Standardized test scores are not everything.
But they do provide a snapshot of a certain part of our educational system.
Yesterday, the New York Times published a sobering data-driven story.
Almost everywhere in the US, students are performing worse than their peers were 10 years ago, in both reading and math scores.
The declines are seen in both wealthy and impoverished districts. They cross racial and geographic lines. And — importantly — they began before the pandemic.
The Times included a tool to check thousands of school district, in all the states in the survey. It includes comparisons with similar districts, and each state as a whole.
The (pretty) good news: Westport fell only 0.6 grade levels in reading, and there was no change in math.
That’s better than the Connecticut average, and much better than the nation as a whole.
Click here for the full story. Click here for the district-by-district lookup tool; type “Westport” in the search box to replace “Los Angeles.” (Hat tip: Tracy Porosoff)
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Speaking of schools: As the Board of Education explores a review of the special education program, they’re hosting a “community conversation.”
The meeting (Wednesday, May 20, 7 p.m., Staples High School library) is a chance for residents to provide feedback on the special education program review.
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Lee Goldstein and Matthew Mandell are running for the Democratic nomination for State Representative.
Before the Democratic Town Committee makes its choice, they’re sponsoring a candidates’ forum tonight (Thursday, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall).
DTC chair Michelle Mechanic will moderate. The public is welcome. Click here to submit questions.
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Jack Klinge is one of Westport’s greatest volunteers.
For decades he has served — quietly, faithfully, always with a twinkle of humor and an enormous heart. He’s the longest-serving member on the Representative Town Meeting (29 years!), a longtime Little League coach, a beloved substitute teacher, a deliverer of meals, and a trusted mentor.
Jack also helped found the Friends of the Senior Center.
Tomorrow (Friday, May 15, 3 p.m.), the Senior Center honors Jack.
Anyone and everyone he’s touched — friends, former colleagues, former students and athletes, mentees formal and informal — is invited to the celebration.
Can’t be there? Click here to submit a video of appreciation!
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Once again, Westport proved it’s a community with “soul.”
The town-wide shoe collection to benefit Soles4Souls — a non-profit that provides footwear for people in need, and creates micro-business opportunities in under-resourced areas — filled 28 boxes. Each holds 20 pairs.
That means 500 pairs of shoes are on their way, to people who need them far more than we do.
From left: Soles4Souls organizers Ted Freedman, Ken Bernhard, Rick Jaffe and friend, with boxes of donations.
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MoCA\CT’s wide-ranging exhibition — “Art, Jazz + the Blues” — ends June 7.
But it’s going out with a bang.
On Saturday, June 6 (7 p.m.), Endea Owens & The Cookout star in a night of soul-stirring jazz.
Owens — a Juilliard graduate and member of the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” house band — has earned Grammy, Emmy, and Peabody Award recognition. She has been heard on “Judas and the Black Messiah,” H.E.R.’s Super Bowl LV performance, and Jon Batiste’s album “We Are.”
Owens is also a dedicated philanthropist. Her “Community Cookout” initiative has provided thousands of meals and free concerts to underserved neighborhoods. Click here for tickets, and more information.
Endea Owens
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Jim Himes is a busy man.
In addition to representing this area in Congress, he’s the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
But he always has time for his constituents.
On Monday, Himes spent nearly an hour answering questions from Y’s Women. He spoke energetically and candidly about the war with Iran, the US going it alone in the world, voting rights and redistricting in Southern states, immigration, and the defense of democratic institutions.
Congressman Jim Himes, at the Y’s Women meeting. (Photo/Vera DeStefano)
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“We help the least, the last and the left out.”
That was Bridgeport Rescue Mission CEO Rhonda Neal’s message to the Westport Rotary Club on Tuesday. The Mission provides food and clothing, addiction recovery services, safe housing, healthcare and more.
Neal’s appearance followed the Rotarians’ distribution of $319,000 to a number of area non-profit organizations, including hers. Funds come several events, particularly LobsterFest.
Rhonda Neal, at the Rotary Club. (Hat tip and photo/Dave Matlow)
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Robata comes to OKO.
If you have no idea what that means, read on.
Rooted in the traditional Japanese style of fireside grilling, robata involves cooking over open flame to create deeper smokiness, texture and layered flavor, while allowing high-quality ingredients to remain the focus.
Highlights at chef Brian Lewis’ acclaimed Wilton Road restaurant include salmon and Asian pear with miso mustard, hanger steak with black garlic aioli, teriyaki chicken with white miso aioli, and Japanese eggplant and mushroom with umeboshi.
Robata at OKO.
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Westport Police made 1 custodial arrest between May 6 and 12.
A 34-year-old Manchester woman was charged with risk of injury to a child, after she was alleged to have provided a juvenile with a THC-infused cannabis gummy at St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health. She was released on a $10,000 bond.
Westport Police also issued these citations:
- Failure to obey stop sign: 16 citations
- Failure to renew registration: 8
- Texting while driving: 5
- Distracted driving: 4
- Operating a motor vehicle without minimum insurance: 4
- Traveling unreasonably fast: 3
- Failure to comply with state traffic commission regulations: 3
- Creating a public disturbance: 2
- Operating a motor vehicle under suspension 1
- Operating a motor vehicle without a license: 1
- School zone violation, 2nd offense: 1
- School zone violation: 1
- Distracted driving, 2nd offense: 1
- Traveling too fast for conditions: 1
- Failure to drive in the proper lane: 1
- Failure to use turn signal: 1
Too many drivers don’t use turn signals. One got nabbed this week.
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Photographers call the time just before sunset the “golden hour.”
Tracy Porosoff took advantage of it this week, capturing today’s reedy “Westport … Naturally” featured photo near Sherwood Mill Pond.
(Photo/Tracy Porosoff)
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And finally … reacting to the item above, concerning national standardized test scores:
(We are very proud of our Westport schools — and students. We’re proud too to be their — and your — hyper-local blog. If you’re proud, or just like us, please click here to support our work. Thanks!)
As far as I can tell this morning, Westport Democratic Town Committee’s homepage (westportdemocrats.org) makes no mention of today’s (Thursday 5/14) Goldstein/Mandell candidate forum Dan mentions above. Brilliant. The homepage does revel in democratic wins in November 2025!
The DTC’s process looks confusing. It may not actually be confusing, but it isn’t presented extremely clearly. Probably just trying to confuse people who would support the candidates who aren’t the friends of party leadership.
Local GOP doesn’t have much of a website either. One of their local office holders is “I Voted.” I did see that they have a Governor candidate debate coming up. With Mayor Stewart dropping out due to her (alleged) $200,000 embezzlement of New Britain’s taxpayers, this is FS Tooker’s chance to jump back into the race! Have a WWE-style shock entrance!
I did learn from the GOP site that Westport has Justices of the Peace. What does a Justice of the Peace do?
I wish the reporting on the NY Times article mentioned here reported the link between schools adopting personal laptops and the declines mentioned. This is a very serious allegation and in a time when our superintendent is trying to formulate a plan to incorporate AI into our schools, the BOE should take a hard look at this research and consider adopting some screentime limits to laptop use during the school day. Smart use of AI is a given, but we need to be wary of exposing our kids to days full of interacting with screens instead of books.
Thanks Jack for your service to the community and the Navy👍🇺🇸
Keep going ‼️🍺
Student test scores are teacher grades.
Really, Mr Freeley? I coached my son in Little Leagure. He didn’t make the Majors. My bad?
Tom, If test scores are teachers’ grades, how do you explain an A+ in the same class where there’s an F grade? Would you like to explain?
Tom, Not only are there A+ and F grades in the same class, there are C and B grades in the class. You do see the problem with your comment, don’t you?
Write this on the blackboard 100 times: School test scores don’t tell you how good a school is. Test scores tell you, mostly, how educated and affluent the parents are. Educators know this, but few parents or Realtors do. In Connecticut as elsewhere, there’s a very close correlation between parental education (especially mother’s education level) and test scores. Those National Merit Scholars were already outperforming their peers on tests in the third grade. Teachers know this. A “high performing” district is one that has the advantage of affluent and educated parents. Switch Westport’s parent population with a “low performing” district, and that other district would become the “high performing” one, more resilient during an epidemic, with families who have good home Internet, work-at-home jobs, nannies, tutors, books, and, most importantly, well-educated parents.
Brelyn, the article in the NYT talks quite a bit about technology. Dan linked to the data lookup app that goes with the article. Here’s a link to the main article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/upshot/test-scores-school-districts-us.html?smid=url-share
It says:
“Education experts say there is no single reason for the declines. But the timing provides some clues.
“Students’ test scores had been increasing since 1990 — then abruptly stopped in the mid-2010s. That coincided with two events: an easing of federal school accountability under No Child Left Behind, which was replaced in 2015, and the rise of smartphones, social media and personalized school laptops.
“The pandemic then accelerated learning declines, especially for the poorest students. Some pandemic effects have lingered. Student absenteeism, for example, remains higher than prepandemic.”
Then each of those items gets more discussion in the article.
Dan also linked to the main article, with its discussion of technology as a possible reason for declines.
All these factors mentioned in the comments may be true, but in Weston we went up!
gained 0.3 grade levels in reading.
gained 0.4 grade levels in math.
That said, we are now at the same reading grade level as Westport and only 0.1 grade level behind in Math.
Meanwhile, across the sound, Jericho High School reportedly has 21 Valedictorians. That’s right, twenty one. All apparently with perfect A+ grades throughout high school. We must be failing our students somehow.
Readers may find this interesting. 50 years ago I taught Geography at a high school in Montego Bay, Jamaica. There were five years of high school and at the end of the five years, there was one test that would encompass all five years. The test was called the “O Level Test.” The students were focused on this one final test because if you passed it, the subject was written on your high school diploma. So when students went out for a job, the employer would look at the students’ Diploma and see how many of these O Level tests were passed. Students could try taking the test every six months for two years. This one test had an enormous impact on students’ behavior because they knew they needed to learn everything from all five years to prepare for this test. Eight students from 50 years ago still keep in touch with me. All are in their mid 60s now.