Greenwich students in grades 3 through 8 reached record proficiency levels in English and math on Connecticut's standardized tests for the 2025-26 school year.
State data released Tuesday, Sept. 1, showed 80.3% of Greenwich students met or exceeded the English language arts standard on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, up from 79.5% the prior year. In math, 78.3% hit the mark, up from 77.6%. Both figures are the highest the district has ever recorded on the state-mandated test.
Greenwich's results far exceeded statewide averages. Across Connecticut, 51% of students met the English standard and 46.7% reached it in math, Greenwich Time reported from state Department of Education data.
"It's very difficult when we had such large gains to continue on that trajectory," Superintendent Toni Jones told the CT Post.
Jones said the prior year's scores already showed remarkable growth, making the continued climb significant. She credited Greenwich's decision not to close schools at the start of the 2020-21 year during the COVID pandemic, a choice she said has helped the district surpass its pre-pandemic performance.
Equity gains, gaps remain
The district posted strong multi-year gains among Hispanic and Black students in English. The share of Hispanic students meeting the standard rose from 58.4% in the 2021-22 school year to 67% in 2025-26. For Black students, proficiency climbed from 48.1% to 57.4% over the same span.
Hispanic students make up one-fourth of the district's roughly 8,465 students. Black students represent less than 2%.
Asian and white students still outperform Hispanic and Black students by a wide margin, according to the state data.
Science scores dip, SAT results mixed
Not every metric moved upward. On the Next Generation Science Standards assessment, given in grades 5, 8 and 11, Greenwich proficiency slipped from 83.8% to 81.9%. The statewide average was 51.4%.
Jones noted that Greenwich elementary schools dedicate more time to physical education than most districts, leaving fewer minutes for science instruction. Still, nearly 79% of fifth graders met the science standard.
On the SAT, taken by 582 Greenwich 11th graders, math proficiency ticked up from 63.8% to 64.3%. English proficiency fell from 86.1% to 79.9%. The 6-point English decline was the sharpest single-year shift among Greenwich's test results, and no explanation for the drop appeared in the state data.
At a Board of Education retreat on May 14, then-Chair Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony pointed to a New York Times article showing Greenwich among the few districts nationally to have erased COVID learning loss.
