Henry James reports modest test gains, outlines IXL rollout and culture changes

Henry James Middle School principal Scott (Henry James principal) told the Simsbury Board of Education that the school recorded modest gains on this year's Smarter Balanced assessments and described a number of curriculum and culture initiatives intended to sustain improvement.

'We had the first New England Math League contest, which had 189 students participate, which is an SHS record for participation,' Scott said, noting both extracurricular success and classroom progress. Schoolwide, he reported about 75 percent of students met or exceeded expectations in English language arts (a 2 percent increase), 73.1 percent did so in science (a 1.7 percent decline), and 66 percent met or exceeded math benchmarks (a 6 percent increase overall for the school).

Those headline results were accompanied by more detailed cohort data. Scott said seventh grade showed a notable increase in ELA (78.5 percent at or above), which the school described as the first sustained post-COVID increase from sixth to seventh grade they'd seen in many years. By contrast, some eighth-grade comparison rankings moved lower by a few percentage points; the report stressed those cohorts remain within a close range of peer districts.

Why it matters: the school tied its assessment outcomes to…