Original Research by School Decision on John F. Kennedy High School
# John F. Kennedy High School
Kennedy High is a regular public high school serving grades nine through twelve in Waterbury, a former manufacturing city at the junction of I-84 and Route 8 in the Naugatuck Valley region. The school enrolls a substantial number of students, with a notably high proportion qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a student body drawn largely from families with lower incomes. The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with a meaningful share of Black students and smaller populations from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Data on students with disabilities or English learner status were not available in the records reviewed.
The most recent state test results show that fewer than half of Kennedy students met proficiency in English language arts, mathematics, or science. This reflects a school and a district serving students who face significant academic challenges. The proficiency rates fall notably below where they need to be for college and career readiness, and a parent may want to look into what the school and district are doing to address these gaps, including what additional support or intervention programs exist for struggling students.
Waterbury School District has made several moves intended to support student pathways. The district launched the Waterbury Promise, a last-dollar college scholarship program for Waterbury public school graduates and eligible city residents, providing financial aid toward any accredited Connecticut college. Participating universities including the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, and others layer on additional scholarship matches, which can meaningfully reduce college costs for students who qualify. The district also moved to universal free breakfast and lunch for all students at all public schools, removing both cost and application barriers to meal access. These are material supports for families.
Kennedy sits on Highland Avenue in the Waterbury city proper, on a neighborhood campus rather than a downtown location. Waterbury's downtown has undergone significant revitalization over the past decade centered on an Arts and Education District, but traditional public high schools like Kennedy operate on separated sites. The city itself is a mixed-use landscape of historic neighborhoods, industrial areas undergoing adaptive reuse, residential streets, and a downtown that has seen adaptive reuse of mills and department stores into apartments, offices, and educational spaces. Housing values in the 06708 zip code are modest relative to Connecticut's state average, and rents are similarly below the state benchmark, making Waterbury more affordable than many parts of the state, though housing costs have risen modestly in the recent period.
The Waterbury School District was granted a full waiver under Connecticut's Right to Read legislation, meaning its existing science-of-reading-based early literacy approach for grades K-3 was approved to continue without change. This speaks to coherence in how younger students in the pipeline are taught reading, which may eventually benefit high school outcomes.
No data on graduation rates or chronic absenteeism were available for Kennedy, which is not uncommon for school-level reporting. The comparison fact-set positioning Kennedy among other districts in the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region could not be populated with the available metrics, limiting a reader's view of how this school's performance sits relative to its neighbors. A parent considering Kennedy would benefit from asking the school directly about its graduation rate, what support is offered to struggling readers and math students, what career and dual-credit pathways are available, and how the school works with students falling behind in ninth and tenth grade.
See more original research from School Decision →