As part of their presentation notifying the Board of Education that they will soon be paying for the installation of a playground at Capital Prep Magnet School, Hartford Public Schools leadership created a slide which stated their 2024 “major goals,” created as part of their 2021-2024 “strategic operating plan.” 

Although this slide was bypassed and not discussed during the meeting, HPS highlighted that the playground installation would assist in meeting the district’s goal of having 62% of district students report that they “feel connected” to their school.  Only 47% of students in grades 3-12 at Capital Prep reported a positive connection to their school in the Superintendent’s Spring 2023 Climate, Culture, and Equity Survey.

It is this district wide survey which we are concerned with here. However, we look at the survey data with the full knowledge that data presented by the district in any context has more holes than a Cornhole board.

Data from the Spring 2022 survey, under the section labeled “Participation,” tells us that 11,271 students in grade 3-12 participated in the survey.  In the survey from the Spring of 2023, we see that that participation number fell 17% to 9,342 students in grade 3-12, based on HPS’ stated total student enrollment equaling 14,562 students in each year.

One would think that the millions paid to outside sources to better the culture and climate of the district would result in students being more engaged with their school, thereby increasing participation in the Superintendent’s annual survey.  HPS’ data shows that the exact opposite has occurred over the last two years.

However, under the section of the survey labeled “Grade Level,” we find that in 2022 the total number given for students who participated in the survey at each grade level (3-12) equals 9,201.  Using the same data from the 2023 survey (9,032), we also see that the participation numbers dropped from 2022 to 2023, albeit a drop of less than 2%.  Which numbers are correct?

Under the section labeled “Welcoming Culture and Nurturing Climate” we find that both surveys, 2022 and 2023, found identical 58% of students reporting “I feel connected to my school.”  That is 58% of those answering the question, which in 2022 was 23% less than those “participating” in the overall survey, and 5% less than all those “participating” in 2023.  After 7 years under the strategic planning and leading of Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez, and almost half of students in grades 3-12 do not feel connected to their school.

Unfortunately, the state does not conduct its own culture and climate survey of students in grades 3-12, so we have no “official” data to compare with HPS’ version.  However, EdSight, the state’s “official source of education data,” does tell us that in 2022 there were 12,495 students in grades 3-12 at HPS, 14% less than what HPS is telling the BOE.  In 2023, EdSight reports that HPS has 12,088 students in grades 3-12, 17% less than what HPS reported to the BOE.

Assuming students were connected to their school, one could assume that they would fight to go and stay in school.  The Superintendent told us at the BOE Workshop on September 12 that the number one reason for student absenteeism is “health,” so, giving students the benefit of the doubt, it wouldn’t be fair to use HPS’ chronic absenteeism number (39%) as a school connection metric (although most of my absences were listed being due to illness, once my parents left the house, I felt pretty damn good). 

And, since the school district gives more weight to how happy a child is at school rather than their academic scores, the across the board drop in test scores over the past 2 years would not figure into their math on determining how connected a student is to their school.

We could use, however, the state’s data for suspensions and expulsions (13%) as one measure showing a student’s connection to school.  HPS’ suspension/expulsion number was nearly 2 percentage points higher last year than the year before and 3 percentage points higher than the year before COVID closed the schools.

This all being said, data means nothing to the folks at HPS and the BOE since the Superintendent favors leading with rhetoric and roguish data rather than reality and the BOE soaks it up like Bounty on Kool-Aid.