Farm Hill School, Middletown CT - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Farm Hill School

Farm Hill School serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Middletown, a small Connecticut River city with a walkable downtown anchored by Main Street's historic commercial core and the presence of Wesleyan University. The school itself sits in a neighborhood context where median home values reflect the broader region, though housing affordability stretches modestly across the district given rental and mortgage obligations relative to household income.

The school's enrollment is modest, drawing students from surrounding neighborhoods. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is racially diverse, with roughly equal shares of students identifying as Black and Hispanic, alongside substantial white and mixed-race populations. Data on special education and English learner populations was not available.

On state assessments, Farm Hill's performance sits in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, which includes 16 districts countywide. Across tested subjects and grades, proficiency is notably lower than the regional median. In English language arts, the school's performance improves slightly by fifth grade, with about half of fifth graders meeting proficiency on the state test. Third grade shows the lowest proficiency in reading. Mathematics proficiency is below ELA across grades three through five, with fewer than one-third of third and fifth graders and only about one-quarter of fourth graders meeting the proficiency bar. Science is the school's strongest area, where nearly three-fifths of fifth graders reached proficiency on the state science assessment. Parents may want to look into what support structures exist for students not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks in reading and math, where the gaps are widest.

The district is currently managing a substantial change: Macdonough Elementary School, the North End's elementary building, is undergoing a full rebuild following a successful referendum. That project, with significant state funding backing, means Macdonough students are being housed temporarily at a former middle school facility while construction proceeds. This reshuffling will affect some families depending on school assignment, though not Farm Hill itself.

The broader Middletown context includes active riverfront redevelopment, downtown vitality centered on the university, and the standard mix of Connecticut regional employers in healthcare, aerospace, and insurance. Families choosing Farm Hill are placing their children in a neighborhood school serving a working-class community, with assessment results that suggest academic supports deserve close attention, especially in early literacy and numeracy, but with science instruction appearing to engage students more effectively.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 38% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 37% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 29% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 39% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 44% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 46% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Science

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 46% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolMiddletown 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.