Business First, a Buffalo-based magazine that conducts annual evaluations of the 100 top school districts throughout Upstate New York, last week released its 2014 results — and named Cazenovia Central School District no. 5 Upstate, no. 3 in the Syracuse region and no. 1 in Madison County.
“This is fantastic, and I am so very proud, pleased and thankful to all people that made this happen,” said Cazenovia Superintendent Matt Reilly. “By all objective measures this is great news, and we’ll strive to do better in all those areas; but this ranking doesn’t speak to the compassion, kindness, the work ethic, the quality of individuals that Cazenovia Central Schools produce, and, if there were any way to factor that in, I see no school district that could be better.”
Business First annually examines data from the New York State Department of Education for 432 Upstate school districts, looking to determine which districts are the best in a variety of categories, including academic performance, college preparation, college readiness, advanced diploma rates, socioeconomic climate, teacher pay, teacher experience and administrative efficiency.
The annual project covers all school districts that operate a high school and have enrollments of at least 200 students between kindergarten and 12th grade.
All of Business First’s academic rankings are based on the latest four years of test results and graduation rates available from the New York State Education Department. This year’s ratings have been generated from data for the period of 2010 through 2013. (The full range of 2014 test results has not yet been released.)
In the top 100 school districts in the Upstate area, released Oct. 17, Cazenovia placed fifth. The ranking is out of 432 districts within the 48-county Upstate region.
Ratings are on a five-star scale, based on the magazine’s analysis of four years of standardized test scores in English, math, science and social studies. The top 44 districts were given five stars.
In the Business First top 100 district ranking, Pittsford came in first for the fourth year in a row, while Fayetteville-Manlius placed second, also for the fourth year in a row. Honeoye Falls-Lima repeated as the No. 3 district after moving up from its 2012 position of sixth place. The rest of the top 10 rounded out with Skaneateles at No. 4, followed by Cazenovia, Brighton, Williamsville, East Aurora, Bethlehem and Clarence.
Academic performance
For academic performance, Business First rated the academic performances of 54 public school districts in the Syracuse Area, consists of school districts in Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, Oswego and Tompkins counties.
Of the 54 districts rated, Cazenovia placed third overall, behind only Skaneateles and Fayetteville-Manlius, and was the top-rated district in all of Madison County. Cazenovia outperformed 96.2 percent of all other districts in the Syracuse area.
Other nearby Madison County school districts included in the Business First academic performance list were Chittenango (no. 13), Hamilton (no. 15), Madison (no. 31), Morrisville-Eaton (no. 42) and DeRuyter (no. 50).
College preparation
Cazenovia also was included in the Business First as one of 27 school districts across Upstate New York are doing a superior job of preparing their students for college, as reflected by two statistical indicators.
The New York State Education Department tracks the percentages of high school graduates who reach aspirational-performance measure (APM) standards and who earn Regents diplomas with advanced designations.
Business First culled through the records of 432 Upstate school districts for 2013 (the latest year for which figures are available), identifying 27 school systems that have rates of 60 percent or higher in both categories.
APM is considered to be an indicator of a student’s readiness to do college-level work, while an advanced diploma is taken as a sign that a student has mastered a broad range of academic subjects.
A student must complete three steps to meet the state’s APM standards: (1) Achieve a score of 80 or better on any Regents math exam. (2) Achieve a score of 75 or better on the Regents English exam. (3) Graduate from high school. He or she must pass eight Regents tests to earn an advanced diploma.
Cazenovia was ranked sixth overall on the 60/60 Club list, and was the only district from Madison County in the top 27.
College readiness
Of the 50 Upstate school districts with the best records of preparing students for college, Cazenovia was ranked no. 18, beating out 66.9 percent of all districts who met the state’s aspirational performance measure.
Advanced diploma rate
Cazenovia was ranked 18 out of 34 schools designated with advanced diploma rates above 60 percent. In 2013, Cazenovia gave 86 advanced diplomas for a rate of 64.18 percent.
Other categories
In the multiple other categories ranked by Business First, Cazenovia placed in a top spot only in socioeconomic climate — or its level of affluence — at no. 20.
Cazenovia also ranked in at no. 103 in administrative efficiency; no. 188 for teacher pay; and no. 218 for teacher experience.
According to its website, Business First does not expect parents to base their educational decisions solely on the data it provides in its annual rankings.
“Academic performance is important, but so are several other factors, including extracurricular activities, the school environment and the feel of the surrounding community,” the website said. “Our aim is to simplify the mounds of test data released by the education department. It’s difficult to determine what a single test score means. It’s easier to understand a comprehensive ranking.”
To view the study and databases of data per district, visit bizjournals.com/buffalo/feature/upstate-schools/2014.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
