Derby Middle School, Derby CT - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Derby Middle School

Derby Middle School sits in a small industrial city that is undergoing a cautious revival after decades of economic contraction. The school itself serves a student population that is economically disadvantaged and racially diverse, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch and nearly half the enrollment identifying as Hispanic. The enrollment is small for a middle school, distributed across the three grade levels.

The academic picture is one of clear concern. In English language arts, performance improves markedly as students move through the grades: sixth graders show modest proficiency, seventh graders perform somewhat better, and eighth graders reach close to half proficient or above. Math tells a different story. Across all three grades, math proficiency remains very low, never exceeding about one in six students in any single grade. Eighth-grade science shows similarly weak results. When these results are aggregated across subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region.

The low proficiency in math is particularly sharp and deserves direct attention from any family considering this school. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, to understand what specific challenges students face, what interventions are in place, and what support structures exist for students who struggle. The upward trend in English language arts as students progress is a positive signal, but it does not offset the pervasive weakness in mathematics.

The school is located on Chatfield Street, adjacent to Derby High School, set back from the downtown Main Street corridor where the city is attempting transit-oriented redevelopment around the Metro-North station. The surrounding community has seen significant property tax increases and is navigating a state-mandated revaluation that will reshape homeowner tax bills over the next several years. The broader District attempted to explore regionalization with Ansonia but that effort ended without agreement. More recently, the district adopted Lab-Aids: Issues and Science as its middle school science curriculum, a phenomena-driven approach, though gains from that change have not yet materialized in proficiency results.

Derby Middle School is a neighborhood school in a working-class city with limited resources. It serves students who need strong academic support and likely benefit from schools that can deliver intensive, targeted instruction in foundational skills. The current test results suggest that students, especially in mathematics, are not meeting grade-level expectations at rates that would position them well for high school coursework. Families should view this school in context of the economic and fiscal pressures facing the city and district, and should seek clarity from school leadership about how the school intends to improve outcomes in mathematics.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 616%

School 16% · District 16%

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 630%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 736%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 49% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

This schoolDerby School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income11%Higher-income25%14 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income6%Higher-income16%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income19%Higher-income16%3 pp gap