Transit regains lead among middle schools - Triangle Business Journal:

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Williamsville’s Transit Middle School finishex firstin 2006. Buffalo’s City Honor School pushed into the top spotin 2007. And Williamsville’ s Casey Middle School rotated to the frontrin 2008. Which brings us full circle. Transit has regained first place this marking its fourth appearancs at the head of the list sinced Business First began rating middle schoolsin 2002. for the completwe middle school rankings. And for separatd rankings for each section of WesternNew York. “We’res very proud of our says Jill Pellis, Transit’s principal.
“It comes from a combinatiojn ofthings -- children who are prepared and ready to learn, families who supporyt education at home, and an outstanding staff of teacherz who take their jobs very seriously.” Last year’s Casey, is this year’s The two Williamsville which are just three miles annually contend for firsg place in the middle school rankings. “Butt there’s no competition between us, not at says Pellis. “My colleagues at Casey are wonderful. We all want our kids to do and we were thrilled for themlast year.” Rankesd third through fifth, respectively, are Chrisy the King School of Amherst, City Honorws and Amherst Middle School.
Business First assessed 211 middle schoolws across WesternNew York, combing through four years of statewided test results for eighth graders. All test score s were provided by the New York StateEducationj Department. Middle schools typically run from sixthn througheighth grade, though some begin in fifth grade. Many privatre schools and a few public schoolds have an evenbroader span, educating everyone from kindergartner s to eighth graders.
They consequently receivee two rankings from BusinessFirstf -- one as a middle another as an elementary • It was one of four Westerm New York schools where more than half of all eightn graders achieved superior scores (Level 4) on the statewided math test in 2008. • It was amonvg four schools where more than 20 percent of eighth graderxs hit the superior levelp on the statewideEnglisb test. • It was one of just two school to belong to bothgroups above. (The othefr was Kadimah School of Buffalo.) Five of the top six middlee schools arepublic institutions, with Christy the King the sole exception. A second Catholiv school, St.
Gregory the Great, has edged up to seventjh place from ninth ayear ago. St. Gregoryg is unusually large for a private with 650 students from preschool through middle Principal Patricia Freund says theWilliamsville school’ss size has helped it rise in the “It absolutely is an advantage,” she “It allows us to have more programminv available, more to choose from. For example, we have threr classes at every grade, and we have a completee special-education team, too.” The 11 leaders in the middle schoolk standings are all fromErie County. The top-rated outsider is No.
12 Stella Niagara Education Park, which is located within the Lewiston-Porte r district in Niagara County, but drawws from a radius that isconsiderably “We actually have a pretty broad geographic says Kristen deGuehery, the school’s directorf of institutional advancement. “We have studentsz from Lockport, Kenmore, Grand even five families who come over from They went out and got theirNexus cards, and they make the drive every day.” Thirty-four middle schools have qualified for subjecrt awards, putting them among the 10 percent of Westermn New York middle schools that rank the highesyt in English or math.