OLD SAYBROOK, CT — Old Saybrook Public Schools students delivered strong results on the most recent Smarter Balanced Assessment, with 71.2% of tested students meeting or exceeding grade-level standards in English Language Arts (ELA) across grades 3 through 8. This ranks Old Saybrook Public Schools in the top 20% (36th out of 185 total districts) of all districts statewide in ELA. In Math, Old Saybrook schools ranked in the top 33% (61st out of 185) of all districts statewide.
This year’s Smarter Balanced Assessment scores were officially released and, while we must take the time to fully analyze the data, which we will present publicly, we wanted to share some of the highlights, such as:
Grade 3 ELA
2024-2025: 55.4%
2025-2026: 67.7%
Increase: 12.3 percentage points
Grade 4 ELA
2024-2025: 58.0%
2025-2026: 70.9%
Increase: 12.9 percentage points
In the 2024-2025 school year, 55.4% of our third graders met or exceeded ELA state proficiency. As fourth graders, this same group of students met or exceeded state proficiency at 70.9% in the 2025-2026 school year, a 15.5% gain.
Mr. Walton and Mrs. Anderson, along with the entire Goodwin staff, should be commended for the results achieved during their first year of leadership.
At Old Saybrook Middle School, 72.1% of students in grades 5 through 8 met or exceeded state proficiency in ELA. Additionally, 78.1% of our sixth grade students met or exceeded state proficiency in math, ranking 8th among districts tested.
Old Saybrook ranked 3rd out of 26 districts in our latest District Reference Group (DRG). The District Reference Groups system was designed by the state to group local and regional public school districts together based on the similar socioeconomic status of their students.
Strong districtwide performance does not mean every student is where we want them to be. We believe that students are much more than a score on a test, but we should be proud of this performance while remaining clear that our work is ongoing.
Congratulations to our students and staff on strong results.