UConn Strengthens Focus on Asian Studies, Hartford Library Offers Seminar Series

With the addition of six new faculty, there is newfound scholarly expertise in the area  of Asian and Asian American Studies  at the University of Connecticut.  The growth of the academic program is transforming UConn into a distinctive center that focuses on Asian populations - not just in Asia, but across the world.  The greater emphasis provides an increasingly global perspective to studies of Asian peoples, going beyond language.

The new group of professors brings a greater emphasis to cultures formed from diasporas, or the scattering of people from their traditional homeland; and alternate histories, such as local or regional histories that haven’t traditionally been recorded.

Daniel Weiner, UConn’s vice provost for global affairs, told UConn Today, “It’s a very exciting time to invest in faculty with expertise pertaining to Asia. It’s also exciting that UConn has an opportunity to construct the study of Asia in a unique way through inclusion of transnational and diasporic studies.”

“This focus allowed us to hire people who significantly build upon the established field of Asian studies by engaging contemporary and modern questions,” says Cathy Schlund-Vials, associate professor of English and director of the Asian American Studies Institute.

While UConn is strengthening its study of Asian peoples, there are also efforts underway in Connecticut to provide support for the Asian population currently in the state, particularly immigrants and those with limited English skills, lack adequate access to culturally and linguistically competent legal services.

The second in a series of free community educational seminars will be held on Saturday, November 2, 2 – 4 PM at the Mark Twain Branch Library in Hartford.  The series is supported by the Connecticut Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission, the Connecticut Asian Pacific American Bar Associations.   Topics to be discussed include immigration, business licensing, discrimination, and voter registration.

Student Debt Nationwide Shows Geographic, Income, Racial Divisions; CT in Debt-High Northeast

Across the country, an average 16.2 percent of consumers owe some amount of student debt. But if you look at the state level, the country appears split along the Mason–Dixon line, with a higher percentage of the population owing money in northern states than southern states, according to numbers published by the College Financing Group, citing data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Overall, Hawaii has the lowest share of consumers with student debt, just 12 percent. That’s less than half the rate in Washington, D.C., where 25 percent of the population in Washington, D.C. owes student loan money, according to data compiled through 2012. Connecticut’s rate hovers in the middle, within range of the national average. 

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, student loan debt is the only form of consumer debt that has grown since the peak of consumer debt in 2008. Balances of student loans have eclipsed both auto loans and credit cards, making student loan debt the largest form of consumer debt outside of mortgages.

The full report also shows that 11.9% of all borrowers are 90 days or more past due on their loans, and the average student debt per borrower stands at $24,810. Interestingly, despite Washington D.C.’s high percentage of people with student loans, it has a lower-than-average delinquency rate of only 7.3%.

In its most recently updated 2013 quarterly report, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York noted that outstanding student loan balances increased to $994 billion nationwide as of June 30, 2013, a $8 billion increase from the first quarter this year.  Other estimates have placed outstanding student debt in excess of $1 trillion.

Life on Hold, Especially Among Lower Income Families

According to a 2012 online web survey conducted by American Consumer Credit Counseling, over 35 percent of respondents reported that they have had to delay saving for retirement because of their student debt, while 27 percent also reported that their ability to buy a car has been impacted, and 29 percent said it has affected their ability to buy a house. Nine percent of respondents said student loan debt has even impacted their ability to get married.

A report this year from Demos, “At What Cost:  How Student Debt Reduces Lifetime  Wealth,” stated that “though a college education remains the surest path to a middle-class life, evidence has begun to mount that student debt may be far more detrimental to financial futures than once thought, particularly for those with the highest levels of debt: students of color and students from low-income families.”  The data used was of 2008 bachelor’s degree recipients.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reported that the share of young consumers among first-time homebuyers is falling. According to the National Association of Realtors, Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 made up 27 percent of all homebuyers in 2011, the lowest share in the past decade. That percentage represents a 25 percent decline year-over-year from 2010.

Young borrowers with student debt are less likely to own a home than those with no debt. According to recent analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, young borrowers with student debt - historically an indicator of a college education and an accompanying boost in wages - demonstrate a lower rate of homeownership than their peers with no student debt, breaking a decade-long trend.

The demos report found that family income has a large impact on the debt levels of college graduates. Seventy-five percent of bachelor’s degree recipients from families with incomes of less than $60,000 graduated with some student loan debt in 2008, compared to just 48% of students whose families earned $100,000 or more. Students from poorer families were also much more likely to graduate with large amounts of debt: 14% of graduates from lower-income families had more than $30,500 in debt, compared to just 9% of students from families who earned $100,000 or more.

A report by the Project on Student Debt in October 2012, an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success, indicated that Connecticut students graduating in the class of 2011 had the fifth highest average student loan debt in the nation, at $28,783.  That report also indicated that “high debt states are mainly in the Northeast and Midwest, with low debt states mainly in the West and South.”  The report found that 64 percent of graduating students in 2011 had student debt, which ranked Connecticut 15^th in the nation that year.

Earlier this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau indicated that 1 in 5 U.S. households have student loans, and the number of student loan borrowers increased 31 percent between 2007 and 2012.  Demos predicting that the “impact on the lifetime assets of indebted households will be nearly four times the amount borrowed.”

New Audio Service To Help Students Challenged by Reading; Innovative Pilot is First in Nation

As students across the state return to begin a new academic year, the Connecticut Radio Information System (CRIS) is launching a first-of-its-kind service for schools, providing instant access to audio versions of educational materials, the Common Core State Standard text exemplars, and children’s magazines on any mobile device, including tablets, smartphones, and MP3 players, or computers with Internet access.

CRISKids™ For Schools is geared for students who are visually impaired or are print-challenged for any reason including a learning, physical, intellectual or emotional disability. The new service also provides custom recordings to fit the needs of the students.

Nearly a dozen schools have signed up to participate in the pilot of CRISKids For Schools.  Student outcomes will be submitted for evaluation by the U.S. Department of Education.  CRISKids For Schools is the only extensive line-up of audio versions of children’s magazines, educational materials and the Common Core State Standards featuring human narration in the nation.

Early results of the new initiative have been impressive, officials say, noting that teachers report that students participating in the CRISKids pilot are reading and enjoying it more. Megan O’Brien, a Grade 5 teacher at Clover Street School in Windsor, has noticed a transformation with her reluctant Grade 5 readers since using MP3 players downloaded with CRISKids.

“They think it’s awesome,” she said, noting that the students are far more motivated to read now with the help of CRISKids.

Support for CRISKids for Schools comes from the generous funding of several foundations, including Help for the Blind of Eastern Connecticut, Fund for Greater Hartford, The Gibney Family Foundation, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

The Connecticut Radio Information System is Connecticut's only radio reading service, and is registered with the state of Connecticut as a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. CRIS broadcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from a broadcast center in Windsor, and regional satellite studios in Danbury, Norwich, Trumbull, and West Haven.

The programs broadcast on CRIS Radio are available to individuals who, because of vision loss, learning disability or physical handicap, are unable to read printed material.   CRIS Radio's live programming is provided free of charge and is available on specially tuned radios (provided free), cable providers, your telephone and online.  In addition, in recent years CRIS has become available on an iPhone, iPad/tablet, Internet radio or downloaded onto an iPod/MP3 player.

Earlier this year, the organization launched CRISKids™ Magazines, which provides audio versions of more than a dozen children’s magazines, and brought the initiative directly to children’s hospital beds.  In another first-in-the-nation initiative, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center teamed with CRIS Radio to offer the audio service to their patients  unable to turn the pages of magazines due to their medical condition or while receiving treatment.

Connecticut Ranks #4 in Back-to-School Stores

With students now settling into their classrooms and the hectic back-to-school shopping mostly in the rear view mirror, we learn that Connecticut ranks #4 among the nation’s states in the number of back-to-school retail stores per square mile.

The Land of Steady Habits is outpaced only by New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts as retail meccas for pre-school year shoppers, just ahead of Maryland, Delaware, New York and Florida.

Connecticut has 3,477 back-to-school retailers, for an average per square mile of .718, according to a Bloomberg Visual Data using NAICS data.  The data defines an establishment is a single physical location at which business is conducted. Retail totals were only for establishments identified in the following NAICS sectors and subsectors: electronics and appliance stores; clothing and clothing accessory stores; sporting goods stores; hobby, toy and game stores; musical instrument and supplies stores; bookstores; general merchandise stores; and office supply and stationery stores.

Alaska and Wyoming had the smallest number of retailers, at 661 and 678 respectively, as well as the smallest number per square mile. (Alaska was .001)

Connecticut’s annual tax-free week for clothing and footwear under $300 was conducted Aug. 18 through Aug. 24 at stores across the state, just prior to the start of the school year in most communities. On average, it is estimated that families spend nearly $700 on back to school purchases. The state expects to lose about $7 million to $8 million in revenue from the week of tax-free shopping.

According to the National Retail Federation projections prior to the back-to-school shopping season, the biggest portion of back-to-school shoppers’ budgets will go toward new apparel and accessories: 95.3 percent of those with school-age children will spend an average of $230.85 on fall sweaters, denim and other chic pieces of attire. Additionally, families will spend on shoes ($114.39) and school supplies ($90.49). Fewer families with children in grades K-12 will purchase electronics (55.7%), and those that are going to invest in a new tablet or smartphone are going to spend slightly less than last year.

Statistics Conference to Hear Projection of 2013 Boston Marathon Finishes

An analysis by a specially-convened team of academic researchers to project the finish times of runners at the 2013 Boston Marathon, will be presented publicly for the first time at the New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports, to be held on September 21 at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.

The Symposium is a meeting of statisticians and quantitative analysts connected with sports teams, sports media, and universities to discuss common problems of interest in statistical modeling and analysis of sports data. The symposium is part of a year-long series of programs and events around the world during the International Year of Statistics. 

The scheduled presentations include a statistical model for predicting the finish times of individuals who were running in the 2013 Boston Marathon but were unable to complete the race when it was abruptly halted after bombs exploded near the finish line last April.  That research was done at the request of the Boston Athletic Association, organizer of the Boston Marathon.

The researchers will explain how multi-year data was analyzed “to create projected times for this year's runners and discuss some features of the resulting projections.”  The BAA opted not to use the statistical model that was developed and provided to the race organizers, choosing instead to use a direct extrapolation of an individual’s time at the point the race was stopped - a result that was, in most cases, more favorable to the runners than the more complex analytical model developed by the research team.  Runners were provided those times within two months of the Marathon.

Just over 5,600 official entrants who were unable to cross the Boylston Street finish line on April 15 when the race was stopped at 2:50 p.m.  Of those, 2,611 are from Massachusetts and 726 are international participants, according to the Boston Athletic Association. In total, residents of all 50 U.S. States (and four U.S. territories), and 47 countries are among this group. 

The lead researcher was Richard L. Smith, the Mark L. Reed III Distinguished Professor of Statistics and Professor of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is also Director of the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, which is supported by the National Science Foundation.  Smith has previously run in the Boston Marathon, as have three members of his research team.

The researchers included Dorit Hammerling of the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina;  Matthew Cefalu and Francesca Dominici of the Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health; Jessi Cisewski of the Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University; Amy Grady of the Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Charles Paulson of Puffinware LLC, State College, PA; and Giovanni Parmigiani of the Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health  and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.

Smith said that while the BAA decision is “perfectly understandable,” the statistical model his team developed has been credited by the BAA as being helpful in their decision-making, and has both merit and validity that would be of interest to statisticians, runners and sports fans. The model has potential for future use in projecting runners’ finish times from intermediate times during the race, and the research team intends to focus their Symposium presentation on that potential.

The research team analyzed the times of individual runners from the 2010 and 2011 Marathons (2012 data was not used because the day was unusually hot, unlike 2013) at various points of the 26-mile course and developed a statistical model the projected the finish for every 2013 runner based on how similar runners finished in the previous years.  Many runners, for example, tend to slow, but at differing rates, in the race’s final miles.  Others have a strong finish.  The “sophisticated” analysis was developed to offer a more elaborate extrapolation of what individual finish times might have been.  The researchers provided the BAA with a “complete file” indicating a projected finish for each runner.

“It was an interesting challenge, and we were pleased to be asked by the BAA to work on this project,” Smith said.  “Their decision makes perfect sense, but we are proud of our work and the way in which it came together.”  Smith said that in addition to the first-time presentation at the Symposium, the team plans to publish their work in a professional journal.

The group of official entrants who were prevented from completing the race includes 2,983 women and 2,650 men, and ages range from 18 to 82.  A month after the race, the B.A.A. announced that all of the official entrants who did not finish would be invited back to participate in the 2014 Boston Marathon, to be held on April 21.  A special registration period for those individual closed last Thursday, and more than 4,500 runners have signed up.  As part of a rolling registration process, registration for runners who have qualifying times opens on September 9.

The BAA has also announced that the 118th Boston Marathon field will be increased to 36,000 due to increased interest in next year’s race.  Traditionally, the field numbers about 25,000.  Last year, just over 400 participants from Connecticut were registered for the race.  The largest field in recent years was in 1996, for the 100^th anniversary of the race, when 38,708 individuals registered.

“We understand many marathoners and qualifiers want to run Boston in 2014, and we appreciate the support and patience that the running community has demonstrated because of the bombings that occurred this past Spring,” said B.A.A. Executive Director Tom Grilk.

The conference co-chairs of the New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports are Mark Glickman and Scott Evans.  Glickman is Senior Statistician at the Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research and a Research Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Boston University.  Evans is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard’s School of Public Health.   Registration is now open for the Sept. 21 symposium.

© 2013 CT by the Numbers

As Enrollment Climbs, Caliber and Diversity of UConn Students Also Increases

Five years ago, at the start of the 2008-09 school year, published reports trumpeted that “UConn is expecting about 300 more freshmen this fall compared to last, making the 3,500-strong class the largest in the school's history.  Déjà vu all over again, as students arrive on campus to begin the 2013-14 academic year. The state’s flagship university reports a freshman class of “approximately 3,750 members – the largest in the school’s history.”

UConn is also pointing with pride at a freshman class that has:

• an average SAT score of 1233, which outpaces last year’s incoming freshmen, whose average of 1226 had set the previous UConn record;
• the most diverse group of students that UConn has ever recruited, with 27 percent of its members representing minority groups;
• the largest number of Honors Program students (456) to enroll in UConn in a single year;
• 149 valedictorians and salutatorians in the freshman class (continuing steady growth from 43 in 2002, according to the Daily Campus).

UConn’s new freshmen class draws 32 percent of its students from other states, the same level as in 2002.  In 2010, the Connecticut Post reported that out-of-state students made up 35 percent of the 3,339 freshmen who started their college careers at UConn's main campus and more than 26 percent of all 4,580 freshmen across the university's main and five regional campuses. That was up from 17 percent in 1995.

This summer, a record number of UConn students enrolled in summer school, taking advantage of incentives that include lower tuition and half-priced housing.  More than 8,800 students enrolled in one or both of the school's summer sessions, according to school officials.  That is up 22 percent from 2009, the year before the school began offering housing incentives for its summer programs.

UConn President Susan Herbst told the Day of New London this week that UConn plans to hire 259 new faculty members, 200 of whom will be teach the so-called STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and math - and will enroll an additional 6,580 undergraduates in the coming years, after legislative approved of Gov. Malloy’s plan for more than $1.5 billion in bonding and $137 million from the state's general fund for "Next Generation Connecticut."  Total enrollment last fall was 30,250, including more than 17,000 undergraduates on its main campus in Storrs.

A decade ago, in October 2002, UConn reported that “freshmen enrollment at the Storrs campus has increased so significantly over the last five years that it will be maintained at about 3,200 students for the next few years."

Official  enrollment figures for the 2013-14 academic year will not be available until September.

Time Short to Nominate State’s Top Librarians; CT Seeks Another Stand-out Year

Nominations for the 2013 Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Awards are open through September 6.  For Connecticut librarians, last year’s success will be tough to top.

The I Love My Librarian Award encourages library users to recognize the accomplishments of exceptional public, school, college, community college, or university librarians. It is a collaborative program of Carnegie Corporation of New York, The New York Times and the American Library Association.

Ten librarians in 2012 – including two from Connecticut - received a $5,000 cash award, a plaque and $500 travel stipend to attend an awards reception hosted by The New York Times. A plaque was also given to each award winner’s library.

Rachel Hyland, a reference and collection development librarian at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, and Rae Anne Locke, library/media specialist at the Saugatuck Elementary “Secret Garden” Library in Westport, were two of the 10 recipients a year ago.  The others worked at libraries in New Mexico, California, North Carolina, New York and Florida.

In order to be eligible, each nominee must be a librarian with a master’s degree from a program accredited by the ALA in library and information studies or a master’s degree with a specialty in school library media from an educational unit accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.

Nominees must be currently working in the United States in a public library, a library at an accredited two- or four-year college or university or at an accredited K-12 school.

Hyland (left), nominated by Sally Terrell, is described as “a rock-star librarian.  The intelligence, wit, energy she brings to her work has changed the way all of us – from students to faculty to administrators – think about information literacy.”  Locke (right) , nominated by Melissa Augari, has “poured her heart and soul into planning, creating and growing the SES Secret Garden Library, a vibrant, warm and inviting place that is much more than a school library. It is truly the learning hub for our entire school community.” Her collaborative projects “often reach out beyond the school community” and one student said simply, “it’s magical.”

In order to nominate a librarian, five questions must be answered on the contest’s website:

• What sets him/her apart?
• Please list a few ways in which the nominee has helped you and made your experience of the library a positive one. For instance, did the nominee inspire in you a love for literature; assist you in a project or finding other information?
• How has the librarian made a difference in the community?
• How has the library, and the nominee, improved the quality of your life?
• How does the nominee make the library a better place?

More information is available at www.ilovelibraries.org. Nominations must be submitted using the online form, and submitted in their entirety.

University of Hartford, Wesleyan on Top 25 List: Most Literary Colleges in America

The University of Hartford and Wesleyan University in Middletown have been named as among The 25 Most Literary Colleges in America, by the website Flavorwire. The list focuses on “which universities are the most literary friendly — which ones have the best teachers, the most famous alumni, and have the best environments for their more bookish students.”  Hartford and Wesleyan are the only Connecticut higher education institutions to make the list.

In describing the University of Hartford, the website noted that “While its neighbors in New York and Massachusetts might carry more name recognition, this school was originally founded by a group of the city’s upper class citizens during the Gilded Age, including Olivia Langdon Clemens (Mark Twain’s wife) and Harriet Beecher Stowe.”

Wesleyan University and the University of Hartford - both listed among the top ten on Flavorwire’s “Most Literary Colleges” list – are surrounded on the list by  schools including  Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, the University of Chicago, and many other prestigious institutions.

The website goes on to say that the University of Hartford “has a strong English department,” and it notes that the University “has given the Edward Lewis Wallant Award out to authors like Nicole Krauss and Dara Horn.” The Wallant Award, presented each year by the University’s Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, is one of the oldest and most prestigious Jewish literary awards in the United States.

In describing Wesleyan, the website noted that it is “One of the Little Ivies that is really big on books, V. S. Naipaul and T. S. Eliot both taught at this school that overlooks the Connecticut River, and with a list of writers like Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Ayelet Waldman, Steve Almond, and many others, Wesleyan is without a doubt a writer’s college. “

New York-based cultural blog Flavorwire covers art, music, books, film, and design, seeking to connect viewers of the website with inspiring culture. It is part of Flavorpill Media, a community of writers, editors, developers, designers and sales and marketing creatives.

The top 25 most literary colleges in America,  from Flavorwire:

1. Princeton University
2. University of Iowa
3. Brooklyn College
4. Pomona College
5. University of Hartford
6. Wesleyan University
7.  Sarah Lawrence College
8. Oberlin College
9. Williams College
10. Vanderbilt University
11.  Smith College
12.  University of Mississippi
13.  New York University
14.  Colorado College
15. University of Chicago
16. Hamilton College
17. Harvard
18.  University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
19. Sewanee:  The University of the South
20.  Emerson College
21. University of Texas at Austin
22. Columbia University
23.  Vassar College
24.  Bennington College
25. The New School

Three CT School Districts Approach School Year Preparing for More Instruction Time

Last December, Connecticut was one of five states selected to participate in a pilot project by the TIME Collaborative to extend instruction time during the school year by 300 hours, in an initiative aimed at improving academic preparedness and boosting student achievement.  Seven Connecticut schools, in East Hartford, Meriden and New London, were selected along with schools in Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Tennessee.

The timetable for the efforts included planning and workshops during the remainder of the 2012-2013 school year, with the new, improved, lengthened academic calendar to take hold when students returned in the fall of 2013.  The new school year – and implementation - is fast approaching.

The TIME Collaborative is a partnership between the Ford Foundation and the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) to develop high-quality and sustainable expanded learning time schools. Through the Collaborative, Ford and NCTL are investing in and supporting a select group of states that agree to harness state resources and federal funds using new flexibilities afforded by the federal waiver process to add 300 hours of additional learning time for all students in participating schools.

Ford is providing funds to build state, district and school capacity to support the initiative and is underwriting NCTL’s planning and implementation support to district and schools. Schools in the three Connecticut districts planning to implement the increased instruction time  include:

EAST HARTFORD Thomas S. O’Connell Elementary School

MERIDEN Casimir Pulaski Elementary School John Barry Elementary School

NEW LONDON Jennings Elementary School Winthrop Magnet Elementary School Nathan Hale Elementary School Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School

In the TIME Collaborative program, “high quality expanded learning time schools redesign the traditional school day/year to empower each student with the knowledge, skills, and experiences needed for success in college and career.”  The guidelines include seven areas of focus:

• Focused school-wide goals
• Rigorous Academics
• Differentiated Supports
• Frequent Data Cycles
• Targeted Teacher development
• Engaging enrichment
• Improved School Culture

Selected districts and schools will have the opportunity to re-engineer their school schedule , and expand opportunities for learning, enrichment and collaboration to improve student achievement, engagement, and teacher effectiveness.  They are also eligible to receive annual capacity building grants and deep technical assistance on effective implementation from NCTL at no cost, as well as joining a network of pioneering educators from across the country.

The three-year pilot program will affect almost 20,000 students in 40 schools in the five selected states, with long-term hopes of expanding the program to include additional schools — especially those that serve low-income communities.

Plans called for the schools to implement a collaborative process that would involve the school districts, union leadership, teachers, community partners and parents.  The planning process would allow teams to develop an expanded-time schedule that provides a rigorous, well-rounded curriculum for all students; offers individualized help for students who are struggling; uses data and technology to inform and improve instruction; improves collaboration among teachers; provides enrichment opportunities in the arts, music and other areas critical to development; and promotes a culture of high achievement.

 A mix of federal, state and district funds will cover the costs of expanded learning time, with the Ford Foundation and the National Center on Time & Learning also contributing financial resources.  Just over 1,000 U.S. schools already operate on expanded schedules, an increase of 53 percent over 2009, according to a report from the National Center on Time & Learning.

“For districts that are falling behind, we want to give them the ability to implement the reforms that we know achieve results for students.  The additional funding we’re announcing today will allow for the intensive turnaround models that will help us close the nation’s largest achievement gap,” Governor Malloy said when the program was announced last December.

Achievement Gap Persists Despite Progress Reflected in High School Graduation Rates

The academic achievement gap is alive and well and living in Connecticut.

While the high school graduation rate in the state has edged upward for the third consecutive year in 2012, 15.2 percent - 43,883 students – in the cohort of the class of 2012 failed to complete high school in four years.  This is down from 17.2 the previous year, according to the State Department of Education’s newly released data.  The state’s graduation rate is 84.8 percent – the percentage of students who graduate high school within four years.

Of the 15.2 percent of students who failed to graduate in four years, just over one-third - 5.4 percent - was still enrolled when their fellow students received their diplomas.  Overall, the disparity in graduate rates among whites, blacks and Hispanics was pronounced:

• The graduation rate of Hispanic students (68.6 percent) is 22.7 percent lower than that of White students (91.3 percent); the corresponding gap between Black/African American students (73 percent) and their White counterparts is 18.3 percent.
• The graduation rate for low-income students (those eligible for free lunch) is 66.6 percent, whch is 26.5 percent lower than that of students not eligible for any lunch subsidies (93.1 percent).
• The graduation rate for English Language Learners (62.7 percent) is 23.2 percent lower than that of their non-ELL peers (85.9 percent).

The graduation rate for Hispanics increased 4.4 percent last year over 2011, and it increased 1.8 percent for Black students, reflecting the state’s progress in narrowing the longstanding gap.

However, “just 54.2 percent of Hispanic males and only 57.6 percent of Black males who are eligible for free lunch graduated high school within four years,” the department reported, pointing out the demographic with the greatest disparities.

The report also noted that the high school graduation rate remains higher for males than females in Connecticut , 88.3 percent compared with 81.5 percent.  And the graduation rate improved more for females (2.3 percent) than males (1.9 percent) from 2011 to 2012.

Across the state’s 188 high schools, the graduation rate was above 90 percent in 100 high schools, 40 high schools had a graduation rate of between 80 and 90 percent, and 38 high schools had a graduation rate of less than 80 percent.

Graduation rates are calculated according to the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate method, which was developed by the National Governors Association and is considered to be the most precise method. These rates represent the percentage of students who graduated with a regular high school diploma in four years or less. It is based on individual student level data, excludes 9th grade repeaters, late graduates, and accounts for transfers in and out of the graduating class over the four-year period.

By way of comparison, in North Carolina, 80.4 percent of students graduated high school within four years, somewhat below Connecticut’s overall 84.8 percent.  However, among students of color, North Carolina’s numbers outpace Connecticut.  In North Carolina, 73 percent of Hispanic students now graduate in four years, compared with 68.6 percent in Connecticut.  Among black students, the percentage graduating in four years is 74.7 percent in North Carolina, compared to 73 percent in Connecticut.