Positive New Data at Start of School Year; and Must-Read: How Busing, School Desegregation Shaped Kamala Harris’s Views

Positive New Data at Start of School Year

As the back-to-school season begins, the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) is ushering in the academic year with insightful, new facts and figures. Yesterday, the CSDE released new 2023-24 Attendance and Student Assessment data, which show encouraging improvements in both student rates of absenteeism and academic performance. These positive trends suggest that Connecticut is on the road to recovery from the impacts of COVID-19. However, as CT Insider notes, "across all measures, the state remains behind pre-pandemic levels and well short of targets."

A student is considered chronically absent if they miss at least 10% of school days. Before the pandemic, the statewide chronic absenteeism rate was approximately 10%. In 2021-22, this rate surged to 24%, but it decreased to 20% in 2022-23 and has now further improved to 17.7%. 

The state credits these gains, at least in part, to its Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP), which involves direct outreach to students and parents, as well as home visits, to address the underlying causes of absenteeism. "Attendance is a prerequisite to learning," said Ajit Gopalakrishnan, CSDE’s Chief Performance Officer, in an interview with Eyewitness News. "If kids aren’t there, they can’t be learning."

In terms of student assessments, math and science scores improved across most grade levels and student groups, although they remain below pre-pandemic levels and state goals. Scores in English Language Arts remained largely unchanged.

The CT Mirror reports that Deputy Commissioner Charles Hewes identified the sustained and focused implementation of the Right to Read legislation as a key component of the continued path forward for Connecticut students. Right to Read is on track to be fully implemented in every K-3 classroom in the fall of 2025. 

• CT Insider: Attendance, test scores improving in CT schools but still below pre-pandemic levels, data shows

• Eyewitness News: Chronic absenteeism down for second straight year

• CT Mirror: CT sees improvements in math, science, chronic absenteeism rate

• CSDE: Connecticut Students Show a Second Year of Improved Attendance and Mathematics and Science Scores

Must-Read: How Busing, School Desegregation Shaped Kamala Harris’s Views of Race

Over the weekend, The Washington Post (WaPo) published an interesting article exploring how Vice President Kamala Harris' worldview was shaped by her upbringing in Berkeley, one of the first cities in the nation to voluntarily adopt busing as a tool for school integration. The Berkeley program sought to foster desegregation by transporting Black students to predominantly white neighborhoods and white students to predominantly Black neighborhoods.

In 2019, Harris had a memorable exchange with then-candidate Joe Biden during the Democratic primary, where she reflected on this part of her childhood. Recalling Biden’s criticism in the 1970s of the Berkeley program, Harris shared, “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me.”

The WaPo article also highlights the experiences of other Berkeley children who participated in the program during the same era, illustrating how this formative part of her upbringing influenced Harris. As the article notes, “The experience left her optimistic, not resentful… She gained respect and appreciation for other cultures.” That sounds like just the type of leader this country needs!

• The Washington Post: How busing, school desegregation shaped Kamala Harris’s views of race

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