Connecticut schools saw promising improvements in test scores in all subject areas for the 2024-25 school year as well as declines in chronic absenteeism, according to new data released on Thursday. Still, most metrics did not meet pre-pandemic levels.

The state Department of Education reported improved scores in English language arts, science and math “Smarter Balanced” tests. According to state officials, Thursday’s results marked the first time since that test was introduced in 2014 that Connecticut students saw improvement across all subject areas simultaneously. All categories measured — including racial and ethnic groups, grade levels and special needs students — saw an improvement in scores.

“It is worth celebrating your hard work and what is happening in our classrooms every day,” said state Department of Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker. “These results are no accident.”

Most improvements over the previous year were incremental — measuring one percentage point or less. In nearly all cases, the scores also fell short of pre-pandemic levels, though many groups are now within one or two percentage points of previous scores. The average score across all students for English language arts was 64.7 compared to 67.7 in 2019, 61.1 in math compared to 63.1 in 2019, and 62.6 in science compared to 63.8 in 2019. The state target for all three areas is 75.

Chronic absenteeism also improved across nearly every group measured over the previous year’s cohort. The most significant improvement occurred among kindergarteners, whose rate of absenteeism dropped from 18.5% to 16.3%. The state reported that high school students had the highest rates of absenteeism, while grades three and four had the lowest rates of absenteeism.

The state Department of Education’s chief performance officer Ajit Gopalakrishnan said that the pandemic had been a significant disruption with impacts of learning and that extra work is still being put in by educators and administrators to recover from the negative effects. But he said that the positive improvements across groups and subject areas was “a sign that our collective efforts are really making a difference.”

The data, while positive, reflected persistent gaps between white children and children of color, in particular Black children. There were gaps of more than 20 percentage points in math and science scores between white children and Black children. Those gaps, as well as the gap in scores for English language arts, have grown larger since 2019.

Kari Sullivan Custer, the state lead for attendance and engagement, said at a press conference held on Thursday that since the 2021-22 school year, chronic absenteeism declined by an average of 6.5% across all students, and 9.2% among students with high needs. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% of school days. Since the school year is a minimum of 180 days per year in Connecticut, that equates to around 18 days in most districts. According to the state officials, 83,405 students were still chronically absent during the 2024-25 school year.

“These improvements demonstrate that our collective efforts are working statewide,” Sullivan Custer said.

Leaders of four school districts joined the state Board of Education at the press conference to discuss the strategies they had deployed to achieve positive results. East Windsor leadership said that a five-year strategic plan including objectives for literacy and family outreach has been instrumental in improved scores, the result of stronger instruction and more engaged families. Timothy Field, principal of East Windsor Middle School, also discussed the ways that approaches to education have shifted for children in grades 5 through 8.

“One key area of emphasis has been student to student discourse,” Field said, where students engage in meaningful conversations rather than having those discussions led by the teacher.

Officials also said that the Learner Engagement and Attendance Program, or LEAP, which uses home visits to try and identify why students are missing school and how families can be better supported, has been instrumental for gains on chronic absenteeism.

“During COVID and for the year or two after, we found it was very confusing for families to know when to send their child to school and when to keep them home,” Sullivan Custer said.

Post-pandemic, the ‘School is better with you!’ campaign has also pushed the message that students should come to school even if they have light cold symptoms, as long as they aren’t seriously ill, Sullivan Custer said. School nurses have also become key figures in ensuring that persistent confusion about when to come to school doesn’t result in chronic absenteeism.