Huge gaps in achievement between minority students and their peers remain, state education officials said Friday as they released results of the new, more difficut SBAC standardized test.

Connecticut has long had some of the largest achievement gaps between minority students and their peers.

“The gaps persist,” Connecticut Education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell told reporters Friday, saying the differences in achievement are “similar” to those in previous years.

Statewide, 30 percent of black students passed the English exam compared to 67 percent of white students. Thirty-three percent of Hispanic students passed the English exam.

Similar disparities exist in math and science.

State education officials say it is critical that the state identify these disparities so that officials are able to target help — and additional state funding — to work toward equity among student populations.

Here’s a interactive graphic showing the disparities statewide.

Want to see how different subgroups in your school or district are doing? Search for your school and district below.

Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

Andrew is a former data editor at TrendCT.org and The Connecticut Mirror. He taught data visualization at Central Connecticut State University as well intro to data journalism at Wesleyan University as a Koeppel Fellow. He was a founding producer of The Boston Globe's Data Desk where he used a variety of methods to visualize or tell stories with data. Andrew also was an online producer at The Virginian-Pilot and a staff writer at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He’s a Metpro Fellow, a Chips Quinn Scholar, and a graduate of the University of Texas.

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