Brass City Charter School District

Brass City Charter School District is a single-school district in Waterbury, Connecticut, serving grades PK–8 at Brass City Charter School, an elementary school with 401 students in a high-poverty urban setting (70.1% free/reduced lunch). Because the district has only this one school, district and school test scores and absenteeism figures are identical, so the school’s performance is the district’s performance.

Brass City Charter School ranks in the lower-middle range of Connecticut schools, currently 274th out of 491 schools (44th percentile, 2 stars), which is a steady improvement from 295th two years earlier. Early-grade literacy is a clear strength: 5th grade ELA proficiency is 68.3%, well above the state’s 53.5%, and 4th grade ELA also edges out the state average. However, middle-grade performance is a major concern. Math proficiency drops to just 22.5% in both 6th and 8th grade, far below state averages of 44.4% and 41.9%, and 8th grade science sits at 22.5% versus the state’s 50.9%. This creates a sharp contrast between strong elementary reading and weak middle-school math and science.

There are encouraging signs from year to year: 5th grade math jumped from 20.9% to 46.3%, and 7th grade math improved from 16.7% to 40.9%, though both remain at or near state averages. Meanwhile, early-grade scores dropped notably, including 3rd grade ELA falling 15.2 points, which may reflect different student cohorts. Chronic absenteeism is elevated at 22.2% (state: 16.4%), and with a high-poverty student body, attendance and middle-grade math/science are the biggest areas needing attention. The school benefits from a favorable 14.2:1 student-teacher ratio. Overall, Brass City Charter School is a school with genuine early-grade literacy strengths, improving math scores in some grades, but significant middle-grade achievement gaps that require targeted intervention.