Key Points:
- Wilton students show strong academic gains as they progress through the district, with particularly high performance among eighth graders.
- ELA scores decline districtwide as students transition from fifth to sixth grade, with a sharper drop among students receiving special education services.
- Educators say Wilton needs earlier interventions, stronger fifth-to-sixth-grade alignment and additional support for struggling students.
Why It Matters: The results identify a specific transition point where Wilton students lose ground and where changes to instruction and support could help close persistent achievement gaps.
Wilton students make impressive gains as they progress from elementary school through eighth grade, but standardized test results point to challenges when students transition from fifth to sixth grade, according to school officials.
Wilton educators said the district also has more work to do to provide intervention services earlier and address achievement gaps between students with disabilities and those without.
Board of Education members heard a detailed presentation Thursday, Sept. 3, about student performance on English language arts, math and science assessments and had an opportunity to ask questions about the results.
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Charles “Chuck” Smith reviewed results of several assessments, including the Smarter Balanced Assessment System, which evaluates ELA/Literacy and math skills among students in grades 3-8; the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) assessment, administered to students in grades 5, 8 and 11; and the SAT, given to all 11th-grade students in Connecticut public schools.
Strong results accompanied by persistent gaps
In both ELA and math, Wilton students show gains as they progress from elementary school through eighth grade, Smith said.
Important definitions:
- Cross-Cohort: Comparing last year’s eighth graders with this year’s eighth graders — i.e. same curriculum, different kids
- Within Cohort: Comparing this year’s eighth graders with performance as seventh graders last year — i.e. different curriculum, same kids
English Language Arts
8th Grade
- Among eighth grade students taking the ELA assessment, Level 1 scores — indicating that students did not meet the standards — dropped from 4.9% in 2025 to 0.4% in 2026. (cross-cohort)
- Those who scored at Level 4 and exceeded the standards rose from 38.7% to 40.2% (cross-cohort)
- In math proficiency for eighth graders, the number of students who scored at Level 1 also dropped year over year, from 4.9% in 2025 to 2.7% in 2026. (cross-cohort)
- This year, 70.3% scored at a level 4, up from 64.6% last year. (cross-cohort)
“We see that a significant portion of students consistently reach Connecticut’s highest performance tier. Level 4 exceeds standards across both ELA and mathematics, which demonstrates that our curriculum and instructional frameworks successfully challenge and accelerate our high-achieving students,” Smith said.
Students receiving special education services also demonstrated gains in ELA at several grade levels.
Students with Disabilities
Achievement percentages reported by the district combined Level 3 and Level 4 results (met or exceeded expectations)
- This year, students identified as having disabilities in eighth grade achieved the highest proficiency rate among special education students in Grade 3-8, with 56.5% meeting goal, a 5.6 percentage point gain from 2025. (Cross-Cohort)
- Fourth graders’ proficiency rose from 30.4% in 2025 to 38% in 2026, a 7.6 percentage-point gain from their scores one year ago (within cohort)
- Those same fourth graders achieved a 6 percentage-point increase over last year’s fourth graders — from 32% last year to 38% (cross-cohort).
“And while grade five cross-cohort numbers show a drop, when we follow the same group of fifth graders from their fourth grade baseline in 2025. They actually achieved a 6.2% point growth,” Smith said. “Similarly, our seventh grade cohort showed positive progress, growing by 2.5 percentage points over their sixth grade performance.” [within cohort]
Smith said the results indicate that specialized instructional supports are helping students make tangible gains, but also reveal areas requiring additional attention.
ELA scores decline during transition to sixth grade
The most pronounced concern in the ELA results emerged as special education students moved from fifth to sixth grade.
“It also highlights two clear areas where we need to focus our resources and interventions moving forward. First, while grade 6 saw cross-cohort improvements, we observed a significant within-cohort drop of minus 12.9 percentage points as students moved from fifth to sixth grade,” Smith said. “This indicates that the transition to middle school presents a challenge for many of our students who receive special education supports and services and we need to evaluate our transition supports and middle school support models.”
The decline was not limited to students receiving special education services.
Overall ELA performance remained high, with 89.3% non-identified fifth-grade students meeting (or exceeding) benchmarks (Levels 3+4); likewise, 92% of seventh graders and 89.2% of eighth graders hit the benchmarks as well.
However, sixth-grade general education students had an 8% decline within their cohort, from 92.8% in 2025 when they were fifth graders to 84.8% in as sixth graders in 2026.
“Because we saw a similar dip in our numbers for students who receive special education, this confirms that the transition from fifth to sixth grade presents a district-wide instructional adjustment as students navigate middle school,” Smith said.
He acknowledged there is still quite an achievement gap, but said the district is making progress.
“We need to accelerate early elementary ELA growth and achievement and strengthen our approach to reading interventions. We also need to better align our curriculum and instructional practices and expectations between fifth and sixth grades and examine how we are supporting our struggling learners during that transition,” Smith said. “And I think we need to do a better job of closing cross-cohort and within-cohort growth and achievement gaps for struggling students, especially those students who receive special education supports.”
Board member Patrick Pearson asked the administrators what they believed was behind the consistent decline from fifth to sixth grade.
Wilton Public Schools K-8 Humanities Curriculum Coordinator Karen Brenneke said students face a significant adjustment when they head to another building for school.
“Students are learning a lot of new things. ‘Where’s the bathroom? I now have four team teachers instead of two team teachers.’ There are a lot of factors there that are growing up as we transition to another school,” Brenneke said. “I think that’s a factor as well.”
Math
Chuck Smith began his presentation on math assessment results with a look at performance trends over a 10-year period. He spoke about looking at grades 3-8 from both a cross-cohort and within-cohort perspective, focusing on the most recent changes between 2025 to 2026.
Math scores — Cross-Cohort
- Grade 4 students made gains, jumping from 78% in 2025 to 83.3% in 2026.
- Eighth grade performance also rose significantly, from 81.8% to 89.2%.
- In Grade 3, scores declined from 78.1% last year to 74% this year.
- Fifth grade also saw a moderate dip, from 79.8% in 2025 to 75.4% in 2026.
Math Scores — Within Cohort
- This year’s eighth graders scored 89.2%, climbing from 88.4% when they were in Grade 7
- Current fourth graders made a big jump from 78.1% as third graders to 83.3% this year.
“So overall, math proficiency builds steadily,” Smith said.
Math scores — Sixth Grade
- Sixth grade performed well, with 65.7% meeting or exceeding proficiency goals by scoring at Level 3 or 4, and only 3.8% scoring at Level 1.
Math Scores — Sixth Grade Special Education students
- There was again, however, a dip in sixth grade for students with disabilities. In math, that dip was nearly 17%, in both the year-to-year cross-cohort comparison and the comparison following the same students from fifth to sixth grade (within-cohort).
- Cross-cohort: In 2025, 44.2% of sixth graders who receive services scored Level 3 or 4, compared to this year’s sixth grade special education students reaching the same proficiency, at 27.3%.
- Within-cohort: Last year, when they were in fifth grade, those students scored 44.1% in proficiency, versus scoring 27.3% this year in sixth grade.
“This is similar to ELA, indicating that the middle school math transition requires targeted structural scaffolding,” Smith said.
Although an achievement gap remains between students with disabilities and those not receiving special education services, Smith said the gap in math is smaller than it is in ELA. He attributed that difference to the district’s longer implementation of its Illustrative Mathematics curriculum.
“Nevertheless, we will continue to refine our academic support systems for all of our struggling learners,” Smith said.
Science
Science scores remain strong compared with peer districts
Wilton also scored highly on the Next Generation Science Standards assessment (NGSS), administered to students in grades 5, 8 and 11.
Compared with other school districts in its District Reference Group (DRG) — Darien, Easton, New Canaan, Region 9 Easton/Redding, Ridgefield, Weston and Westport — Wilton’s eighth graders ranked second only to Weston, with 86.8% meeting or exceeding the goal. Among 11th graders, 85.7% met or exceeded the goal, placing Wilton third in the group.
Although 73% of Wilton’s fifth-grade students met or exceeded the NGSS goals, Wilton ranked among its peer DRG schools, with New Canaan recording the highest proficiency rate at 88.6%.
The science results again revealed an achievement gap between students receiving special education services and those who did not. Among fifth graders, 82% of students not receiving services met or exceeded the goal, compared with 34% of students receiving those services.
“Our non-identified students demonstrate very high proficiency across all three tested grades, 82% in grade 5, 92% in grade 8, and 94% in grade 11. Our identified students are not showing an equal level of proficiency, but they do show steady progress as they advance through the grades,” Smith said. “I think the key takeaway here is that as identified students move through our system and benefit from specialized support models, their proficiency nearly doubles from elementary to middle school. However, the initial performance in grade 5 highlights an opportunity to strengthen early science accommodations and targeted interventions in K-5.”
The SAT
Wilton SAT results exceed state averages
On the SAT, 89.7% of Wilton High School students met or exceeded the state standard in ELA, compared with 58% statewide. In math, 75.5% met or exceeded the standard, Smith said.
“These scores keep Wilton High School positioned as one of the best public high schools in Connecticut, ranking in the top 5% statewide in both ELA and math performance,” Smith said.
