The top reported proficiency rate is 82% in Math. The lowest is 67% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Zaya A. Oshana Elementary School
Zaya A. Oshana Elementary School is a regular public elementary school in Southington serving kindergarten through fifth grade, situated on Church Street in a town about twenty miles south of Hartford. The school enrolls a small to moderate number of students in a community that blends revitalized downtown Southington with suburban subdivisions. It draws families from a residential and manufacturing-based town where single-family homes predominate outside the downtown core.
The school's academic profile shows uneven strength across subjects and grades. In mathematics, performance is solid: third-grade students reached proficiency at a high level, and fourth-graders performed notably higher. Fifth-grade math data was not publicly reported, though average scale scores suggest students are performing near expectations. In English language arts, the picture is more mixed. Third graders proficient at a respectable level, fourth graders showed proficiency in the mid-range, but fifth graders' proficiency dropped noticeably. Science performance for the tested grade (fifth) was not reported as a raw proficiency count, though all students participated. Across tested grades and subjects combined, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among elementary schools across the Capitol Planning Region's districts, a meaningful marker of relative strength.
The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic enrollment and smaller populations of Asian, biracial, and Black students. About one-fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a moderate level of economic need within the school's catchment. Precise counts for students receiving special education services or English learner instruction were not available from the data.
Southington itself is experiencing significant community change. Town officials have approved multiple housing developments in recent years, including large apartment projects aimed at addressing the state's housing shortage. This growth means the elementary school landscape is shifting under a major district-level decision: the school board has approved a multi-phase facilities plan that would build a new, larger Kelley Elementary School and expand South End Elementary, ultimately closing Flanders Elementary and redrawing attendance boundaries across the remaining elementary schools by fall 2029. For families considering the Oshana school, this matters considerably. If your child's family were to move to Southington now, boundary changes could affect where they attend school as early as 2029, and the district is undertaking this renovation partly because of enrollment growth in some areas and consolidation pressures in others.
The facilities project carries substantial local taxpayer implications. Estimated costs run in the tens of millions of dollars for the town's share after anticipated state reimbursement, and property tax concerns have been voiced repeatedly at district and town meetings. A family weighing a move into Southington should factor in both current property values and the likelihood of future local tax obligations tied to school construction bonding. Housing values in the Southington 06479 zip code sit modestly above state benchmarks, and mortgage affordability metrics suggest monthly payments are substantial relative to median household income in Connecticut.
The district has also launched a multi-year social and emotional learning curriculum initiative, with a Yale-based RULER approach now embedded in K-5 (and expanding to middle and high school in fall 2025). This is a permanent pedagogical choice the district has made, part of how instruction works school-wide.
For a family with an elementary-age child, Zaya A. Oshana represents a school with solid math proficiency and mixed language arts results, situated in a town undergoing deliberate growth and facing a major schools reorganization within a few years. It is a place to learn more about in direct conversation with the school regarding fifth-grade literacy support and the specific instructional approaches to reading and writing, and to understand where your likely attendance zone will land after boundary redrawing. The housing market and tax picture are also elements a prospective resident would want to weigh carefully.
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