John Barry School, Meriden CT - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on John Barry School

John Barry School serves prekindergarten through fifth grade in Meriden, a mid-sized Connecticut city that has been pursuing substantial downtown revitalization around its transit center and flood-control park. The school sits in a community with a mixed manufacturing and service-sector economy, anchored by healthcare and retail alongside diversified industrial production. Housing costs are moderate relative to state and national benchmarks.

The school's enrollment is small to moderate for its grade band, with a student body that is predominantly Hispanic and a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school operates within the Meriden School District, which has recently undergone a significant shift in its K-3 curriculum with dedicated instructional coaches supporting teachers in planning units. This district-wide change in early literacy instruction has produced strong results across Meriden's elementary schools, with publicly reported data showing that seven of eight elementary schools are now exceeding state literacy expectations by substantial margins, and three Meriden schools ranked among Connecticut's top five "Bright Spot" schools for beating expected reading proficiency.

Academic performance at John Barry reflects this context. In math, the school's proficiency rates vary by grade. Fourth grade performs strongest, with the majority of students meeting proficiency. Third and fifth grades show more modest results, with about half the students reaching proficiency in each grade. In English language arts, the pattern is similar: fourth grade outperforms the other grades, with about two-thirds of students proficient, while third and fifth grades show lower proficiency rates, roughly around one-third to one-half. Science data is available only for fifth grade, where about two-fifths of students meet proficiency. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among districts in the South Central Connecticut Planning Region.

The school's fourth-grade results stand out as notably stronger than third and fifth grade, suggesting that instruction may be more effective at that level or that student preparation and progression show variation. Parents may want to look into further detail with the school about what drives these grade-level differences and how the new literacy-coaching model is being implemented across grades. The school participates in the district's instructional-coach framework, which could support stronger early reading outcomes.

Data on the school's special education enrollment, English learner population, staffing, attendance rates, and discipline practices were not available. State testing assessments cover only grades three through five, so data for the school's pre-K and kindergarten through second-grade students is not included in state results. The school does not report a graduation rate, which is not applicable at the elementary level.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 352%

School 52% · District 56% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 479%

School 79% · District 62% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 53% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 46% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 465%

School 65% · District 56% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 54% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Science

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 47% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

This schoolMeriden 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.