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Norwalk Panorama survey shows steeply low secondary engagement; preliminary Grade 11 SAT proficiency rises
Summary
Norwalk School District staff presented Panorama social-emotional learning and school-climate survey results showing low secondary student engagement and gains in school safety and staff leadership trust, and shared preliminary Connecticut SAT (grade 11) proficiency increases; the district said state reporting may change the preliminary figures.
NORWALK, Conn. — At a May 7 meeting of the Board of Education Ad Hoc Inclusion and Educational Justice Committee, Norwalk School District staff presented disaggregated results from the district’s Panorama surveys and preliminary Connecticut SAT results for 11th graders.
Diane Filardo, director of research and accountability for Norwalk School District, told the committee that student engagement at the secondary level is “something that we really need to focus on next year,” reporting a 27 percent favorable response for students in grades 6–12. "The percent positive at that level for student engagement was 27 percent," Filardo said.
Why it matters: low engagement at the secondary level can affect course completion and long-term student outcomes, while Panorama and state test data together feed the district’s next-generation accountability work.
Filardo said Panorama topics included growth mindset and emotional regulation for SEL and, across school surveys, items such as relationships with teachers, school belonging, rigorous expectations, school engagement, school climate and safety. She noted that secondary SEL results were generally lower than elementary results and that emotional regulation favorable responses were about 54–55 percent depending on grade band.
Filardo also reported increases in other areas: staff leadership relationships have risen by about 14 percentage points since 2022, and family responses to school safety rose about 4 percentage points compared with 2024. "There's been an increase since 2022 in the percent positive by 14 percentage points," Filardo said of staff leadership relationships.
On state testing, Filardo described preliminary Connecticut SAT data for grade 11 as encouraging but caveated the figures. "This is very preliminary results... it's probably close to 90% of it," she said, adding that the state’s official reporting will remove students who were newly arrived or not enrolled for the full school year. Filardo explained the district’s proficiency cutoffs on the SAT scale as a scale-score threshold of 480 in English language arts and 530 in mathematics.
Preliminary year-to-year district-level changes shown to the committee were a 10.7 percentage-point gain in ELA proficiency and a 2.9 percentage-point gain in math proficiency for grade 11. Allison Bridal Johnson, executive director of leadership and development, acknowledged particular gains for students with disabilities: "I just wanted to acknowledge the growth that students with disabilities made. So there was a 10 gain for that population of students as well," she said.
Filardo emphasized the preliminary nature of the SAT figures and that final accountability metrics will come from the state’s adjusted reports. She also said the district continues to disaggregate Panorama responses by subgroup (race/ethnicity, ELL/MLL status, special education, free-and-reduced-price-lunch status and chronic absence) to examine disparities.
The committee did not take formal policy action on the data; presenters said the district will continue analysis and incorporate findings into improvement planning and next-generation accountability work.
