‘A Significant Achievement’: New Canaan Students’ Test Scores in Latin Exceed National Average

In his 21 years of teaching Latin at New Canaan High School, Dave Harvey has never had a regular level class beat the national average on the National Latin Exam. Until now. This year, Harvey’s Latin II class of 23 underclassmen scored 5.2 percent above the national average which is a 26 out of 40 or a 65 percent. “All Latin students in New Canaan Public Schools take the exam starting in at least seventh grade and it progresses in difficulty from year to year,” Harvey said from amid fiesta-style decorations and a Mexican food feast in his classroom, Room 114, during a party to mark the achievement. As Harvey pared his class for the exam over a 12-week period, he proposed a challenge: if the students’ average is above the national average, then he would throw his class a party.