Dentists don’t win trophies, they get plaques.

Last week, the leadership at Hartford Public Schools fed the Hartford Courant with the news that three schools in the district were named “National Merit Schools of Distinction” for the 2022-23 school year by the national non-profit organization aptly named, Magnet Schools of America, Inc (MSA).

Breakthrough Magnet School South, Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy, and Great Path Academy were, said the Courant story, honored as being among the “top magnet schools in the country.”  HPS folks told the Courant that these awards go to schools which “demonstrate commitment to high academic standards, curriculum innovation, successful desegregation and diversity efforts, and consistent delivery of high-quality educational services to all stakeholders.”

However, when looked at through a purely academic lens, which is the reason schools exist in the first place, the three Hartford schools honored did not, using any state mandated measure, even top the list of magnet schools in the district, which is probably why the HPS press release to the Courant was so short.  Yet somehow, they became “top magnet schools in the country.”

Before we look at the farcical academic aspect of this award, we must first look at the process and Magnet Schools of America, Inc. itself.

For a school to even be considered for this award, or any of the several handed out by MSA, the district must pay annual dues to MSA.   A district may pay $475 for each school which they want to be considered for the awards, or they may pay a district fee of $4,600 which will cover between 10-20 schools in the district.  How many of HPS’ schools are paid members of MSA?

According to the most recent records available, the Washington D.C. based MSA non-profit brought in $312,000 in total dues revenue for 2021.  Their total revenue for 2021 was $2.1 million, of which $775,000 (39%) went to cover compensation and other salaries and wages, and nearly a million dollars ($978,000, 49%) was used to cover “travel or entertainment expenses for any federal, state, or local public official.”  Did Hartford city or school officials travel or entertain themselves on MSA’s dime?

The HPS press release referred to MSA’s awards as “prestigious,” because paying 500 bucks to even be eligible is a big deal.  So while HPS was basking in the glory bestowed upon three of their schools, we cannot let out of our sight that the Miami-Dade County School District, which has 119 magnet schools, saw 84, or 71% of their magnet schools receive a “prestigious” MSA award this year.  The Miami-Dade district is rated an “A” district, compared to HPS which is rated somewhere quite below that, so it seems quite improbable that any of HPS’ three award winners would even top the 84 award winners from Miami-Dade, never mind the entire country.  This award is about as prestigious as winning a democratic primary in 2024.

While the superintendent no doubt has propaganda specialist Jesse Sugarman working to weave the prestige (so called) of these awards into her curriculum vitae and into school choice advertisements, the drinkers of this Kool-Aid should look at the academics of these now “prestigious” schools.

With data provided by EdSight, “Connecticut’s official source for education data,” which uses data provided by the school districts themselves, let’s take a look at how the three HPS award winners rank academically with other schools in the district.

On the state’s District Performance Index (DPI) for ELA and Math, award winner Great Path Academy ranked 15th and 19th respectively among schools in the district.  Great Path’s scores in both of these categories fell from 2021-22 school year when they ranked higher in the district, yet left the party without receiving any awards.

Trinity Magnet ranked 12th in the district on the ELA DPI last year, and 15th on the Math DPI.  Both scores were down slightly from the 2021-22 school year when they also won an MSA award.

Also winning an MSA award for the second consecutive year, was Breakthrough Magnet South.  BMS ranked 9th and 8th in the ELA and Math DPIs for 2023-24, but their scores also dropped in both categories from the 2021-22 school year.

Similar results and rankings exist for Trinity and BMS (Great Path does not take the Smarter Balance tests) on the state’s Smarter Balance Growth Rate scores for ELA and Math and on the Smarter Balance Average Percent of Target Achieved in ELA and Math.  Trinity was the only 2023 award winner that cracked the top 10 in the district in any of the Smarter Balance categories, ranking 6th in the district for ELA Growth Rate and 8th in the district for Math Growth Rate, despite falling out of the top 10 in the district for Average Percent of Target Achieved in both ELA and Math.

For 2022, the Annie Fisher Magnet school won MSA’s Magnet School of Excellence Award, which is above the Magnet School of Distinction Award won by the three HPS schools in 2023.  This year, Annie Fisher did not win an award despite ranking higher than either of the three award winning schools in every academic category previously mentioned.

Prestigious.

Now, another issue with these awards which is not being relayed by HPS leadership, is that the district may choose the whole school to be eligible for an MSA award, or they may choose a program within the school that covers at least 20% of the school population to be eligible for an MSA award.  Whether the three award winners for 2023 were based on the whole school or just a program within their school, we have no idea (such is life covering HPS).

In the end, apparently, as Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez has been implying for the last 8 years, a school can be great despite failing academically.  Let’s then call it a boys and girls club rather than a school.

And, as far as awards go, let’s not forget that Donald Trump was chosen Gallup’s Man of the Year in 2019 and 2020.  In 2019 he shared the “honor” with Barack Obama, but in 2020 he defeated Obama for the award.