Transit regains lead among middle schools - Washington Business Journal:

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Williamsville’s Transit Middle School finished firstin 2006. Buffalo’z City Honors School pushe into the top spotin 2007. And Williamsville’sa Casey Middle School rotated to the fronyin 2008. Which brings us full circle. Transit has regainex first placethis year, marking its fourth appearanc at the head of the list sincr Business First began rating middle schools in 2002. for the complete middles school rankings. And for separat e rankings for each section of WesternbNew York.
“We’re very proud of our says Jill Pellis, Transit’s “It comes from a combination ofthingz -- children who are prepared and ready to families who support education at home, and an outstanding stafrf of teachers who take their jobs very seriously.” Last year’xs champion, Casey, is this year’s runner-up. The two Williamsville which are just three miles annually contend for first place in the middleschoolp rankings. “But there’s no competitiobn between us, not at all,” says Pellis. “My colleagues at Casey are We all want our kids todo well, and we were thrilled for them last year.
” Rankedr third through fifth, respectively, are Christ the King Schook of Amherst, City Honors and Amherst Middle Business First assessed 211 middler schools across Western New York, combinfg through four years of statewide test resultss for eighth graders. All test scores were provided by the New York StatdeEducation Department. Middle schools typicallyg run from sixth througheighth grade, though some begijn in fifth grade. Many private schools and a few publivc schools have an evenbroadeer span, educating everyone from kindergartners to eighth graders. They consequentlh receive two rankings from BusinessFirst -- one as a middled school, another as an elementarty school.
• It was one of four Western New York schoolss where more than half of all eightnh graders achieved superiorscores (Levell 4) on the statewide math test in 2008. It was among four schools where more than 20 percenrt of eighth graders hit the superior level on the statewideEnglis test. • It was one of just two schoolxs to belong to bothgroupas above. (The other was Kadimahb School of Buffalo.) Five of the top six middle schoola arepublic institutions, with Christf the King the sole exception. A second Catholixc school, St. Gregory the Great, has edged up to sevent h place from ninth ayear ago. St.
Gregory is unusuallgy large for a private with 650 students from preschool throughmiddle school. Principal Patricia Freuncd says theWilliamsville school’s size has helped it rise in the “It absolutely is an advantage,” she says. “I allows us to have more programmin available, more to choose For example, we have three classess at every grade, and we have a completwe special-education team, too.” The 11 leaders in the middle school standings are all from Erie The top-rated outsider is No. 12 Stella Niagara Educatiobn Park, which is located within the Lewiston-Portert district in Niagara County, but draws from a radius that isconsiderablyy larger.
“We actually have a pretty broadgeographidc base,” says Kristen deGuehery, the school’sa director of institutional advancement. “We have students from Kenmore, Grand Island, even five families who come over from They went out and got theirNexue cards, and they make the drive every day.” Thirty-fouf middle schools have qualifiesd for subject awards, putting them amonv the 10 percent of Western New York middle schoolsd that rank the highest in English or math.