Waterbury
Connecticut's Graduation Gap Nearly Vanished
In 2015, a high-needs student in Connecticut was 9.4 percentage points less likely to graduate in four years than the average student. In 2025, the difference is 1.6 points.
New Britain's Two Graduation Stories
In 2022, New Britain graduated 78.7% of its students in four years, the highest rate in the available series. Two years later, it graduated 67.7%, the lowest rate since 2015. By 2025, the rate had par...
Hartford Graduates 79% — a Record That Raises Questions
In December 2024, Aleysha Ortiz filed a lawsuit against the Hartford Board of Education. She had graduated from Hartford Public High School earlier that year. She said she could not read or write. The...
The 24-Point Gap That Shrank to 14
Walk north on Prospect Avenue from Hartford into West Hartford and the road does not change. The houses get a bit larger. The yards widen. Somewhere around the town line, before you notice anything di...
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%, ...
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...
Half of Connecticut Districts Hit All-Time High Chronic Absenteeism — Before the Real Crisis
The 2019-20 school year ended abruptly. Connecticut closed its schools in March 2020, cutting the academic calendar by roughly three months. Fewer school days should mean fewer chances to miss enough ...
Hartford Lost One in Four Students, and Its #1 Ranking
In 2011, Hartford was the undisputed center of gravity in Connecticut public education. At 21,365 students, it was the state's largest school district, leading Bridgeport by nearly 1,000 students and ...