Waltersville School

Waltersville School is a PK-8 school in Bridgeport, CT, serving 432 students in a high-poverty neighborhood within the Bridgeport School District. Overall, the school ranks in the bottom 6% of Connecticut schools (462 out of 491), but it sits in the middle of its immediate cluster — performing better than several nearby schools like Geraldine Johnson School and Roosevelt School, though still far below state averages.

The biggest concern here is chronic absenteeism. In 2025-26, 45.1% of students missed enough school to be considered chronically absent — the highest rate among all 11 nearby schools, including Barnum School (37.1%) and Paul Laurence Dunbar School (40.5%). This rate is nearly triple the state average of 16.4%, and it has worsened since 2021-22, making attendance recovery likely the school’s highest-leverage issue. Academically, there is a mixed picture. Early grades show relative promise: 3rd grade ELA and math proficiency (16.3% each) slightly exceed district averages, and 6th grade ELA essentially matches the district. However, 8th grade science proficiency dropped to 0% in 2025-26, down from 34% in 2022-23 — a dramatic decline even accounting for small class sizes.

Among student subgroups, Hispanic students performed at the 19th percentile statewide, which is the school’s strongest relative area and improved from previous years. Other subgroups, including special education and low-income students, score much lower. Resources don’t seem to explain the differences: per-student spending ($14,145) is mid-range for the area, and the student-teacher ratio of 13.7 is typical. Waltersville faces real challenges, but its early-grade strengths and the fact that it outperforms several immediate neighbors suggest that targeted support — especially for attendance and middle-grade science — could build momentum for meaningful improvement.