Grading schools based on test scores has dominated much of the debate about school quality in recent years. But there is so much more that contributes to how students may do. Our Your School database provides a broad collection of measures parents can use to judge their child’s school – from a breakdown of where money is spent to class sizes to how often students are disciplined.
Though data relevant to all students is included, today’s release focuses on one of the state’s lowest-performing populations – English learners. Connecticut has some of the largest academic achievement gaps in the nation between these students and their classmates.
The Mirror is currently publishing a series of stories examining the teaching of English learners in Connecticut. The second story in that series is scheduled to appear Tuesday. You can read the first here.
Periodically we will be adding even more information to our schools database to give you better insight into your child’s school.
Jake was Data Editor at CT Mirror. He is a former managing editor of The Ridgefield Press, a Hersam Acorn newspaper. He worked for the community newspaper chain as a reporter and editor for five years before joining the Mirror staff. He studied professional writing at Western Connecticut State University and is a graduate student in software engineering at Harvard Extension School.
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.
