Report Gives New Haven a D+ For Educating Poor, Minority Students

Despite the New Haven Unified School District's efforts to close the achievement gap, a study released last month ranks the school district among the lowest in minority performance.

Out of the 147 districts that were rated in 2011 by education advocacy group Education Trust-West, NHUSD ranked 126th in minority performance. However, the district ranked 30th out of 138 for college readiness among students of color.

The district's overall grade was a D+. Berkeley, Fairfield-Suisun, Fremont, Milpitas, San Jose and Santa Rosa also received a D+ grade.

The lowest category for New Haven was its improvement rate among students of color. According to the survey, NHUSD's five-year API growth among African-American and Latino students was 18, earning the district an F grade in the category.

Though the district's grade was fairly low, none of those surveyed in the Bay Area received A's or B's. San Ramon Valley scored the highest with a C+. Castro Valley came in second with a C, along with Gilroy and South San Francisco while San Lorenzo shared a C-minus with Pleasanton, Livermore Valley and San Leandro.

Schools were evaluated on seven criteria all based on how well the districts educate their students of color and those from low-income families. The grades weighed the following:

• Performance levels among students of color and low-income students
• Improvement among students of color and low-income students
• Size of achievement gap between black, Latino and white students
• College readiness among black and Latino students.

The report focused on about 15 percent of school districts in California with 5,000 or more students that serve kindergarten through 12th grades. An article by Mercury News states that in general, Bay Area schools did worse than their Southern California counterparts.

While the study may not reflect glowingly on NHUSD, a district report in February noted that English language learners at all grade levels were performing at a grader pace than their counterparts in meeting growth targets in reading.