Sprague School, Waterbury CT - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Sprague School

Sprague School serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Waterbury, a mid-sized former manufacturing city that has recently pursued downtown revitalization. The school sits in a neighborhood with significant economic need: a large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller populations of Black, white, and multiracial students.

The most recent state testing data shows persistent academic challenges across the tested grades. In third through fifth grade math, proficiency rates are very low, with only a small number of students reaching proficient or above in each grade. English language arts results similarly show only a small percentage of students meeting proficiency standards in fourth and fifth grade; third-grade results were suppressed for disclosure reasons. Fifth-grade science proficiency is also low. When proficiency rates are averaged across all tested grades and subjects, they fall in the bottom quartile among districts in the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region.

The school's enrollment is stable and small by contemporary standards for an elementary building. Pre-kindergarten through fifth grade together make up the student body, distributed fairly evenly across the grades.

Waterbury School District has made several family-relevant changes recently. The district moved to universal free breakfast and lunch for all students regardless of family income, eliminating meal costs and application paperwork. The Waterbury Promise, a last-dollar college scholarship for district graduates attending any accredited Connecticut college, launched to help offset the cost of higher education for local students. The district also received a full waiver under Connecticut's 2021 Right to Read law, meaning its existing science-of-reading-based K-3 literacy approach was deemed compliant and could continue.

Waterbury itself offers a mixed residential and civic environment. Downtown has seen recent investment: adaptive reuse projects have added apartments, the university and arts institutions have relocated or expanded there, and Metro-North commuter rail service was enhanced. Neighborhoods vary from quieter residential streets in the West End and Bunker Hill to denser mixed-use areas in the South End. Housing is modestly affordable relative to the state benchmark. The city's largest employers are the hospital systems, the school district, and Webster Bank, with health care the largest employment sector. A parent choosing Sprague should anticipate working with a school serving a low-income, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood where academic proficiency is notably low and would benefit from understanding what academic supports the school provides and what the school's trajectory in reading instruction looks like going forward.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 38%

School 8% · District 28% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 47 pts below state median · ▼ 44 pts below county median

Grade 44%

School 4% · District 27% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 49 pts below state median · ▼ 41 pts below county median

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 18% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 48%

School 8% · District 28% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 48 pts below state median · ▼ 42 pts below county median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 28% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 46 pts below state median · ▼ 36 pts below county median

Science

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 30% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 41 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

This schoolWaterbury 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.