South Windsor School Board to Discuss SAT, AP Results, Enrollment Projections

The South Windsor Board of Education will discuss SAT and Advanced Placement test results, in addition to class sizes and projected enrollment at its regular meeting this evening.

According to materials posted prior to the meeting, South Windsor High School students continue to score higher on the SAT than the state and national averages.

About 88 percent of the class of 2012 - 329 students - took the SAT, according to a report prepared by South Windsor High principal Daniel Sullivan.

"In Critical Reading, SWHS students exceeded the Connecticut mean by [17] points and the national mean by [27] points,” Sullivan wrote. “In Math, SWHS students exceeded the state mean by [40] points and the national mean by [38] points. In Writing, SWHS students exceeded the state by [27] points and the national mean by [49] points. With a participation rate of 88%, SWHS students continue to maintain a high level of participation in SAT testing while at the same time attaining scores well above both state and national averages.”

The mean scores for South Windsor High students were the following: 523 for reading, 552 in math and 537 in writing.

The math and writing scores were at a 10- and 7-year high, respectively, while reading took a slight dip from last year’s score of 529 to 523. The 523 mean was still the third-highest over a 10-year span.

“In drawing conclusions about these scores one should note that changes in scores may be due to differences in the groups of test takers,” Sullivan wrote.

As for the AP results, Sullivan wrote that “[s]tudent enrollment and the percentage of students taking the exams rose significantly last year. At the same time, student performance remained strong with 85% of students earning a 3 or better.”

Indeed the number of students taking the AP exam shot up to 278 in 2012 from 243 in 2011 and the number of classes taken jumped from 384 to 438 in just one year. The number of students scoring a 3 or better also rose from 216 to 240, which is nearly double the number of just two years ago.

The enrollment projections for 2013-14 anticipate a decrease of about 40 students in the town’s elementary schools and a total decline of about 111 students district-wide.

Enrollment over the next eight years is expected to decline at a rate of 2 to 3 percent per annum through the 2020-21 school year.