Wallingford officials present 2023–24 state assessment results, flag 5–6 grade transition

Wallingford School District staff presented the district’s 2023–24 state summative assessment results to the Instructional Committee on Sept. 3, reporting mixed performance across grades and emphasizing growth measures as well as proficiency.

Presenter Missus Latour told the committee the district’s final 2023–24 enrollment was about 5,292 students across 12 schools and reviewed demographic indicators, including multilingual learners and students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. She described the Smarter Balanced assessment, administered to grades 3–8 in English language arts and mathematics, as computer‑adaptive within grade level and “a measure we use to look at student achievement and progress over time,” not the sole indicator of student mastery.

Latour explained the state’s four achievement levels and the district’s use of growth targets set by the state. “You can have high achievement, high growth. You can have low achievement, high growth,” she said, describing the blue bars on district charts as the percent of students who met growth targets and the green bars as the average percent of the growth target achieved. She noted the district analyzes those results alongside local assessments such as unit tests and universal screens to understand individual student needs.

Multiple board members pushed on a recurring drop in performance between fifth and sixth grade. “To me, the sixth grade is a red flag,” said Missus Regan, who urged targeted attention to the transition year. Latour attributed some of the dip to the middle‑school transition and curricular shifts in mathematics, adding that the district implemented a revised middle‑school schedule and a full curriculum rewrite last year to address the issue.

Latour said the district is entering year two of the revised middle‑school schedule, which provides daily 50‑minute content blocks in core subjects, and that the middle‑school math curriculum was completely rewritten last year. She said the district expects “to see that needle move forward” as scheduling and curriculum changes take hold and as staff continue to refine instruction.

The presentation also compared Wallingford’s SAT Day campus‑administered (grade 11) results to state and international tester groups and reported results for NGSS science testing (grades 5, 8 and 11) and LAS Links for multilingual learners. Latour said Wallingford generally exceeds state averages on NGSS science measures and described variability across LAS Links domains (speaking and listening typically develop earlier than reading and writing).

The committee did not take a formal vote on instructional changes at the meeting; Latour said her office will follow up with more detailed school‑level reports and weekly updates and encouraged board members to submit questions by email.