districts still suffering “learning loss” nearly 3 years after the pandemic, the federal government’s 2021 $189 BILLION ESSER relief bill to schools has been a failure.  Number three, there was no better time to be a business or non-profit offering educational services to school districts.

During the 2018-19 pre-COVID school year, the Hartford Board of Education awarded 24 contracts to outside interests, totaling $5,895,000.  Then, flush with $155 million of Uncle Joe’s ESSER money, the BOE, during the 2022-23 school year, handed out 48 contracts to outside interests for a more than 200% dollar increase from 2018-19 to $20,134,611! (a PDF file of all contracts awarded for the 2018-19 and 2022-23 school years is available here). 

And how’s that working for ya?

According to the state’s “official source for education data”, EdSight, “Chronic absenteeism at HPS in 2022-23, although showing improvement for the first school year since Prince Harry and Ms. Markle shacked up (I loved her in “Suits”), is still 53% higher than it was during the 2018-19 pre-COVID school year.

Even Detroit schools, “a district with one of the highest CA rates in the nation,” has outperformed our district in this category.  Compared to the 2018-19 pre-COVID school year, Detroit finished the 2022-23 school year showing a 10% increase in chronic absenteeism, again, HPS’ is up 53%!

EdSight data also shows that District Performance Indexes (DPI) for ELA, Math, and Science at HPS have not returned to normal bad HPS levels.  Following the 2022-23 school year, HPS schools are down 10% in ELA DPI, down 12% in math DPI, and down 11% in science DPI compared to where they were during the 2018-19 pre-COVID school year.

However, the district, led by its own Pollyanna, Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, will have her loyal but cowardly staff report to the high school journalists at WFSB and the Hartford Courant that they are seeing growth.  I planted a partial lawn this summer, believe me, I know growth.  Are they seeing growth?  No.

Comparing the HPS’ DPI data from last school year with the prior school year, we see that the ELA DPI declined by 2%, the science DPI declined 3%, but the math DPI did rise 1%.  Based on the rise in math DPI, even HPS students would look at the available data and see no new grass.

Nationally, there are schools making positive gains, even among those schools not in the 90210 zip code.  Washington D.C. schools are 9% behind in math performance compared to where they were in 2018-19, and only 3% behind where they were in ELA performance for the pre-COVID 2018-19 school year.

When the state Department of Education for North Carolina recently reported that “more than seven of every 10 [schools] achieving or exceeding their goals for academic growth” for the 2022-23 school year, they stated that this growth “mirrors trends reported in recent weeks by several other states.”  Despite spending more than $20 million on outside services to improve academic performance last school year, HPS saw a decline in 2 of 3 state DPI measures, with the third leaping all of 1 percent.

Having teachers would probably help.  Despite several contracts being issued for the purpose of “recruiting and retaining” teachers, HPS has, according to EdSight, only 38 more “certified staff” in 2022-23 than they had during the pre-COVID year of 2018-19.  However, the number of HPS administrators at the district level is at its highest point in the last 5 school years.

From all HPS expenditures in 2021-22, per pupil spending has increased 20% from 2018-19 levels, compared to a 17% increase statewide.

Never mind the bang, HPS is barely getting an audible tone for its spending largesse.  This is due to Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez not having a clue on how to manage a school district successfully and effectively, thereby creating a strategy of handing out candy to every Tom, Dick and Harry, LLC who profess to have an answer for some area of education and being supported by a BOE that acts as if accountability is not in its job description.