East Windsor Middle School, Broad Brook CT

Original Research by School Decision on East Windsor Middle School

East Windsor Middle School serves grades five through eight in Broad Brook, a quiet residential village within the town of East Windsor in Hartford County. The school sits on Main Street in the heart of Broad Brook's small-town core, near the historic mill and civic buildings, making it accessible within the village's close-knit neighborhood fabric.

The school enrolls a solid cross-section of students, about evenly split between white students and students of color, with Hispanic and Black students each representing a meaningful share of the population. More than half of all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a working-to-middle-class community. The enrollment is small to moderate for a regional middle school, spread across the four grades.

Academic performance shows a school that is holding ground but facing headwinds in mathematics. In English language arts, the school demonstrates real strength, with over half of students proficient or above across all grades, including solid results in grades seven and eight where proficiency rises above expectations for that age. Science proficiency is similarly solid across both tested grades. Mathematics, however, tells a different story. In grades five and six, proficiency sits below the midpoint, and grade seven dips noticeably lower before grade eight rebounds. Across the school's four tested grades, overall math proficiency lags behind ELA and science by a meaningful margin. When all subjects are averaged together, the school's overall proficiency sits below the midpoint among the county's districts, a position that reflects strength in literacy and science but a significant drag from mathematics achievement.

A parent may want to look into what the school is doing to address the grade-seven math challenge and whether current interventions are showing signs of working. The overall proficiency numbers suggest the school would benefit from closer examination of math teaching practices and student support, particularly in the middle grades.

The district is using standards-based grading, reporting student mastery on a four-to-one numerical scale rather than traditional letter grades, and excluding behavior and effort from the academic score itself. Families new to this system should familiarize themselves with how the mastery scale works and how proficiency is communicated on report cards.

Two major developments loom in the district's near future. The town plans to hold a bond referendum in November for a major renovation and new-construction project, including rebuilding the elementary school and constructing a combined middle and high school facility to replace aging buildings from the nineteen-fifties and sixties. This will be a significant property-tax decision for families. Additionally, the district faced two failed budget referendums in spring before a scaled-down version passed, signaling that voters are willing to force repeated budget cycles and risking staff or program cuts based on referendum outcomes. A family considering the district should anticipate annual budget contests and the possibility of service reductions tied to community spending votes.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 45% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 737%

School 37% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 51%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 55% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 3 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 61% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Science

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 60% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

This schoolEast Windsor 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

English language arts

Grade 8Lower-income52%Higher-income64%11 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 8Lower-income44%Higher-income61%17 pp gap