[Kona311]

My wife and I are having difficulty picking a town along the shoreline to raise our kids. We really like Guilford but were hoping to find a house with 2+ acres for a little seclusion. In looking at towns outside of Guilford/Madison, we are finding we will tend to get more house or more land for our money in Clinton or Westbrook. All of these towns are about equal in terms of commuting to work for me. My only concern is the quality of the schools. Can anyone (other than the typical USNews and GreatSchools info) offer any information about the quality of Clinton, Westbrook, or Old Saybrook Schools? I know how good Guilford and Madison are, I'm just wondering if Clinton and Westbrook are a significant step down, or if they at least compare. Also any information about activities for kids, quality of the town beach/parks, etc is appreciated.

K311

[NewJeffCT]

well, Madison and Guilford are bigger school systems than Westbrook and Clinton, so each will have a more robust curriculum than Clinton and Westbrook and also offer more extra-curricular activities (sports, band, orchestra, etc). They will also have more kids that are oriented towards going to a 4 year college when they get out of high school. I'm guessing that 95% or so of the Guilford and Madison high school grads go on to college, while it's probably closer to 85-90% in Clinton and Westbrook, with a larger percentage of those going on to a 2 year college. At the high school level, Guilford and Madison will also offer more advanced and AP classes as well.

That's not to say that you can't get a good education in Clinton and Westbrook, but there won't be as many motivated students and they will not have as many course choices as they move up through the school system.

Old Saybrook is kind of between the other four towns - the school system is larger and generally performs better than Clinton and Westbrook, but not quite at the level of Madison and Guilford.

If you want more choices and it is not too far out, you can look at Old Lyme and East Lyme as well.

[RunD1987]

There all good schools can't go wrong I say in this order: Madison/Old Saybrook; Westbrook; Guilford; Branford/Clinton

[SeaDoo342]

Originally Posted by RunD1987

There all good schools can't go wrong I say in this order: Madison/Old Saybrook; Westbrook; Guilford; Branford/Clinton

Westbrook and Old Saybrook don't have better systems than Guilford....

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by SeaDoo342

Westbrook and Old Saybrook don't have better systems than Guilford....

agreed - as I mentioned above for advanced classes - Westbrook offered only 1 AP class in the most recent school data; Clinton offered 7 AP classes; Old Saybrook had 14, while Guilford and Madison both offered 19.

[JayCT]

We have talked about this MANY times before, do not trust the rankings on those websites. We have seen many good schools rated lower on them than some questionable schools.

Madison is considered to be one of the top school systems in the state. Its students perform well above the state averages on the Connecticut Mastery and Connecticut Academic Performance Tests. It is also the most affluent of the towns you mention. Guilford though would be right behind it. You can find information on schools in Connecticut at the website below. Look for schools that perform at or above the state averages on these tests for good schools.

State Department of Education - CEDaR

Old Saybrook schools and Westbrook schools are about the same, performing above the state averages. Clinton is a bit lower but still generally above. Still I am hesitant to recommend Clinton. Several years ago we played them in a little league playoff and their team and the parents were very ill mannered. Their team kept making constant catcalls from the dugout (parents were doing it too) while our team was up at bat (the umpire stopped the game eventually to get it to stop), their manager refused to end the game in the allotted 2 hour time frame because their team was behind and a fight broke out in the parking lot between parents. Gave us a very bad taste for Clinton as a town to live in. Seemed very trashy to me.

Another town you might want to look at is Killingworth. It is a bit more rural than the other towns and homes there tend to have more land. Schools are good. They are Region District 17 which is shared with neighboring Haddam to the north. Good luck, Jay

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by NewJeffCT

agreed - as I mentioned above for advanced classes - Westbrook offered only 1 AP class in the most recent school data; Clinton offered 7 AP classes; Old Saybrook had 14, while Guilford and Madison both offered 19.

Only one AP class? That's very surprising given that more and more students and parents are demanding them to augment college readiness.

[basehead617]

Jay, I find it ironic that you, who are usually against cherry picking data and being wary about negative comments, are using a single anecdote about a few parents in a town you were only in once, to likely dissuade someone from moving there. Talk about potentially misleading!

[Raider111]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Old Saybrook schools and Westbrook schools are about the same, performing above the state averages. Clinton is a bit lower but still generally above. Still I am hesitant to recommend Clinton. Several years ago we played them in a little league playoff and their team and the parents were very ill mannered. Their team kept making constant catcalls from the dugout (parents were doing it too) while our team was up at bat (the umpire stopped the game eventually to get it to stop), their manager refused to end the game in the allotted 2 hour time frame because their team was behind and a fight broke out in the parking lot between parents. Gave us a very bad taste for Clinton as a town to live in. Seemed very trashy to me.

Big deal, that's been happening since the beginning of time, dumb anectodal.
I played in all-stars and tournaments as a kid in the bordering wealthy towns - NC, Darien, Westport. We were called savages and lowlifes - then we proceeded to kick their a$$es (in the games).

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

Only one AP class? That's very surprising given that more and more students and parents are demanding them to augment college readiness.

That was from the state DoE website that JayCT always links to - the most recent year available. The stats said only 1.3% of the students even took that AP test. Based on the town size, that is 1 or 2 students in total.

I know some schools are dropping AP altogether - we had a neighbor who had a daughter that was a top student at the Williams School move her child back to East Lyme for high school because Williams was going to drop AP classes.

(Meanwhile Conard HS in West Hartford has 90% of their students taking the test, meaning about about 340 out of about 380 kids in the senior class)