Though New Canaan Public Schools administrators continuously seek to improve and it often is useful to compare data against other districts, it’s a mistake to put too much stock into a single data point—even if it’s something that speaks well of the district, such as the high school’s fourth-overall ranking for average SAT test scores from 2014, officials say.
Any time a ranking system is used, a single narrow measure can supply a handy snapshot, “but it certainly can’t describe the totality of any enterprise,” Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said Wednesday during the regular meeting of the Town Council.
“And I would say education is probably one o the most difficult enterprises to quantify,” Luizzi said during the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center.
According to state education department data compiled last week by the Hartford Courant, New Canaan High School ranked fourth in the state—as well as Fairfield County—in SAT score averages among public high schools from earlier this year.
Schools in Fairfield County achieved the six highest in the state. The top five average scores were (Writing-Math-Critical Reading):
- Darien High School: 600-611-588
- Wilton High School: 605-597-593
- Weston High School: 594-598-592
- New Canaan High School: 594-594-583
- Staples High School: 591-593-583
Town Council member John Engel said he felt most people were happy with the results, and asked how much stock New Canaanites should put into these types of rankings, whether it’s SATs or the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of all high schools, state-by-state and nationally.
Noting that the U.S. News & World Report rakings are based on a single data point, Luizzi said, “I think there’s a tendency to overuse those.”
Yet the district does look at all of them and seeks to improve.
“We are looking at our alignment, the curriculum that we have, the instructional practices we use—I would say it is a piece of entire mosaic that is the educational experience for our students,” he said.