WNY Middle school rankings

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The No. 1 ranking among Western New York's middle schools has resembled a revolving door in recent years.

Williamsville's Transit Middle School finished first in 2006. Buffalo's City Honors School pushed into the top spot in 2007. And Williamsville's Casey Middle School rotated to the front in 2008.

Which brings us full circle. Transit has regained first place this year, marking its fourth appearance at the head of the list since Business First began rating middle schools in 2002.

>> click here to see the full list of all area Middle school rankings

"We're very proud of our record," says Jill Pellis, Transit's principal. "It comes from a combination of things -- children who are prepared and ready to learn, families who support education at home, and an outstanding staff of teachers who take their jobs very seriously."

Full details will be available in Business First's 2009-10 Guide to Western New York Schools, which hits newsstands Friday. Highlights are also available at the newspaper's website: buffalo.bizjournals.com.

Last year's champion, Casey, is this year's runner-up. The two Williamsville schools, which are just three miles apart, annually contend for first place in the middle school rankings.

"But there's no competition between us, not at all," says Pellis. "My colleagues at Casey are wonderful. We all want our kids to do well, and we were thrilled for them last year."

Ranked third through fifth, respectively, are Christ the King School of Amherst, City Honors and Amherst Middle School.

Business First assessed 211 middle schools across Western New York, combing through four years of statewide test results for eighth graders. All test scores were provided by the New York State Education Department.

Middle schools typically run from sixth through eighth grade, though some begin in fifth grade. Many private schools and a few public schools have an even broader span, educating everyone from kindergartners to eighth graders.

They consequently receive two rankings from Business First -- one as a middle school, another as an elementary school.

Transit earned first place on the middle school list with a well-balanced curriculum:

- It was one of four Western New York schools where more than half of all eighth graders achieved superior scores (Level 4) on the statewide math test in 2008.

- It was among four schools where more than 20 percent of eighth graders hit the superior level on the statewide English test.

- It was one of just two schools to belong to both groups above. (The other was Kadimah School of Buffalo.)

Five of the top six middle schools are public institutions, with Christ the King the sole exception. A second Catholic school, St. Gregory the Great, has edged up to seventh place from ninth a year ago.

St. Gregory is unusually large for a private school, with 650 students from preschool through middle school. Principal Patricia Freund says the Williamsville school's size has helped it rise in the rankings.

"It absolutely is an advantage," she says. "It allows us to have more programming available, more to choose from. For example, we have three classes at every grade, and we have a complete special-education team, too."

The 11 leaders in the middle school standings are all in Erie County. The top-rated outsider is No. 12 Stella Niagara Education Park, which is located within the Lewiston-Porter district in Niagara County, but draws from a radius that is considerably larger.

"We actually have a pretty broad geographic base," says Kristen deGuehery, the school's director of institutional advancement. "We have students from Lockport, Kenmore, Grand Island, even five families who come over from Canada. They went out and got their Nexus cards, and they make the drive every day."

Thirty-four middle schools have qualified for subject awards, putting them among the 10 percent of Western New York middle schools that rank the highest in English or math.

Ten schools have earned honors in both subjects. Among them are Transit, Casey and the six schools immediately behind them in the overall standings.

Also sweeping a pair of subject awards is No. 11 Kadimah School of Buffalo, which (despite its formal name) is located in the Amherst district. Kadimah was the top-rated school in its category in 2002 and 2003, back when Business First ranked private K-8 schools separately. But it slipped to 47th place by 2007, when the combined public-private rankings of middle schools debuted.

Joel Weiss, Kadimah's head of school, says the Jewish school has employed a simple strategy to rebound -- plenty of hard work by everyone involved.

"If you send your child to Kadimah, it's a parental commitment," he says. "If your child needs extra help, you have to be willing to provide that extra help. At the same time, our teachers go above and beyond. We have teachers who work with students on Sunday at the library. They work with them at all hours of the night."

Private schools that don't participate in the statewide testing program are not included in Business First's rankings, since their performances can't be measured against standardized benchmarks. Among the better-known middle schools that don't take part are Elmwood Franklin School, Nichols School and Park School of Buffalo.

>> click here to see the full list of all Middle school rankings