Student Proficiency Sees Slight Uptick

New Haven students are steadily making their way back to pre-pandemic proficiency rates, as newly received state assessment results for the 2023 – 24 school year show improved math, science, and English skills.

New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Assistant Supt. Keisha Redd-Hannans presented that data to the Board of Education Monday. The slight increases in English, math, and science proficiency come after each subject saw major declines during the peak of Covid.

The spring 2024 assessment proficiency data was released by the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) on Aug. 27.

During its hybrid meeting that took place at John Martinez School and over Zoom on Monday, the school board heard from Redd-Hannans and Supt. Madeline Negrón about the results of the SmarterBalanced assessments for English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics, SAT achievement, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) assessment, and the LAS Links assessment for English language proficiency.

For overall K‑12 ELA proficiency, NHPS saw increases in students’ achievement from 22.1 percent in 2022 – 23 to 23.4 percent last year. In math, K‑12 students increased from 13.5 percent to 14.4 percent. Science proficiency grew from 22 percent to 22.8 percent. The results of years past can be seen in the graphic at the top of this story.

The overall state proficiency rates for increased by 0.4 percent for ELA (for a total of 48.9 percent) and 1.6 percent for math (44.1 percent), while science proficiency remained at 48.5 percent.

Negrón said she is pleased with the district’s direction of growth over the last year and thanked the educators who have invested in students’ growth. Redd-Hannans noted that the district’s plans include multi-year investments in supporting students’ proficiency growth in all areas.

For SAT math, the district saw a decline from 11.4 percent to 10.7 percent. The state saw an even larger decline in this area from 34.1 percent to 29.5 percent. In SAT English, NHPS saw an 8.5 percent increase (for a total of 35.3 percent) while the state saw a 2.4 percent increase (54.8 percent).

LAS Links assesses student literacy and oral proficiency in the English language. The district saw an increase of 1 percent (for a total of 11.1 percent). The state’s overall achievement increased from 14.3 percent to 15 percent. NHPS fell 1.2 percent short of being in line with the state’s LAS Links literacy growth rate.

Overall grade level proficiency isn’t the only way NHPS measures learning success for its students. Redd-Hannans provided the board with a more encouraging picture of development last spring by measuring students’ ability to meet personal growth targets by the end of the year — and the average percentage of that target achieved. These measures were advocated for in urban school districts years ago, Redd-Hannans said, to continuously recognize student growth even if they haven’t yet reached the state’s proficiency benchmark.

For the ELA Average Percentage of Target Achieved (APTA), the district saw growth from 52.1 percent of all students achieving the average percentage of their growth target to 56 percent. This was 2.7 percent short of the state’s spring data.

The LAS Links literacy APTA data shows NHPS’s growth from 53.5 percent to 58.1 percent last year. The state data was less than one percent higher.

Redd-Hannans noted that in some cases, NHPS surpassed its pre-pandemic growth numbers. In the ELA SmarterBalanced assessment, NHPS’s growth targets and APTA numbers were sightly higher than the district’s end-of-year data during the 2018 – 19 school year. The LAS Links meeting of growth targets for the oral assessment increased to 24.5 percent, which is 0.9 percent higher than pre-pandemic rates.

At the conclusion of the presentation, board member Matt Wilcox suggested that the district also compare its progress to similarly sized districts with similar student numbers for assessments like LAS Links. He also noted that NHPS spends $20,451 per pupil while overall the state spends $21,143 per pupil.

Board members Edward Joyner and Andrea Downer noted that the district’s educators supported students’ growth despite financial, physical building, and behavioral struggles.