Southeastern Connecticut school districts mirrored the statewide trends of declining test scores and surging absenteeism rates compared to before the pandemic, but individual schools saw some bright spots in factors such as test scores, student growth, and arts access, according to Connecticut Department of Education data.

The department last week released 2021-22 results for the Next Generation Accountability System, a 12-factor system measuring district and school performance, the first results since the 2018-19 school year.

When the department in August released the results of English Language Arts, math, and science state assessments from the 2021-22 school year, it confirmed what many could have guessed: Results were down from pre-pandemic levels.

But an encouraging sign was the increase in academic growth ― the pace of student learning in a school year ― in ELA and math for students overall and high-needs students, meaning those who are English learners, have disabilities or come from low-income families.

The Next Generation results include an overall score out of 100 for each district and school; data can be viewed at edsight.ct.gov.

The results show that chronic absenteeism skyrocketed last year compared to 2018-19 ― from 10.4% to 23.7% overall, and from 16.1% to 34% for high-needs students. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10% of a school year, or 18 days.

The percentage of students passing college and career readiness exams, the share of students on-track for high school graduation, postsecondary entrance, and physical fitness all declined.

But the share of students taking college and career readiness courses, four-year graduation rate, six-year graduation rate for high-needs students, and arts access increased over pre-pandemic levels.

Last year, among local school districts that serve students in grades K-12, the ranking of the composite “accountability index” from highest to lowest was Lyme-Old Lyme, East Lyme, Waterford, Stonington, North Stonington, Montville, Groton, and then New London, which landed 13.1 points behnd Groton and 24.1 below Lyme-Old Lyme.

Ledyard Superintendent Jay Hartling said while his district has seen some growth and implemented new curriculum, it was “significantly inhibited by the attendance challenge,” as reported chronic absenteeism grew from 1.9% to 24.2%. He said quarantine and “cautionary absences due to unknowns about COVID” were key factors.

“I think it is also a recalibration of people’s expectations about attendance,” he added, “and so we want to continue to emphasize to families how important it is for kids to be in school each and every day that they’re healthy.”

Hartling said schools are adding after-school programs and activities to keep kids engaged. Wheeler High School in North Stonington, which saw chronic absenteeism rise from 8.3% to 17.1%, created an attendance committee that meets monthly, Principal Kristen St. Germain said.

She said the school doesn’t wait for the numbers to be at the threshold but involves parents and students early in the process.

Bright spots in southeastern Connecticut

No school districts in southeastern Connecticut saw an increase in their overall score, but some individual schools did: East Lyme High School, Lyme-Old Lyme High School, Gallup Hill School and Juliet W. Long School in Ledyard, Harbor Elementary School in New London, Samuel Huntington Elementary School in Norwich, and Oswegatchie Elementary School in Waterford.

Niantic Center School and Lillie B. Haynes School in East Lyme were both among the top five schools in the state for student growth in math. New London Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School was ranked fifth-highest for arts access.

Three Rivers Middle College Magnet High School and Marine Science Magnet High School, both LEARN schools, have the top two rates in the state of students passing college and career readiness exams.

Marine Science was also listed as one of 10 schools in the state with a 100% four-year graduation rate for the 2021 cohort.

Principal Tara Amatrudo said in an email that she is particularly proud of the school’s results in post-secondary readiness and entrance, and she thinks the diversity of Advanced Placement and Early College Experience classes “allows us to work with students to identify the courses that are the right fit for their individual strengths and interests.”

Marine Science was the only school in southeastern Connecticut to see its post-secondary entrance rate increase over 2018-19; it was the highest in the region at 85.1%.

Ledyard High School had a graduation rate of 97.6%, an increase of nearly three percentage points compared to three years prior, but the postsecondary entrance rate dropped from 68.3% to 50.6%. This is compared to a statewide drop from 70.9% to 66.1%.

Hartling said he has seen a lot of kids defer going to college, mirroring a national trend of students working for a year and then going to college. He also struggles with the fact that the postsecondary entrance rate doesn’t recognize military service.

In North Stonington, St. Germain said in an email she’s seen “a real shift since the pandemic” with students deferring college. She said the school has added two career pathways and work study opportunities.

“Although I expect our numbers to rise up again, much of our programming is now designed to fit the needs of all students ― not just college-bound ones,” she said.

Some districts voice frustration with system

Some superintendents and principals have expressed frustration with some aspects of how schools are categorized in the Next Generation Accountability system. For example, the high school and middle school are lumped together in North Stonington, meaning the high school data includes test scores from seventh and eighth graders.

Wheeler High School in 2020 was named one of 10 new “Focus Schools” ― schools where “academic achievement/growth of students with high needs is consistently among the lowest in the state” ― from its performance the prior year.

This was because the school only met 35.9% of the target growth in math performance among high-needs students. But growth is not one of the factors measured at the high school level, meaning the designation was based only on seventh and eighth graders.

Last year, the school met 54.2% of the target math growth for high-needs students, compared to a state average of 47.7%. But Wheeler High School remains a Focus School, St. Germain said, because there need to be two consecutive years of improvement, and there hasn’t been testing reported since 2018-19.

The school’s overall index was 74.8, compared to a state average of 69.7. St. Germain said in an email she was “THRILLED with our performance scores overall,” including with high-needs students, who saw increased scores in ELA and math.

Ledyard is in somewhat of an opposite situation: Hartling noted that while the state separately breaks out the data for Gales Ferry and Juliet Long, the two schools are connected and have the same principal.

New London Superintendent Cynthia Ritchie said in an email that scores posted for Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School are for slightly less than a third of middle school students.

“Due to our magnet plan and unique coding at the state level, to get comprehensive middle school scores you would have to combine scores from various calculations to include STEM and Arts pathway middle school students too,” she wrote. “These pathways need to be further broken down from being a combined 6-12 range to middle and high school alone.”

In addition to Wheeler High School, New London High School is a Focus School, which the state notes is due to its low performance in ELA and math among high-needs students.

The state has also designated Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School, and Kelly STEAM Magnet Middle School and Teachers’ Memorial Global Studies Magnet Middle School in Norwich, as Turnaround Schools “for comprehensive support and improvement due to their consistently low overall performance.”

Another difficulty in making comparisons to 2018-19 is that some schools closed or merged. In Stonington, West Broad Street School closed in 2019 as students moved to the expanded West Vine Street School. In Groton, the middle schools merged while three elementary schools gave way to two new magnet schools.

e.moser@theday.com