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Increasing awareness about facts and issues impacting the Hartford Public Schools is a key objective for Achieve Hartford! Accomplishing that objective in an independent and credible manner is critical to our ongoing work. We devote time and energy to gathering and publishing information that is timely and useful. Projects undertaken and information sought are designed to provide transparency to important issues and build conversations on how to improve student achievement and sustain district reform. Positive change cannot happen and challenging decisions cannot be made without relevant data.

Our latest report is our external analysis of the 2013 Hartford Public Schools' school climate and student connectedness survey of students, parents, and staff, providing a snapshot of how each subgroup regards the key cultural and academic attributes of the city's schools.  Last year's report on the 2012 School Climate and Connectedness is also available.

Our report from October 11, 2012, is a supplement to the 2012 Connecticut Mastery test and CT Academic Performance test data.  Report on Student Cohort Growth in Hartford looks at a group of students as they progress from grade to grade over time.

Our August 16, 2012, report examines the 2012 Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) results for Hartford Public Schools, including trends over time.

Our May 2012 report examines the Year 2 experience of the Choice Education Program, which this year assisted nearly 1,600 Hartford families evaluating their options for children entering school for the first time or moving up to middle school or high school.  The report is entitled Empowering Parents: How Choice Education Informs Parents on Options for Their Children.

Our April 16, 2012 report examines the first three years of student-based budgeting in Hartford.  With a grant from the H.A. Vance Foundation, Achieve Hartford! commissioned the report, Funding a Better Education, which was produced by Public Impact, a national public policy and management consulting firm.  Here is the news release synthesizing the report.

We also have produced School Governance Councils in Hartford, an evaluation of the Year 2 implementation of these school level bodies, which are designed under state law and local District policy to engage parents and community members in school budgets and priority decision making.

Another Achieve Hartford! report is the 2011 CMT-CAPT Summary Report.  This report stems from the annual standardized tests given to students and released by the Connecticut State Department of Education.  The tests cover the 3rd through 8th grades (the Connecticut Mastery Test or CMT) and the 10th grade (the Connecticut Academic Performance Test or CAPT).   Last year's report also is available; please click here for the 2010 CMT and CAPT results.

An earlier report, Building Knowledge and Confidence, provides an evaluation of the 2011 Choice Education program, in which our Parent Choice Advisers touched more than 900 parents during more than 80 site visits.

Another recent example of our analytic research concerns the impact on Hartford achievement data from the statewide Modified Assessment System that has been implemented statewide to accommodate children with disabilities.  We also feature this discussion in the March 10, 2011 edition of our weekly issues update, Education Matters!

For additional Achieve Hartford! reports, please see below.

Report on Hartford Public School District Strategic Profile:
In a recently completed report, Achieve Hartford! summarizes key information from the Hartford Public School District’s annual Strategic School Profile. Achieve Hartford!’s synopsis provides highlights and observations based on Hartford’s Profile, as well as additional information gathered from other sources. The report notes that Hartford is still performing well below most other school districts in the state, and that achievement gap between Hartford and the state remains large. However, a trend of improvement is emerging, and reform efforts underway appear to be having an impact.
Achieve Hartford!’s profile summary
State Issued Hartford Public District 2008-09 Strategic School Profile

Monitoring School Governance Council Effectiveness:
A School Governance Council (SGC) is the primary, local school decision-making body of an autonomous school and is devoted to achieving a school’s mission and vision. Consistent with the District’s reform plan, an autonomous school is one that maintains defined levels of performance and student achievement. The SGCs focus mainly on the analysis of student achievement, development of improvement plans, allocation of resources and programmatic and operational changes that enhance the quality of the school.

Achieve Hartford! will help measure and evaluate the effectiveness of the SGCs. We plan to work closely with the District and its training partner, Leadership Greater Hartford, in understanding expected outcomes, and we will then provide an independent perspective as to the SGCs progress and impact.
Achieve Hartford! Year 1 Evaluation of School Governance Councils
Achieve Hartford’s School Governance Council Evaluation Part I