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The Hartford Schools Board of Education held an October 3rd Workshop to suffer through the Superintendent and the Office of Talent Management’s (OTM) annual data presentation on the “State of Talent” at HPS. While trying to justify remaining in their positions, Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez and OTM Chief Tiffany Curtis delivered data which in some cases showed wins, in some cases showed losses, and in some cases showed, at worst, lies, at best, outright stupidity.
The image at the top is from a slide presented during the October 4, 2022 “State of Talent” presentation, and the image on the bottom is from the latest “State of Talent” presentation (Download 2022 PDF)(Download 2023 PDF). At the latest presentation, the 2022-23 data screen was not shown, and comparison data was not presented.
As you can see, according to HPS brain trust, the total number of “candidates” hired during the 2023-24 recruitment season was 446, exactly what it was during the 2022-23 hiring season. Similarly, of these new candidates hired during the 2023-24 hiring season, 275 were “classroom teachers,” the exact same number from the 2022-23 hiring season. Based on this data, any additional funds spent on, and any new initiatives focused on recruiting teachers and other candidates, resulted in no change in hiring numbers, a zero increase, or, if you will, failure.
Direct your attention to the bar charts in the images. The blue bars represent the percentages of Connecticut’s Educator Population from each of the labeled categories (Black, Hispanic, etc.). The green bars represent the percentages of those same categories within the HPS educator population. Based on this data, we can see that HPS saw miniscule rises in the percentages of each category not labeled “White” from 2022-23 to 2023-2024. However, look at the percentages for the Connecticut Educator population (blue bars), they do not change from year to year, each category is exactly the same year over year. Apparently non-white teachers hired at HPS are not counted at the state level and no other district in Connecticut saw any change in their teacher demographics which would affect the state level totals. Bullshit.
Also note from the slides that for at least the second straight school, more than half of the schools within Hartford Public Schools started the school year understaffed.
Direct your attention to the 2023-24 image. HPS states that “Schools opened with 0 Elementary vacancies” (although they state later in the presentation that there are now 3 elementary vacancies). This is not a completely true statement. During the 2022-23 school year, a school in Hartford could not fill a 4th grade teacher position so a Tech Ed teacher was asked to cover that 4th grade class. At the start of this school year, that same 4th grade teacher position was not filled, and the Tech Ed is still being used to cover that class. This is one story for which I have been made aware, how many similar stories exist within the district for which we are not being told but instead are fed compromising data. This is HPS leadership. This, according to OTM Chief Curtis, is representative of “the good work coming out of OTM.”
Based on these data deficiencies, all other data presented by the district must be considered suspect, because just what the truth is, we can’t say anymore. But let’s continue anyway, just for shits and giggles.
At last week’s presentation, Torres-Rodriguez and Curtis stated that HPS “received 1067 applicants from December 1 to August 31, compared to 783 applicants over the same period in 2022-23.” However, based on their presentation slides from 2022-23, the periods were not the same.
The 2022-23 presentation stated that those 783 applicants came, not from the same period, but from January to August, a one-month difference. They themselves stated last week that this year they “opened the pool in December (shouldn’t the pool always be open?), one month earlier than previous years…”
Based on their data for the 2022-23 hiring season of 783 applicants between January and August, which is 98 applicants a month, if we add that extra month’s applicants to the 783 total, that brings the total to 881 applicants compared to the 1067 applicants stated during the 2023-24 hiring season, for a difference of 186 applicants. Now remember the opening images where HPS states that there was 0 increase in the hiring of “candidates” and “classroom teachers” over the past 2 hiring seasons. Thus, despite 186 more applicants during the latest hiring season, there was no change in the number of “candidates” or “teachers” hired over the past 2 years.
Based on this data, would you dish out another $300,000 for a third contract to the Adams & Knight marketing gurus tasked with bringing more teachers to Hartford? Would you extend the contracts of Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez and OTM Chief Curtis?
The image on the left is a slide from last week’s presentation, while the image on the right is a slide from the October 2022 presentation. These slides represent the work done by the folks at Adams & Knight, who are currently seeking a third contract from HPS.
I am of the belief that “impressions” in digital marketing is a dubious engagement measure, just shy of meaningless. However, HPS leadership gush over the number of impressions. Impressions are created if a social media post appears on another’s social media feed. Chief Curtis states that it means “the post was seen.” That is not the case. As users of HPS’ ParentSquare will tell you, the fact that HPS sends out bucket loads of posts does not mean that they were all seen (in fact, many are ignored). Do you see every post in your social media feed of choice?
At any rate, as you can see from the above images based on the work of Adams & Knight, impressions generated dropped 6 million from 2022-23 to 2023-24. These impressions are supposed to drive folks to the campaign landing page where they may apply to teach at HPS. For the last 2 years, less than 1% of those impressions have turned into folks going to the landing page. And, as stated, the results of “paid media” driving folks to the landing page has decreased by at least 14,000 over the last 2 years. The 2022-23 slide was not shown to the BOE members at the latest meeting and no comparison data was discussed, obviously.
Two days after this data shit show, at the October 5th Family & Community Engagement Committee meeting, there was a discussion concerning extending the contract of Adams & Knight for another year $300,000. This is an increase over previous contracts to this group because HPS feels that they do such a good job in digital marketing (see above), they now want them to also run a campaign to drive students into Hartford. Rotsa ruck.
At the meeting, Board Member Browdy asked for data showing Adams & Knight’s work since the last contract. HPS Chief Operating Officer Sherri Davis-Googe and Board Member Escribano repeatedly stepped on any member’s request for Adams & Knight data by stating that it was shown at the October 3rd meeting and the video of that meeting should be watched by BOE members. No assessment data was shown, and Board Member Browdy was the only voice at the meeting against moving this contract toward final approval. Accountability be damned. Not only is the whole story not being told, but there are members of the administration and the BOE who do not even want the story to get out.
Some other things we learned from the October 3rd meeting which Board Member Escribano wants you all to see:
- Despite a million dollar contract to substitute staffing firm ESS, HPS is reporting that 85% of teacher absences are not being filled by as substitute teacher (14.7% fill rate). For the 2022-23 school year, the fill rate was 15%.
- Only 63% of teachers bothered to respond to the district’s “intent to return survey,” 9% of those folks said they’re getting the hell out.
- The two top reasons stated by teachers for their intent not to return were not feeling valued and dissatisfaction with school climate and culture, chosen by 86 respondents. These were the same top reasons chosen by teachers and revealed during the October 2022 presentation. However, the latest number of folks who chose these reasons is 5 less than the previous year. So, that’s something, I guess.
- Only 15% of those teachers who left the district completed the district’s “exit survey.” Data presented by HPS states that the number one reason for teachers leaving the district was “higher compensation/better benefits” and that “this is in alignment with earlier employee engagement survey results.” Which survey results exactly? It certainly is not in alignment with their own “intent to return survey,” where compensation was the 3rd most selected reason. Deflect much?
So, the next time you witness the district gushing over their own data, take it with a grain of salt and squint your eyes, perhaps you will see reality.
“Cold hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey and yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion.”
– Nights in White Satin, The Moody Blues
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