The top reported proficiency rate is 26% in Science. The lowest is 10% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Connecticut River Academy at Goodwin University
Connecticut River Academy at Goodwin University is a middle and high school serving grades 6 through 12 in East Hartford. The school enrolls a diverse student body, with the population roughly split between Hispanic and Black students, and about two-thirds of its enrollment qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school sits on the Goodwin University campus along the Connecticut River waterfront, an area undergoing significant redevelopment.
The school is part of Goodwin University Educational Services, a district operating a pre-K through early-college magnet system. Connecticut River Academy offers students the chance to earn over 30 transferable college credits through coursework at Goodwin University while still in high school, at no tuition cost. This early-college pathway is a concrete structural benefit: students graduate with high school credentials and meaningful college progress already in hand. The school is also connected to a broader district effort that now includes RiverTech, Connecticut's first inter-district technical magnet high school, which began welcoming ninth-graders in 2025-26 and will phase in additional grades. RiverTech students can earn up to 60 college credits and industry certifications alongside paid apprenticeships, adding another option within the district for families weighing high school pathways.
State testing results for Connecticut River Academy show proficiency concentrated heavily at the high school level. Across the middle grades (6-8), proficiency in math and ELA is quite low: performance hovers in the single digits and low teens for most middle grade levels. Eighth-grade science performs better, and ELA performance improves slightly by grade 8. When averaged across all grades and subjects tested, the school's proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile relative to districts in the Capitol Planning Region. For high school, data were not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about graduation rates, college enrollment, and how the college-credit pathway translates into actual student outcomes.
The school's enrollment is stable and manageable in size. The student composition reflects East Hartford's demographic character: nearly half the school identifies as Hispanic, about one-third as Black, and about one-sixth as white, with smaller populations of Asian students and students of two or more races. High poverty is a defining feature of the student population, with roughly two-thirds of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. These economic circumstances affect many families in East Hartford, a town whose civic anchors and redevelopment efforts do not yet translate into broad affluence, though the area is anchored by major employers like Pratt & Whitney and Goodwin University itself.
East Hartford is a suburban town with a strong industrial and commercial dimension. It sits at the convergence of regional highways and is auto-oriented, though it has invested in trail infrastructure including the East Hartford Bike Path and connections to the Connecticut River Riverwalk. CTtransit Hartford provides local bus service. The town is in an active period of waterfront redevelopment and is building mixed-use residential projects along the river and at Rentschler Field, where major warehouse and logistics operations have recently opened.
The school's strength lies in its college-credit pathway and integration with a university campus, offering a tangible early-college benefit that families can act on. The soft spot is academic proficiency at the middle grades, where performance is notably low. A family considering Connecticut River Academy should understand that while the school offers real college-credit opportunity, the academic foundation being built in grades 6-8 is weak by state comparison. The school would be a fit for a family prioritizing early college access and workforce readiness, who understands that meaningful academic catch-up work will be needed in the middle grades, and who values the structure of a school embedded in a university setting.
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