A Website for stamford parents
From the State Department's web site, we have compiled a table from the 2005/06 school year, mostly on cost per student and test scores.
What can we learn from the data:
our annual spending of $14,200/student lands us in the top 11% of the state, ahead of even Wilton, Darien, and Fairfield.
when it comes to SAT high school scores, we are about in the bottom 20% of the state, and only ahead of Norwalk, which is in the bottom 15%.
we have 58% minority students, the same level as Norwalk, with Greenwich (23.9%) and Fairfield (12.1%) following next.
True, we have a large minority population which tends to skew test scores lower, but that excuse only goes so far. There are some elementary schools with a high percentage of minorities that have, despite the disarray downtown, upheld high academic standards (Westover Elementary) or adopted an external rigorous curriculum (Rogers Magnet). It's definitely not a matter of funding, but rather the administration's inability to install a successful model across the whole school district.
To bring it to the point: Stamford public schools are well funded, but apart from a few exceptions, poorly run. Don't believe the rosy myths spread by the school administration and real estate agents.
| District Name | Weston | Wilton | Darien | New Canaan | Westport | Greenwich | Fairfield | Stamford | Norwalk | |
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| Statistics | # of students | 2610 | 4371 | 4614 | 4139 | 5570 | 8959 | 9494 | 15036 | 10743 |
| # of full time teachers | 201.8 | 322.0 | 362.4 | 324.3 | 482.3 | 722.7 | 731.8 | 1236.6 | 810.0 | |
| student/teacher ratio | 12.9 | 13.6 | 12.7 | 12.8 | 11.5 | 12.4 | 13.0 | 12.2 | 13.3 | |
| % students with non-english home language | 2.0 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 17.2 | 6.7 | 36.1 | 32.3 | |
| % minority stud | 6.6% | 7.7% | 5.3% | 5.4% | 6.5% | 23.9% | 12.1% | 58.2% | 58.0% | |
| % of students in special education | 8% | 10% | 11% | 10% | 10% | 12% | 10% | 10% | 10% | |
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| Expenses 2005-2006 | total in 1000s | $39,434 | $56,671 | $59,121 | $61,433 | $81,995 | $144,335 | $126,840 | $216,588 | $147,489 |
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per student | $15,190 | $13,040 | $13,156 | $14,746 | $15,023 | $16,125 | $13,576 | $14,200 | $13,333 |
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per student % rank in the state | 95% | 81% | 82% | 92% | 93% | 97% | 85% | 89% | 84% |
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% of expenses towards special education | 18.8 | 19.4 | 19.2 | 18.9 | 17.3 | 21.4 | 20.3 | 17.6 | 19.3 |
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% rank in the state | 39% | 53% | 50% | 42% | 19% | 75% | 64% | 23% | 52% |
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| Class Sizes | Kindergarten | 21.0 | 18.0 | 21.1 | 17.8 | 18.1 | 19.3 | 19.5 | 19.2 | 18.6 |
| Grade 2 | 22.2 | 20.4 | 21.1 | 19.2 | 19.8 | 19.6 | 18.9 | 19.2 | 19.6 | |
| Grade 5 | 20.7 | 20.9 | 21.5 | 21.6 | 20.9 | 22.5 | 20.8 | 19.1 | 20.9 | |
| Grade 7 | 18.9 | 22.0 | 23.2 | 19.6 | 20.5 | 20.6 | 20.1 | 18.8 | 16.9 | |
| Students with disabilities | 20.5 | 19.5 | 19.3 | 21.3 | 19.5 | 20.3 | 19.9 | 20.3 | 21.2 | |
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| SAT scores class 2006 | Math | 604 | 602 | 603 | 599 | 588 | 582 | 551 | 481 | 476 |
| Math % rank in the state | 100% | 98% | 99% | 98% | 96% | 95% | 86% | 20% | 16% | |
| Reading | 595 | 591 | 576 | 571 | 571 | 565 | 542 | 478 | 471 | |
| Reading % rank in the state | 100% | 99% | 98% | 95% | 95% | 94% | 84% | 17% | 14% | |
| Writing | 595 | 590 | 588 | 577 | 578 | 560 | 539 | 480 | 471 | |
| Writing % rank in the state | 100% | 99% | 98% | 96% | 97% | 93% | 84% | 22% | 15% |