Summary:
Darien’s seven listed schools include four elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school, serving students from elementary through high school and enrolling 313 to 1,370 students; five schools have reported proficiency results, while Mark DeLay School and Elizabeth Ide Elementary School do not. Overall results are above state proficiency in most reported comparisons, but the clearest difference between neighboring middle schools is in English language arts: Cass Junior High School leads Eisenhower Junior High School by 15.0–20.3 percentage points across grades 6–8, while their math results are much closer.
Leaders vary by grade and subject. Concord Elementary School leads Lace Elementary School in both subjects in grades 3 and 4, including a 25-point math lead in grade 3; Lace leads Cass in grade 5, including science, where Lace is 70% proficient versus 48% statewide. Cass has the highest reported all-grades ELA result at 76%, while Concord leads all-grades math at 70%; these summaries cover different grade spans and are not fully like-for-like. Eisenhower is the weaker of the two middle schools in ELA, though its all-grades results are still near or above state levels: 59% in ELA and 46% in math, compared with statewide 56% and 40%.
Average margins above the state have been steady in ELA and narrowed slightly in math: across four schools, the average ELA margin was 11 percentage points in both 2024–25 and 2025–26, while the math margin went from 16 to 15 points. Individual results still move in different directions: Eisenhower’s all-grades ELA rose 9 points, while Lace’s math fell 3 points; Lace’s grade 5 science rose 28 points. SchoolDigger statewide percentile rankings declined from 2023–24 to 2025–26, including 16 points for Eisenhower and 11 for Lace. Context also varies: Eisenhower has a 9.4 students-per-teacher ratio, and its 2024–25 free/reduced lunch eligible share was 40%, compared with 22% at Concord and 31% at Lace; these figures describe school differences, not reasons for test results.
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