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Connecticut Briefing
During the 2013-14 school year, Achievement First is serving more than 3,200 students in Bridgeport,
Hartford and New Haven across 10 Connecticut schools.
PRIMARY TALKING POINTS: RESULTS
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“Achievement First students are outperforming their local and statewide peers. Our students even
surpass their peers in affluent suburbs, such as Greenwich and Fairfield, in some grades and
subjects.”

FACT: In some grades and subjects, student performance has now surpassed the gap-closing
standards of the highest-performing and most affluent suburban districts, a better measure
of college readiness than the statewide average. At AF Amistad High, 85 percent of students
scored at or above goal in writing on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT),
outperforming affluent districts including Fairfield and Greenwich, and achieving on par with
Madison. On the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT), Elm City College Prep Middle eighth
graders achieved 88 percent at goal in math, outperforming their affluent peers in Fairfield,
Greenwich and Weston.

FACT: In our middle school capstone grade—eighth—68 of students achieved at goal on the
2013 CMT, compared to 67 percent of statewide peers.

FACT: Achievement First students are excelling, especially in early elementary math. On the
nationally normed TerraNova math assessment, first graders at each of our elementary
schools performed, on average, at the 93rd percentile, outperforming 93 percent of students
across the country. Amistad Academy Elementary first graders performed at the 98th
percentile, earning achievement averages that are in the top 2 percent of students
nationwide. At all four of our Connecticut elementary schools, an average of 87percent of
students in kindergarten through second grade were reading at or above grade level on the
nationally normed Fountas & Pinnell reading assessment.
In addition to outperforming the state average, Achievement First’s Connecticut eighth
graders outperformed their host district peers by approximately 31 percentage points on
the 2013 Connecticut Mastery Test.
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FACT: Achievement First schools rank among the top schools in the state according to
ConnCAN’s annual Top 10 lists, which highlight schools statewide that are closing the
achievement gap. According to the 2011 Top 10 lists, the latest available, Achievement First
schools earned the following rankings:

#1
African-American high school performance
(AF Amistad High)
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
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
#2
Overall middle school performance gains
(AF Hartford Academy Middle)

#2
African-American middle school student performance
(Amistad Academy Middle)

#3
Overall high school improvement
(AF Amistad High)

#4
African-American middle school student performance
(AF Hartford Academy Middle)

#7
African-American elementary school student performance
(Elm City College Prep Elementary)

#8
African-American elementary school student performance
(AF Hartford Academy Elementary)

#9
Low-income middle school student performance
(Amistad Academy Middle)
FACT: Elm City College Prep and AF Bridgeport Academy were recognized by the Connecticut
Department of Education as “Schools of Distinction.” Elm City College Prep earned the
highest state recognition for African-American student achievement, while AF Bridgeport
Academy earned top state marks for student progress.
“Achievement First students are making academic gains at a faster rate than their district or
statewide peers.”

FACT: Our middle school students show dramatic growth on their path from fourth grade
(before Achievement First) to eighth grade. At Amistad Academy, Elm City College Prep and
AF Bridgeport Academy, the percentage of students at or above goal on the Connecticut
Mastery Test, averaged across all subjects, doubled from fourth grade in 2008 to eighth
grade in 2012. In Bridgeport, the eighth-grade cohort gained 51 percentage points from
their fourth grade scores, compared to only 9 percentage point gains across the state. At
Amistad Academy, where the fourth-grade cohort entered Achievement First with 45
percent scoring at goal, achievement jumped to 88 percent at goal in their eighth grade
year, a 43 percentage point improvement.
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
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FACT: In 2012, AF Bridgeport Academy Middle demonstrated a 19 percentage point increase
in the percentage of students achieving at goal, the largest increase in the state.
“Achievement First schools are effectively preparing students to succeed in and graduate from
college. At our flagship high school in New Haven—AF Amistad High—100 percent of the school’s
graduating seniors have gained college acceptance for the fourth year in a row in as many
graduating classes.”

FACT: AF Amistad High is consistently one of the highest-performing schools in the state in
high school writing—the subject most predictive of college success. On the 2013 CAPT, 85
percent of students scored at or above goal in writing, outperforming affluent districts
including Fairfield and Greenwich, and achieving on par with Madison.

FACT: In 2013, 13 percent of the school’s graduating seniors were accepted to Ivy League
institutions including Brown University, Princeton University and the University of
Pennsylvania.

FACT: Our seniors are graduating well-prepared for post-secondary course work. At AF
Amistad High, 100 percent of students who took the A.P. Calculus exam passed. More than
77 percent of students earned a 4 or 5 on the A.P. Calculus exam, compared with only 41.8
percent of students across the country.

FACT: Through a coordinated focus on college readiness, SAT performance continues to
improve. Achievement First students are averaging more than 1,020 points on the reading
and math sections of the test, especially significant because 1,000 is known as the
“gatekeeper score” for admission to many selective colleges. At AF Amistad High, the
average SAT writing score was 545, which exceeds both the Connecticut state average of
506 and the national average of 489.

FACT: Our students, most of whom will be the first in their families to attend college, are not
only gaining acceptance to college, but are persisting toward graduation. While only 16
percent of students nationwide who are the first in their families to enter college will
graduate within six years, 90 percent of our high school graduates remain on track toward
graduation.
PRIMARY TALKING POINTS: HIGHLIGHTS
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“Achievement First is committed to improving performance for all Connecticut students—not only
the students we directly serve. Therefore, we are partnering with our host districts in Bridgeport,
Hartford and New Haven to share best practices and increase our collective impact.”

FACT: Through the Residency Program for School Leadership, Achievement First is training
future leaders for New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford Public Schools. Co-developed with
New Haven Public Schools, the program was successfully piloted in New Haven during the
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2011-12 school year and has since expanded to Hartford and Bridgeport.
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
FACT: In collaboration with Jumoke Academy and Hartford Public Schools, Achievement First
signed a District-Charter Collaboration Compact with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
This means that our partnership with Hartford Public Schools was recognized as one of the
top 16 such partnerships in the country. This competitive compact supports plans for bold
collaboration between traditional district and public charter schools.

FACT: In December 2012, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $5 million grant
for Hartford Public Schools, Jumoke Academy and Achievement First to promote the sharing
of best practices around leadership development, implementation of the Common Core
State Standards and teacher evaluation. This three-year grant was the largest of only seven
given across the country.
“There is high demand from our Connecticut families and communities for more Achievement First
schools.”

FACT: For the 2012-13 academic year, Achievement First Connecticut schools received
approximately six applications for every open seat.

FACT: In Hartford, AF Hartford Academy was the #1 school on the Hartford Public Schools
District Choice Lottery, receiving more lottery applications than any other school in the
district. In New Haven, Amistad Academy was the top school selected through the New
Haven Public Schools Lottery for kindergarten, with Elm City College Prep a close second.

FACT: Our 8,100 Achievement First students and their families Achievement First families
are overwhelmingly satisfied with our schools. On our 2011-12 annual parent survey, 95
percent of Achievement First families agreed that their child goes to a great school, 94
percent felt confident the school was doing all it could to prepare their child for success in
college and 95 percent agreed that the school was a safe place for children.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Demographics
Percentage/Number
Number of students*
3,290
Percent African-American/Latino
98%
FRL
87%
SPED
7%
ELL
9%
*Values are for the 2013-14 school year.
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