A couple of months ago, I was rather vocal here in griping about the performance of the local schools as compared to their growing consumption of the town budget.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out this notice from the Windsor Public Schools:
The State has released the results of the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT). They reveal dramatic increases for Windsor students in all four testing areas. Connecticut 10th graders took the CAPT in March 2006.
On all four tests, when compared to performance on the 2005 CAPT, there is 1) a significant increase in the percent of Windsor Public School students who reached or surpassed Goal and in the percent of students scoring at or above the Proficient level, and 2) a considerable decrease in the number of students who scored at Basic or Below Basic levels (meaning that a substantial percentage of students moved up and now are at the Proficient Level).
Windsor Watch has a few additional numbers, as usual.
So, maybe I do feel a little guilty about being vocal in griping about the proposed tax hike, which was eventually shaved back. But only a little. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that even with the improvements, Windsor schools still fall out of line in terms of performance versus town demographics. I still also think that the town ought to be a bit more proactive about adopting some sort of a tie to future requests to increase school funding to attaining measurable goals.