When we look at per pupil spending, HPS spends more pupil than three of the districts, but they spend more for instruction per pupil than only one of the other four districts. 

When it comes to student performance on state testing, the five districts are not unique, they are similar in their failing as measured by the state’s District Performance Index (DPI).  The states index expectation is 75.

Does size matter?  There are four districts in Connecticut with between 5,000-15,000 kids and who have between 17-25% special education students and ELL students like the five previously shown.  These districts are East Hartford, New Britain, Meriden, and West Haven.  While their DPI numbers in the three core subjects also do not reach the magical 75 as set by the state, all, except for New Britain, do outperform the other five districts by 5%-10% and all four have lower per pupil spending than does Hartford.

Among those school districts in Connecticut with an enrollment of more than 5,000 kids and with similar percentages of special education students and ELL students, HPS is at the bottom of student performance rankings despite a higher per pupil expenditure than all but Stamford.  In ELA and Math, HPS scores are lower today than they were in 2016-17.  In science, EdSight provides no scores for school years before 2018-19.  Today, HPS is lower in science scores than they were in 2018-19.  And with growth rates in these scores of less than 2% between 2016 and 2019, do not be misled by the reliance on, “then COVID happened.” 

But our focus is misplaced.  Hartford was not looking for a superintendent to lead a school district for seven years to be just as bad, or worse, than any other district so situated.  I could have done that.  Rather than bring in a superintendent from the outside with experience in turning around a failing district, the Hartford brain trust hired someone who was working within a perpetual failing district.

In 2016, when Torres-Rodriguez took over as interim superintendent, she stated, “My experiences in Hartford are deeply connected to the experiences of our students and families and having that perspective allows me to really connect and understand at a very personal level what our students need to experience in our schools in order to be successful” (Hartford Courant, Dec. 1, 2016, p. B6). 

After seven years at the head of a failing school district, it’s safe to say that she had a misunderstanding as to what it means to “understand” what students need and what the term “successful” means to those who are keeping score on something more than a “personal level.” 

The same Courant story stated that the committee searching for a permanent superintendent was looking for someone with “a record of delivering innovative, impactful, sustainable solutions.”  The record, the innovation, the impact, and the sustainable solutions were not visible then and seven years later they are still mere words used with misunderstanding.

The school board has incapacitated itself and absolved itself of responsibility by incorrectly assuming Torres-Rodriguez was the arbiter of “understanding what students need to experience in order to be successful,” approving of every policy, plan, outside consultant, and outside “experts” and do-gooders without demanding and questioning records or results.  There is no initiative on the part of the board to become a strong legislative partner in turning around HPS. 

The feeble board will continue to watch as the superintendent continues to spend millions on implementing unscalable and unsustainable strategies directed at a handful of students and labeling this success. They continue to ignore the deterioration of a welcoming learning environment where students are eager to attend and where teachers want to teach. The board continues to accept the superintendent’s marketing and collegiate rhetoric as proof of ability and success.

Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez told us in 2016, “trust me, I’ve got this.” She stated that she understands the challenges and what is required to overcome them. In 2023 she uses those challenges as an excuse to accept and sell the public on how good something less than mediocre can look if you squint your eyes and close your mind.