Summary:
The East Haddam School District in Moodus, Connecticut, serves just one high school—Nathan Hale-Ray High School—which educates students in grades 9 through 12 and enrolls roughly 262 students. With only one high school in the district, all high school-level metrics apply directly to this school, making it the central focus for parents exploring secondary education options in this small, rural Connecticut community.
Nathan Hale-Ray High School has earned a 3-star rating in each of the past three years and improved its statewide rank from 57th to 44th, placing it in the 67th percentile of Connecticut high schools for 2025–2026. The school outperforms state averages across nearly every key metric: its graduation rate of 94.3% exceeds the state's 91.2%, chronic absenteeism is just 9.4% compared to the state's 16.4%, and SAT proficiency rates surpass Connecticut averages by 7 points in English language arts and 9.7 points in math. Notably, the most recent SAT math proficiency jumped 8.2 percentage points year over year, rising from 32.8% to 41.0%, while ELA dipped slightly but remains above the state average.
The school maintains a student-teacher ratio of 7.9:1, which suggests small classes and individualized attention, and roughly 29% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch—a factor that makes the school's above-average performance all the more notable. Chronic absenteeism well below the state average points to a healthy school climate. Some caveats exist: spending figures come from 2018–2019, and graduation, absenteeism, and test score data are limited to one or two years. Still, the evidence shows a small, well-supported school delivering strong academic outcomes. While the district overall ranks 94th out of 153 Connecticut districts (39th percentile), the high school itself stands at the 67th percentile, a testament to its relative strength.
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