As the Wilton Public Schools‘ superintendent and his staff get down to finalizing their budget for the next school year, Board of Education Chair Ruth DeLuca expressed appreciation for the success of the district as its being highlighted through various accolades.
“Today GOOD Morning Wilton got a note from me to the Wilton community thanking them for their partnership and trust, especially in this season of thanks, and giving special recognition to our teachers, administrators, staff, parents and students as recognition and accolades for our district pour in,” she told the BOE on Thursday, Nov. 21.
Earlier this month Wilton’s schools made an exceptional showing in the Connecticut Department of Education’s Next Generation Accountability System (NGAS) for 2023-24.
Wilton High School achieved a score of 95.1 in the overall accountability index, while Middlebrook School received an overall score of 84.2, thus putting both schools at the top of the state in their respective school categories.
Cider Mill School was ranked third in the state among grade 3-5 schools, while Miller-Driscoll School was ranked fourth among Pre-K-2 schools.
“Wilton is among the strongest performing districts in the state,” DeLuca wrote in GOOD Morning Wilton. “We earned the second highest accountability index score among all Connecticut public schools.”
DeLuca reported that Niche, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company that ranks schools and colleges throughout the country, named Wilton Public Schools as the third best school district in Connecticut.
Also, she noted, U.S. News and World Reports ranked Middlebrook as the fourth best school in Connecticut, also naming it first in math.
“Wilton’s children are learning, playing, growing, thriving and achieving,” she told the BOE. “Every year we are getting better at getting better, and that is a testament to the value Wilton places on education and the value the board places on ensuring the district’s time and resources are organized and structured to create the best possible learning environment for all who walk through our school halls.”
Driving District’s Success in Math
A presentation by Trudy Denton, curriculum coordinator for math and science, spoke to some of the planning and program execution that has helped drive the district’s success in math, with the SBA and SAT standardized test data over the past 10 years used to demonstrate it.
“We’ve navigated a pandemic,” she said. “We have completed two math curriculum reviews. We’ve implemented a number of changes to our program and I’m thrilled to say that the story of our math program is one of success.”
Denton explained how the district began focusing on middle school math as it reshaped the curriculum over the past six years in particular. She said that creating a strategy that builds a foundation in the subject has enable students to have improved achievement in subsequent years.
“We’ve worked very hard over the last six years to identify and implement best practices in instruction,” Denton said, “to bring on and utilize high-quality instructional resources to support students, and that impact has been positive and I’m hopeful that we can continue to build on that success.”
She noted that part of what has made Wilton successful has been taking its own approach to math instruction, not caving in to comparisons of what nearby districts are doing.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say, doing what everyone else does doesn’t make us number one in the state,” she said. “Carving our own path based on what we know is good for students is what worked and I think it’s what we’re going to continue to be committed to.”
Denton said the work is not over.
“We’re focused on building in the success we’ve experienced. We need to continue to focus on high-quality math instruction.”
“And we also need to work on closing that achievement gap between struggling students and those who do not struggle,” she said.