Best Public Schools in Windsor, CT

Windsor is served by 7 schools: 6 traditional schools in the Windsor School District and 1 magnet school, the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering, part of the Capitol Region Education Council. Grade configurations are split across buildings: Oliver Ellsworth School and Poquonock Elementary School serve PK–2, John F. Kennedy School and Clover Street School serve grades 3–5, Sage Park Middle School serves 6–8, and Windsor High School serves 9–12. About 3,975 students attend these schools, with roughly 51% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Student-teacher ratios are low, ranging from 9.7 to 11.8, and per-student spending ranges from $19,400 to $22,800.

Sage Park Middle School is the strongest school academically, improving from the 48th to 53rd percentile in statewide rankings over three years. It is the only school with proficiency rates at or above state averages in multiple subjects, and its chronic absenteeism is just 9.8%. Windsor High School holds steady at the 50–52nd percentile with a 91.8% graduation rate and strong 11th grade science scores (53.1% vs. 47.7% statewide). Among the elementary schools, John F. Kennedy School outperforms Clover Street School in 4th and 5th grade math and ELA, though both struggle in math. Poquonock Elementary posts the city's best attendance at 5.2% chronic absenteeism. The Academy of Aerospace and Engineering has the highest graduation rate at 97.8%, but also the highest chronic absenteeism at 28.6% and a sharp rank decline from the 51st to 25th percentile.

The biggest challenges are math proficiency and secondary attendance. No school reaches the state average in 11th grade math, and 5th grade math proficiency at John F. Kennedy School and Clover Street School trails the state by 15–22 percentage points. Chronic absenteeism is far higher at the secondary level — 21.2% at Windsor High School and 28.6% at the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering — compared to under 10% at all elementary schools. The Windsor School District ranks in the 20th percentile statewide and the Capitol Region Education Council in the 5th, though Sage Park shows what's possible with the district's low class sizes and above-$19,000 spending.