(WTNH) – Students are still struggling in Connecticut schools following the years of disruption during the pandemic. New academic results released by the Department of Education show the pandemic affected more areas in the classroom and troubling trends inside and outside the classroom.
English, math and science scores have all fallen from 2021 to 2022 after consecutive years of growth since 2016, with middle school students seeing the slowest recovery since the pandemic.
The pandemic challenged students in ways never seen before and the impacts are still lingering.
The annual results for the Next Generation Accountability system, which looks at broad indicators to show how well a school is preparing students for long-term success, have been released for the 2021-22 school year.
While there has been some improvement in the last year, most areas are below pre-pandemic times. Student achievement in all tested subjects is down.
Chronic absenteeism has increased by 13% compared to 2019, physical fitness has dropped 7% and postsecondary readiness and on-track to high school graduation declined as well.
Administrators say it’s top of mind and they are taking action to improve these concerning areas.
Using the results, the Department of Education has identified 11 new turnaround schools that have consistent low overall performance bringing their total to 40. These turnaround schools will be given extra help and can apply for grant funding.
The results also reveal a higher decline in academic learning for high-needs students with chronic absenteeism more than doubling to 34%.
To see the full data, click here.
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