For decades, Connecticut has enjoyed a strategic advantage over other states by virtue of having one of the most well-educated, highly-skilled work forces in the nation. In recent years, however, we have seen signs of that advantage slipping away, none more troubling than our state”™s education achievement gap ”“ the disparity in academic performance that separates low-income and minority students from others.
How big is the gap? Measured by grades, standardized test scores, dropout rates, course selection and college completion rate, Connecticut”™s achievement gap is the worst in the nation. For a state that has long prided itself on being at the top in education, that”™s alarming news.
Some have dismissed the relevance of the achievement gap, arguing that it is more a function of the exceptionally high academic performance of our middle- and higher-income students, not a consequence of how poorly our lower-income students perform. That argument, however, does not tell the whole story.
The fact is that gains in test scores of our higher-performing students are not keeping pace with other states and our students from low-income school districts are doing very poorly by national standards.
A soon-to-be-released report by the Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement points out that our lowest-performing students score in the bottom third on national tests. Those results compare with traditionally poor-performing states, such as Georgia and Louisiana.
To cast it in a different light, although Connecticut spends more on education per pupil than almost all other states, our low-income fourth- and eighth-grade students are performing, on average, three grade levels behind their more affluent peers. Connecticut should not be content with only one segment of our student population achieving at acceptable levels.
It may be tempting to think that Connecticut”™s achievement gap exists only between students in affluent suburbs and those in poor urban centers and that reform efforts need only focus on our biggest cities. The reality is, however, that an achievement gap exists in every school in every town in our state.
In addition to giving every student an equal opportunity to reach his or her personal best, closing the achievement gap would have tremendous economic benefits for our state.
A statewide study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University shows that Connecticut”™s economy loses more than a half-million dollars over the lifetime of each high school dropout, taking into account social services, incarceration costs, medical care and lost tax revenue.
Other research shows that Connecticut would save more than $155 million in health care costs alone over the lifetimes of each class of high school dropouts had they earned their diplomas. And if the male high school graduation rate increased by just 5 percent, the state”™s economy would see a combination of crime-related savings and additional revenue of about $63 million each year. These are staggering statistics.
We cannot, however, view this problem through only an economic lens. Closing Connecticut”™s achievement gap is a moral imperative. The question we have to ask ourselves is, “If we can attain educational excellence for one segment of our student population, why not for all students?”
Certainly, the state has made some progress recently. The results of this year”™s Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) show that the scores of African-American and Hispanic students are continuing to inch closer to those of their white peers. And the passage by the state Legislature of a landmark education reform bill in May has laid the groundwork for meaningful change.
But we must keep working. For far too long, Connecticut has not focused sufficient attention and resources on improving academic achievement among students traditionally underserved by the public school system. The urgency of that goal is the reason the governor established the Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement, and its findings and recommendations will put us on a path to reaching it.
The purpose of this effort is not to put more money into a system that has consistently failed so many children but to adopt real reforms that will help all our students graduate with the knowledge and skills necessary to become productive, positive contributors to society and leaders of our future economy.
John R. Rathgeber is president and CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and a member of the Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement, established by Gov. M. Jodi Rell in March 2010.
