State Education Board Deems City Elementary Has Achievement Gap

A big change in state educational standards that target low-performing students has identified a portion of one city elementary’s population as having a significant achievement gap compared to the rest of the student body.

The Connecticut State Department of Education has identified Middletown’s Bielefield Elementary school as a focus school, which identifies schools with the lowest-performing student subgroups across the state (black, Hispanic, English language learners, students eligible for free/reduced lunch, and students with disabilities).

“There is an achievement gap in Bielefield's case between the Hispanic kids are not making the progress that the rest of the students have demonstrated,” Superintendent of Schools Patricia Charles says.

This past year, the CSDE criteria for a number of students in a subgroup dropped from 40 to 20, allowing the state a closer look at how various subgroups perform. Bielefield School is identified because students in the Hispanic subgroup underperformed on the Connecticut Mastery Test compared to the other subgroups and the school’s overall achievement.

Using the CMT data, all Title I elementary and middle schools in the state of Connecticut with the lowest performing subgroups were selected as focus schools. 

Charles says it’s unclear whether Hispanic students are underperforming because of poverty, a language barrier for those whose primary language is not English, a combination, or other factors.

“We'll be having a meeting to talk about the supports we can put into place,” at the school, Charles says. “Staff is bound and determined to close the achievement gap.” The state will be providing Bielefield with additional funding to reach this goal, Charles says, something she considers a "silver lining" of this focus school designation.

The state will provide funding for Bielefield to reach its standards, however it's unclear how much will be designated to achieve CSDE goals.

A lot of the times students whose primary language is not English are not speaking in English at home, Charles says, so even after they have exited a supplemental educational program at Bielefield because they've made enough progress, they need support from the school district.

The total number of elementary, middle and high schools classified as a focus school equals 10 percent of all Title I schools in the state. Focus schools maintain this classification for up to three years. Schools can exit if they meet the subgroup performance targets for two consecutive years.

The Board of Education and Bielefield staff are actively working with staff, parents, community members and educational agencies to develop a focus school improvement plan, Charles says. 

Targeted interventions will be provided to Bielefield including a library/media specialist, a bilingual, certified interventionist to specifically support Hispanic students, professional development for staff, and additional reading and mathematics materials that will support the Common Core State Standards.

“We are taking measures to ensure that teachers, students and families are supported as we work to make the changes necessary for all children to be successful in our classrooms," says Charles. "The Bielefield staff is united in their determination to address this achievement gap.”