Schools

Bugbee School Named One of State's 'Schools of Distinction'

Gov. Malloy recognized West Hartford's Bugbee Elementary School – along with dozens of other schools across the state – for making progress on student achievement at a gathering and "sharing of best practices" workshop on Tuesday.

The Connecticut State Department of Education announced this year's "Schools of Distinction" on Tuesday, and West Hartford's Bugbee Elementary School was identified as one of the state's schools with the "Highest Overall Performance" – schools that are "exemplars of best practices."

Schools of distinction are identified annually and are placed into one of three different categories: Highest performing subgroup (for example students with disabilities, minority students, or students on free/reduced lunch), highest progress, and highest overall performance. This year the analysis was based on state standardized test data from 2011 and 2012.

A total of 97 schools were recognized under the state's new accountability system, which grades each school on a "school performance index (SPI)" that recognizes and rates performance on state standardized tests. The measurement system was put into place as a result of the waiver Connecticut received from the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act last May.

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According to the State Department of Education guidelines, schools identified as "Highest Overall Performance" have SPIs greater than 88 and are performing within the top 10 percent of schools across the State, have achievement gaps less than 10 SPI points for the majority of their subgroups and, if they are high schools, have met their respective graduation rate targets.

Bugbee's average SPI for the three years measured is 94.5.

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“Connecticut has redoubled efforts to provide the best education to all of our students no matter where they live, which school they attend, or socioeconomic status,” said Governor Dannel P. Malloy in news release from the State Department of Education. “Last year we invested $100 million in our schools, and this year I’m proposing more than $150 million in additional Educational Cost Sharing funding over the biennium – resources that will be largely targeted to our underperforming schools," he said. 

Malloy praised the schools that were chosen to participate in Tuesday's workshop for sharing their best practices. "Their commitment to education is tremendous and they are part of the larger conversation about replicating what works in education."

For a complete listing of this year’s “Schools of Distinction,” click here.


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