Business First.....and the Lackawanna School District

makes a huge difference. And the community is very involved, very supportive."

Business First graded 278 elementary schools in the eight counties of Western New York, based on four years of test data from the New York State Education Department.

The rankings cover every school that participates in the statewide testing program for fourth graders. (The threshold will drop to third graders in 2013.)

Second place on this year's went to St. Gregory the Great School, a Catholic school in Williamsville.

Southern Tier Catholic School of Olean, the previous top ranked elementary school, dropped slightly to third place this year.

Private schools that don't take part in the statewide testing program are not included in Business First's rankings.

Full details will be available in Business First's 2012-2013 Guide to Western New York Schools, which hits newsstands on Friday.

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TOP 100 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN BUSINESS FIRST'S RANKINGS (EACH SCHOOL IS FOLLOWED BY THE DISTRICT IN WHICH IT'S LOCATED; SEE BOTTOM OF PAGE FOR ABBREVIATIONS)

1. Ledgeview ES (Clarence)

2. St. Gregory the Great School (Williamsville)

3. Southern Tier Catholic School (Olean)

4. Country Parkway ES (Williamsville)

5. Christ the King School (Amherst)

6. Nardin Academy ES (Buffalo)

7. Maple East ES (Williamsville)

8. St. John Vianney School (Orchard Park)

9. Smallwood Drive School (Amherst)

10. South Davis ES (Orchard Park)

11. Sherman ES (Sherman)

12. Elmwood Village CS (Buffalo)

13. Sheridan Hill ES (Clarence)

14. Christian Central Academy (Williamsville)

15. Maple West ES (Williamsville)

16. Charlotte Avenue ES (Hamburg)

17. P.S. 64 Frederick Law Olmsted (Buffalo)

18. Eggert Road ES (Orchard Park)

19. Charles A. Lindbergh ES (Kenmore-Tonawanda)

20. Big Tree ES (Frontier)

21. Tapestry CS (Buffalo)

22. Our Lady of Pompeii School (Lancaster)

23. Ellicottville ES (Ellicottville)

24. Harris Hill ES (Clarence)

25. St. Peter & Paul School (Williamsville)

26. St. Christopher's School (Sweet Home)

27. Heim ES (Williamsville)

28. Parkdale ES (East Aurora)

29. East ES (West Seneca)

30. St. Stephen School (Grand Island)

31. Forest ES (Williamsville)

32. St. Leo the Great School (Sweet Home)

33. St. Mary's School (Williamsville)

34. St. Aloysius Regional School (Springville-Griffith Institute)

35. West ES (West Seneca)

36. Ellicott Road ES (Orchard Park)

37. St. Peter's Lutheran School (Niagara-Wheatfield)

38. St. Mary's ES (Lancaster)

39. Errick Road ES (Niagara-Wheatfield)

40. Sheldon ES (Attica)

41. St. John Lutheran School (Niagara-Wheatfield)

42. Southtowns Catholic School (Frontier)

43. Dodge ES (Williamsville)

44. Prospect ES (Attica)

45. Pinehurst ES (Frontier)

46. St. Bernadette School (Orchard Park)

47. Armor ES (Hamburg)

48. St. Vincent DePaul School (Iroquois)

49. Byron-Bergen ES (Byron-Bergen)

50. Clinton ES (West Seneca)

51. Holy Ghost Lutheran School (Niagara-Wheatfield)

52. Holy Family School (LeRoy)

53. Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary School (Clarence)

54. Alfred-Almond ES (Alfred-Almond)

55. Allendale ES (West Seneca)

56. Immaculate Conception School (East Aurora)

57. Kaegebein School (Grand Island)

58. Mullen ES (Tonawanda)

59. Clarence Center ES (Clarence)

60. Fletcher ES (Tonawanda)

61. Nativity of Our Lord School (Orchard Park)

62. St. Peter School (Lewiston-Porter)

63. Union Pleasant ES (Hamburg)

64. Pembroke IS (Pembroke)

65. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament School (Lancaster)

66. Starpoint IS (Starpoint)

67. Immaculate Conception School (Wellsville)

68. Cayuga Heights ES (Depew)

69. St. Mark's School (Buffalo)

70. St. Benedict's School (Amherst)

71. William Street School (Lancaster)

72. Huth Road School (Grand Island)

73. Alexander ES (Alexander)

74. St. Andrew's Country Day School (Kenmore-Tonawanda)

75. Maplemere ES (Sweet Home)

76. St. Peter & Paul School (Hamburg)

77. Winchester ES (West Seneca)

78. Eden ES (Eden)

79. St. Francis of Assisi School (Tonawanda)

80. Iroquois IS (Iroquois)

81. Colden ES (Springville-Griffith Institute)

82. Alden PS (Alden)

83. Kadimah School of Buffalo (Amherst)

84. Thomas Marks ES (Wilson)

85. Southwestern ES (Southwestern)

86. P.S. 67 Discovery School (Buffalo)

87. Geraldine J. Mann School (Niagara Falls)

88. Queen of Heaven School (West Seneca)

89. Pratt ES (Barker)

90. Windom ES (Orchard Park)

91. Willow Ridge ES (Sweet Home)

92. Alexander Hamilton ES (Kenmore-Tonawanda)

93. Herbert Hoover ES (Kenmore-Tonawanda)

94. Meadow School (North Tonawanda)

95. Perry ES (Perry)

96. Maple Avenue School (Niagara Falls)

97. Northwood ES (West Seneca)

98. Wolcott Street School (LeRoy)

99. Notre Dame Academy (Buffalo)

100. Anna Merritt ES (Lockport
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Friday June 15, 2012 Business First hits the news stands......then we will know how ALL school districts rank.
Even Buffalo has " 5 " of their schools on the TOP " 100 " list!

I sure hope we moved up the ranks! I believe in OUR kids! I do, I do, I do!

City & Region » Schools

Buffalo's graduation rate rises to 54%

Four of city's six lowest-achieving schools see declines; South Park improves to 58%
By Mary Pasciak
News Staff Reporter
Published:June 11, 2012, 2:10 PM

11 Comments
Related stories
Graduation rate drops for Buffalo high schools
Related links
School Zone blog: Dixon on gag order, graduation rate, charters and union contracts
Key Links
School Zone blog
The News' education page

Buffalo's overall four-year graduation rate increased almost 7 percentage points in 2011, to 54 percent -- but the graduation rate dropped at four of the city's six persistently lowest-achieving high schools, according to data released Monday by the state Education Department.

The biggest drop was at Burgard High School, where only 32 percent of the Class of 2011 graduated in four years -- down from a 49 percent graduation rate the year before.

Bennett High School reported a 36 percent four-year graduation rate, down 10 percentage points from the previous year.

Lafayette High School's graduation rate dropped 5 points, to 31 percent; East High School's dropped 4 percentage points, to 40 percent; and Riverside's graduation rate held steady at 31 percent.

Interim Superintendent Amber M. Dixon and district spokeswoman Elena Cala did not respond to a request to comment on the declines at those schools.

The sole bright spot among the group of persistently lowest-achieving schools was at South Park, where the graduation rate increased 11 points, to 58 percent.

Across the district, the graduation rate increased to 54 percent.

"The Buffalo Public School district is pleased to have made a 6.6 percentage point increase in graduating seniors between 2010 and 2011, but acknowledges there is still far to go," Cala said in a brief statement.

That increase neutralizes a 6-point decrease the previous year, bringing the city's graduation rate up slightly higher than the 53.1 percent it was in 2009.

The one-year dip was attributed to a commencement academy that the district instituted for one year, in 2005, that in effect pulled out about 1,000 ninth-graders who were struggling academically and put them into the following year's group of freshmen.

Putting so many struggling students into the Class of 2010 -- 3,479 ninth-graders -- pulled down that group's graduation rate, former Superintendent James A. Williams said last year, when the state announced the decline.

The Class of 2011 returned to a more standard size, with 2,653 students.

Results were also mixed among charter schools serving Buffalo students.

The Charter School for Applied Technologies -- in the Town of Tonawanda, but serving mostly Buffalo students -- reported a 100 percent graduation rate for the third year in a row.

Oracle Charter School's graduation rate dropped 16 points, to 62 percent.

Lt. Col. Larry Astyk, commandant of Western New York Maritime Charter School, was pleasantly surprised Monday by his school's nearly 20 percent increase in graduation rate -- to 78 percent -- though not inordinately so.

"Obviously, we're a relatively new school. Every year, we implement programs and strategies to help our kids," Astyk said.

In Niagara County, Lewiston-Porter High School posted a nearly 100 percent graduation rate, the highest in the area outside the Charter School for Applied Technologies. Next highest was East Aurora High School, with a 97 percent graduation rate.

Outside of Buffalo, the lowest graduation rate was in Lackawanna, at 65 percent.

Buffalo's district graduation rate, 54 percent, was better than that in Rochester, which was 45.5 percent, and Syracuse, which was 48.4 percent. Rochester saw a decline of about half a percentage point from the previous year, while Syracuse saw a 2.5 percentage point increase.

New York City posted a four-year graduation rate of 60.9 percent, which remained essentially flat from the previous year.

Statewide, the four-year graduation rate rose about half a percentage point to 74 percent.

mpasciak@buffnews.com

Comments
Sort:NEWEST FIRST | OLDEST FIRST

"The claim that our country is on a decline may be true, but it is not due to declining graduation rates .."

This statement accepts mediocrity as the norm. The decline of education may not SOLEY be due to declining graduation rates, but it's certainly a part of the problem.

I graduated from City Honors in 1985 with a "B" average, and flunked my first semester in college. Eventually, I would get extra help, and graduate college with honors. However, I was sorely unprepared for the rigors of a University with a Buffalo Education.

This myopic interpretation of the historical data does not take into account that the "decline" of the Nation is partly due to a broken system. A system that does not prepare kids for college, or anything beyond a "machine shop". A system that sees every other nation in the WORLD outpacing the United States in Education.

Just take a look at the Canadian model for education to contrast the difference. Where kids take college level courses in high school.

There's more data than just "historical" that paints this picture. Look at the bigger picture.
DAVE ASHELMAN, BUFFALO, NY on Tue Jun 12, 2012 at 05:42 AM
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"I love how at the end they punctuate the article with the disparity between black and hispanic versus white students."-SAMI CIRPILI, BUFFALO, NY

Sami, I must have missed something, but I did not see any reference to race in the article. There are thousands of stories why a child did not finish high school, but in the end it was because they couldn't or wouldn't do the work. Sometimes, low house hold income is a negative and sometimes a positive factor in academic success. Many Asian immigrants come to this country poor and ace their studies. On the other hand, many home grown poor do not.
GARY SCHOENE, WEST SENECA, NY on Tue Jun 12, 2012 at 02:28 AM
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Where is the community outrage at these numbers? Why the apathy, dismissal, and sarcasm?? What happened to Buffalo's historical movers and shakers who cried out against the injustice of the black-white and rich-poor achievement gaps and did something about it? Why have come to accept "separate but equal" education that is obviously and substantially not equal. The difference between 31% and 100% in Buffalo is staggering. We laud the successful and blame the struggling without acknowledging why this happens. We're afraid to talk about race and poverty because it is assumed that folks blame each other for outcomes, rather than blaming a system and apathy and lack of community mobilization that continue to sustain these inequalities. These kids who leave high school disenfranchised are the future of the city of Buffalo! They matter, they are worth our time and investment, and outreach. Our schools are shrinking, our economy is suffering, and our prisons are growing. A high school drop-out costs us over $200,000 each.

John, I appreciate the historical perspective and history around graduation rates, but a 75% graduation rate is extremely far from 32%, 36%, 31%, 40%, and 31% - the rates at five of Buffalo's high schools. Kids who dropped out of high school in earlier times had booming industrial and manufacturing and war-time economies jobs to go - those jobs paid well and didn't require a college education. We now have an increasingly knowledge-based economy, where those without a college education are falling further behind. 54% of drop-outs are unemployed.

Statistics matter. They are not perfect, but they help diagnose serious ills in our society, identify trends, and to look the other way is troublesome.
MIRA GREEN, BUFFALO, NY on Tue Jun 12, 2012 at 12:09 AM
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[At that rate, maybe in a decade or two, we will be in the bottom half of the industrialized nations we need to compete against.]
--BRUCE SANDERS

I read in a magazine article somewhere that the upcoming presidential election debate will be focused on the middle-class because that's where all the votes are - and the anger too. Both sides will blame various reasons for our economic decline but the one thing that won't be mentioned is the fact that we have slipped so far in our educational standings in relationship to the rest of the Western countries. In a globalized market economy our efforts just aren't going to cut it in meeting the requirements that these new technological job positions require - so they won't be going to us.

So read these statistics and weep because the prospects for our future economic viabilty depends on them.
RICK BRIDENBAKER, WEST SENECA, NY on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 09:29 PM
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And now, some schmuk will attribute this to J Willies' great leadership skills...........

or Sam the man will take credit.

What is the passing rate for Buffalonians who work toward the GED?
LYDIA BEZOUHOJNACKI, BUFFALO, NY on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 07:52 PM
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Just to put this information in perspective; in 1900 , only 6% of 17-18 year olds graduated from high school in 4 years. From 1949-1959, arguably the most prosperous time in our nation's history, the four-year graduation rate hovered around 60%. According to U.S. Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics, 2010, the highest four-year graduation rate ever achieved in the history of our nation was 77% of 17-18 year olds in 1969-70. So, 75% is not that far off from what has been "the norm" for about 40 years. The claim that our country is on a decline may be true, but it is not due to declining graduation rates ..
JOHN GRANNELL, WEST SENECA , on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 07:44 PM
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Makes me proud that I went to best public high school in the city....HUTCH TECH
JOEL MATTIE, LARGO, FL on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 07:39 PM
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What about the overall actual graduation rate (i.e more than 4 years)?
GREG OLMA, BUFFALO, NY on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 07:00 PM
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At that rate, maybe in a decade or two, we will be in the bottom half of the industrialized nations we need to compete against.
BRUCE SANDERS, BUFFALO, NY on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 05:50 PM
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I love how at the end they punctuate the article with the disparity between black and hispanic versus white students. Did they also do an income disparity between the groups? Did they analyze parental education levels of the groups? Nah, that wouldn't make any sense to print the important facts. Just print race stats and leave it at that. Nice work News hounds. The overwhelming obsession with stats is ridiculous. If you rhythmically shake a corpse you can generate a picture that resembles an EKG...stats, gotta love them. Stats are how you maintain property values, justify taxes, and keep people consuming stuff. Keep up the good work!
SAMI CIRPILI, BUFFALO, NY on Mon Jun 11, 2012 at 04:36 PM
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So......We made the paper for OUR graduation rate..........is anybody choking?
I feel sooo bad for OUR kids and the teachers/staff who try-try-try! I give them all an A+ for effort. My heart breaks for the ones who slip through the cracks......

Full details will be available in Business First's 2012-2013 Guide to Western New York Schools, which hits newsstands tomorrow.
Highlights are also available right now at the newspaper's
website.

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BUSINESS FIRST'S SCHOOL DISTRICT RANKINGS (EACH DISTRICT IS FOLLOWED BY ITS COUNTY)

HONOR ROLL DISTRICTS:
1. Williamsville (Erie County)
2. Clarence (Erie County)
3. East Aurora (Erie County)
4. Orchard Park (Erie County)
5. Amherst (Erie County)
6. Lewiston-Porter (Niagara County)
7. Bemus Point (Chautauqua County)
8. Alfred-Almond (Allegany County)
9. Grand Island (Erie County)
10. Iroquois (Erie County)
11. Alden (Erie County)
12. Hamburg (Erie County)
13. Lancaster (Erie County)
14. Akron (Erie County)
15. West Seneca (Erie County)
16. Barker (Niagara County)
17. Holland (Erie County)
18. Frontier (Erie County)
19. Southwestern (Chautauqua County)

OTHER DISTRICTS:
20. Eden (Erie County)
21. Starpoint (Niagara County)
22. Chautauqua Lake (Chautauqua County)
23. Pembroke (Genesee County)
24. Niagara-Wheatfield (Niagara County)
25. Wilson (Niagara County)
26. Springville-Griffith Institute (Erie County)
27. Fredonia (Chautauqua County)
28. Westfield (Chautauqua County)
29. Depew (Erie County)
30. LeRoy (Genesee County)
31. Sweet Home (Erie County)
32. Pavilion (Genesee County)
33. Ellicottville (Cattaraugus County)
34. West Valley (Cattaraugus County)
35. North Collins (Erie County)
36. Sherman (Chautauqua County)
37. Allegany-Limestone (Cattaraugus County)
38. Oakfield-Alabama (Genesee County)
39. Elba (Genesee County)
40. Tonawanda (Erie County)
41. Newfane (Niagara County)
42. Clymer (Chautauqua County)
43. Alexander (Genesee County)
44. Attica (Wyoming County)
45. Letchworth (Wyoming County)
46. Byron-Bergen (Genesee County)
47. Cheektowaga-Maryvale (Erie County)
48. Kenmore-Tonawanda (Erie County)
49. Albion (Orleans County)
50. Cuba-Rushford (Allegany County)
51. Lyndonville (Orleans County)
52. Pine Valley (Chautauqua County)
53. Batavia (Genesee County)
54. Frewsburg (Chautauqua County)
55. Cleveland Hill (Erie County)
56. North Tonawanda (Niagara County)
57. Perry (Wyoming County)
58. Kendall (Orleans County)
59. Lockport (Niagara County)
60. Portville (Cattaraugus County)
61. Bolivar-Richburg (Allegany County)
62. Royalton-Hartland (Niagara County)
63. Evans-Brant (Erie County)
64. Panama (Chautauqua County)
65. Warsaw (Wyoming County)
66. Falconer (Chautauqua County)
67. Yorkshire-Pioneer (Cattaraugus County)
68. Cheektowaga-Sloan (Erie County)
69. Cassadaga Valley (Chautauqua County)
70. Fillmore (Allegany County)
71. Olean (Cattaraugus County)
72. Medina (Orleans County)
73. Belfast (Allegany County)
74. Randolph (Cattaraugus County)
75. Wellsville (Allegany County)
76. Silver Creek (Chautauqua County)
77. Whitesville (Allegany County)
78. Gowanda (Cattaraugus County)
79. Cattaraugus-Little Valley (Cattaraugus County)
80. Cheektowaga (Erie County)
81. Genesee Valley (Allegany County)
82. Ripley (Chautauqua County)
83. Brocton (Chautauqua County)
84. Franklinville (Cattaraugus County)
85. Andover (Allegany County)
86. Scio (Allegany County)
87. Jamestown (Chautauqua County)
88. Hinsdale (Cattaraugus County)
89. Holley (Orleans County)
90. Forestville (Chautauqua County)
91. Friendship (Allegany County)
92. Niagara Falls (Niagara County)
93. Salamanca (Cattaraugus County)
94. Canaseraga (Allegany County)
95. Dunkirk (Chautauqua County)
96. Lackawanna (Erie County)
97. Buffalo (Erie County)

- Business First Elementary School Rankings 2012

- Business First Middle School Rankings 2012

- Business First High School Rankings 2012
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I was hoping we moved.......but the figures don't lie.
I feel so bad for OUR kids.........