Central School, Simsbury CT - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Central School

Central School is a kindergarten through sixth-grade school in Simsbury, a residential New England town in the Farmington River valley of Hartford County. The school sits on a historic campus at the edge of downtown Simsbury, adjacent to Town Hall on Hopmeadow Street, placing it within walking distance of the town center's shops, library, and civic core.

The school serves roughly four hundred students across seven grade levels, with enrollment fairly stable across grades. A modest share of families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with meaningful representation from Asian, Hispanic, and Black families, and smaller numbers from other backgrounds. Data on students with individualized education plans and English learners was not available.

In state testing for math and English language arts, Central School's performance sits in the top quartile among the county's other districts. In math, proficiency runs consistently in the low-to-mid eighties across grades three through six, with the strongest performance in third grade. In English language arts, proficiency is similarly strong overall, with fourth grade achieving the highest results and sixth grade slightly lower. Science testing in fifth grade shows participation at full or near-full rates, though the proficiency metric was suppressed in the data. The school had only one year of assessment results available, so trend information was not possible.

Simsbury as a town has been growing modestly in population while school enrollment overall has declined. The district's recent landscape reflects significant investment and change. Latimer Lane Elementary School in the Weatogue section is undergoing a major expansion and renovation funded through referendums approved in 2021 and 2023, adding new spaces for art, music, and media, along with renovations to address accessibility and replace aging building systems. Families should know that Simsbury property taxes have risen steadily in recent years as the Board of Education budget has grown annually. Tax increases have compounded over the last several years and are expected to continue, a direct cost a family moving into the district would weigh.

The town's character blends a walkable commercial and civic center along Hopmeadow Street with rural and residential areas in outlying sections. A car is generally needed for errands beyond the center. The area is served by express bus routes to Hartford and a dial-a-ride service, and the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, a rails-to-trails greenway connecting nearby town centers, runs through Simsbury. Housing costs are above state and national benchmarks. A family with school-age children would find Central School situated at a civic and educational anchor in the downtown area, with test results that meet or exceed district peers, though the school serves only through sixth grade and does not include the upper grades a family might consider as children progress.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 384%

School 84% · District 79% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 479%

School 79% · District 78%

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 578%

School 78% · District 79% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 679%

School 79% · District 73% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 377%

School 77% · District 77% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 488%

School 88% · District 82% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 584%

School 84% · District 81% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 676%

School 76% · District 80% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

This schoolSimsbury 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.