New Britain
Connecticut's Graduation Gap Nearly Vanished
Correction (July 21, 2026): An earlier version said Waterbury's high-needs advantage widened every year after 2022. It widened to 5.9 points in 2024, then narrowed to 5.1 points in 2025. The article a...
New Britain's Two Graduation Stories
Correction (July 21, 2026): The original article said approximately 23% of New Britain students received special education services and described their costs without a source that supported either cla...
Connecticut Graduates 89% — and Can't Get Higher
Before the pandemic, Connecticut's graduation rate moved in one direction. From 2014-15 through 2018-19, the four-year cohort rate climbed from 87.0% to 88.3%, gaining about a third of a percentage po...
White Students Fell Below 50% in 2020. The Gap Keeps Widening.
In 2011, nearly two out of three students in Connecticut's public schools were white. In 2020, the share crossed below 50% for the first time. Six years later, it stands at 44.7%, and the gap between ...
Waterbury's 5.5-Point Spike: The Largest Single-Year Jump Among Connecticut's Urban Districts
Waterbury School District's chronic absenteeism trajectory looks like a seismograph. The rate swings 2 to 5 percentage points between consecutive years with no stable equilibrium — 18.1%, then 19.8%, ...
One in Five Connecticut Students Now Receives Special Education
In 2010-11, roughly one in eight Connecticut public school students received special education services. By 2025-26, it is nearly one in five. The share has climbed from 12.0% to 19.1%, approaching a ...
Hartford's 28% Chronic Absence Was Already a Crisis Before COVID
In nine years of chronic absenteeism data, Hartford School District never achieved a rate below 22.1%. The best year, 2017, still meant more than one in five students missing 10% or more of school day...