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But the state's results still show achievement gaps for students with disabilities in town in some of the town's schools.
The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) released its annual Performance Reports for all public schools in the state Thursday afternoon. The reports take into account scores on standardized tests and high school graduation rates to grade each school’s performance.
“These reports demonstrate that there are bright spots and best practices as well as areas in need of review and improvement in districts and schools across the state,” Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor said in a press release.
The reports give each school a Student Performance Index (SPI), which ranges from 1 to 100. The reports also track student groups based on race, economic standing and special needs, and identify potential achievement gaps for schools and districts to correct. Each school and district is then given one of six classifications: Excelling, Progressing, Transitioning, Review, Focus, or Turnaround.
The state’s goal is for all schools to have an SPI of 88 or higher, but the annual reports assign each district a goal score that would mark an improvement over the previous year. The state’s report says that more than half the schools in the state reached their target scores for the 2012-13 school year.
Most Ridgefield schools were classified as “Progressing,” which means that SPI scores are over the state’s goal of 88. The schools were Ridgefield High and Barlow Mountain, Branchville, Farmingville, Ridgebury and Veterans Park Elementary.
Scotts Ridge Middle School, East Ridge Middle School and Scotland Elementary School were classified as “Excelling.”
East Ridge was also named a school of distinction for highest overall performance on the Connecticut Mastery Test.
Also, Veterans Park Elementary School was honored for meeting expectation and exiting the classification of "Focus" due to improvements in closing the achievement gap between students with high needs and their peers.
Veterans Park had been placed in that category using 2010-11 data that showed it had one of the lowest performing subgroups of high needs students in the state.
All Focus schools were required to design a plan to improve student outcomes. To exit Focus status, Veterans Park demonstrated two consecutive years of improvement in the high needs subgroup.
However, in the year's report, the district was still cited for high achievement gaps among students with disabilities and high needs compared with their peers in some schools.
You can search for your school’s performance report on the Connecticut Department of Education website.
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