Hartford Celebrates Third Year Of CMT Score Improvements

Hartford Public School officials are celebrating student results on 2010 state standardized tests. As WNPR's Lucy Nalpathanchil reports, test scores continue to rise.

Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Steven Adamowski stood before a large white sign with the number 3 on it to symbolize the number of consecutive years the school district has seen scores improve.

"So the first year, you know, the cynics said it was a fluke, and the second year, they said 'Well okay, that's good, but it's not a trend yet.' This is year three. This is a trend."

This year, 31 schools improved, and every grade level saw increases in mathematics proficiency. Third grade reading saw an 8 percentage point increase to 45.7% proficiency. Adamowski stressed this was the biggest reading increase the school district has seen since standardized testing began.

There were trouble spots - 4th and 5th grade reading, and 7th and 8th grade writing all saw decreases. Adamowski says the district still has some analysis to do to figure out why
 

"We have an overall weakness, I think, in the area of 5th grade that is a disappointment, and we don't have that analyzed yet as to why. We haven't seen the results of any other districts yet or the state as a whole, we don't know whether this is a state testing anomaly or if it's specific to Hartford. If it's specific to Hartford, I couldn't tell you the reasons right now, we just don't know, but I can assure you that we will be investigating that."

And while Hartford's results continue to lag behind state averages in proficiency, the superintendent says the results still need to be celebrated because each year Hartford is seeing the achievement gap whittled away little by little.

For WNPR, I'm Lucy Nalpathanchil.