Summary:
East Lyme School District is home to one public high school, East Lyme High School, serving grades 9–12 with 890 students in a district ranked 36th out of 153 in Connecticut (76th percentile, 4-star rating). The school has climbed steadily in state rankings, from 25th in 2023–2024 to 19th in 2024–2025 to 15th in 2025–2026, placing it in the 89th percentile statewide.
East Lyme High School stands out most for its literacy and science results. On the 2025–2026 SAT, 81.8% of 11th graders were proficient in ELA versus 55.3% statewide, and 80.5% were proficient in NGSS Science versus 50.5% statewide. The graduation rate is 95.5%, well above the state's 91.2%, and chronic absenteeism is 12.8% — better than the state average of 16.4%, though notably higher than the East Lyme School District's overall rate of 8.9%. The school's relative weak spot is math: 46.9% proficient on SAT Math, which beats the state average of 31.3% but sits roughly 35 points below its own ELA score.
The math lag is the school's most important challenge and a wider gap than the state's typical 24-point ELA-to-math spread. Science proficiency jumped from 69.8% to 80.5% in one year, suggesting recent curriculum changes or cohort differences are paying off. With per-student spending of $18,923 and a 9.9:1 student–teacher ratio, the school invests heavily in individualized instruction. About 24% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school continues to improve in rankings despite that moderate level of economic disadvantage. Parents should also note that test data reflects only 11th grade, so it would be worth asking how 9th and 10th graders are performing in math to see whether the gap forms early or emerges with upper-level coursework.
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