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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | J u l y / A u g u s t 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 27 High school graduation rates by school district, 2017 SCHOOL FOUR-YEAR DISTRICT GRADUATION RATE Ansonia 83.8 Branford 94.2 Bridgeport 74.5 Cheshire 96.7 Clinton 89.9 Derby 85.9 East Haven 76.5 Fairfield 95.8 Guilford 98.1 Source: CT Dept. of Education, 2017 SCHOOL FOUR-YEAR DISTRICT GRADUATION RATE SCHOOL FOUR-YEAR DISTRICT GRADUATION RATE SCHOOL FOUR-YEAR DISTRICT GRADUATION RATE Hamden 87.6 Madison 97.7 Meriden 75.7 Milford 90.1 Naugatuck 84.8 New Haven 80 North Branford 92.9 North Haven 95.7 Old Saybrook 96.9 Oxford 95.5 Regional School District 04 100 Regional School District 05 95.7 Regional School District 13 95.2 Regional School District 15 93.4 Regional School District 16 88.8 Regional School District 17 95.4 Seymour 95.1 Shelton 92.4 Stratford 88.8 Trumbull 97.4 Wallingford 92.2 Waterbury 75.6 Westbrook 91.9 West Haven 75.2 Wolcott 94.8 Connecticut Average 87.9 A s a rich state with poor cities, Connecticut's public-education system is in many ways a textbook illustration of socioeconomic disparities and impermeable boundaries between and among 169 cities and towns that fiercely protect home rule of their children's education. e result is some of the nation's best-perform- ing public schools — and some of the worst-per- forming — oen coexisting literally cheek by jowl — Bridgeport and Fairfield, say, or New Haven and Woodbridge. In higher education, south-central Connecticut struggles to be defined by institutions with initials other than Y. (Yale isn't even the largest university in the city of New Haven — at least measured by undergrad population. at would be Southern Connecticut State University.) One of the most selective colleges in the nation, Yale could remain unchanged and likely lose little of its luster — but it continues to evolve from its roots as the Collegiate School in Old Saybrook in 1701. In the last five years it has added two new residential colleges for undergrads (bringing the total to 14). Earlier this spring the university an- nounced that it would add a new graduate school — the Jackson School of Global Affairs, slated for a fall 2022 opening. Probably no other school in Connecticut has transformed itself more dramatically than Quin- nipiac University — née Quinnipiac College, a generation ago regarded as a commuter school for business students. Now, having added graduate and professional schools, including law and medi- cine, it has built a whole new campus and taken its brand name national with a polling institute and Division I sports. But if any other institution comes close, it must be Fairfield's Sacred Heart University, which has been transformed dramatically in student body, breadth of programs, financial fitness and, most dramatically, physically, with the acquisition of GE's former 66-acre HQ in 2017. An easily overlooked growth segment in higher education is the upward enrollment trajectory of community colleges. Two of Connecticut's largest community colleges — Gateway and Housatonic — are in the south-central region. n On education, 2 schools of thought E D U C AT I O N

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