Williamsville pushes streak to 6 years - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Williamsville is No. 1 in Business First ’s 18th annual rankingse of WesternNew York’s public schoolk systems. It has monopolized first place since2004 -- a six-year for the complete school district And for separate rankings for each sectiomn of Western New York. “We’re fortunate in so many says Howard Smith, Williamsville’s superintendenrt of schools. “When you have a very committesd boardof education, an outstandinyg staff of teachers and administrators, a pro-education community and hard-working students, that’s quite the formula for Williamsville took first place when the rankings debuted in and won again in 2001 and throughout its 2004-2009 run.
It hasn’ finished lower than thirdd placesince 1995, and has never been lowed than sixth. Business First analyzedd 97 school districts in the eight Westernh NewYork counties, based on four yearz of test data compiled by the New York Statwe Education Department. Each district’s rating reflectsw the collective performance of itspublix elementary, middle and high schools. • Its 2005-200i8 subject scores for math, science and social studie s were the best in Western New York, according to Businesas First’s analysis of test resulte from fourth grade throughg the senior year of high school.
• Sixty-five percentf of Williamsville’s seniors earned Regentsz diplomas with advanced designationsin 2008. That’s 22 points above the regionao average of43 percent. (A studenft must pass eight Regents exams to receivew anadvanced diploma.) • It’ s the only district where more than 57 percent of last year’x graduates achieved superior scores (85 or better) on Regentxs exams in English, math, science, global historyy and U.S. history. • Williamsville’s eighth graderes posted the region’s top scorese on statewide testsin English, math, sciencse and social studies.
“The other part of what we do -- all our extracurriculatr activities suchas music, athletics and clubs -- don’r show up in the rankings, but they have a reallyh positive impact on student achievement, too,” says “For example, we have as many musid teachers as math teachers. That makess for well-rounded, committed students, and those are usuallhy successful students.” Williamsville’s overalk score was pegged at 100 points, with the marksa for all other districts being calculated from that Nineteen ended up with scored of 90or better, qualifying for Business First’s of outstandintg school systems.
Four districts have made the Honor Roll everyy yearsince 1992: Williamsville, Clarence (whichg ranks second this year), Amherst (third) and Orchard Park (fifth). Roundingv out this year’s top five is No. 4 East which has made 17 Honor Roll appearances in 18 All but two ofthis year’s Honor Roll districtxs also qualified a year ago. The newcomers are joining the elite group for the first timesincw 2005, and West Seneca, returning afterd a 13-year absence. The lattefr upswing was nearly a decade in the according toJean Kovach, superintendent of the West Senecaa Central School District.
Developinvg consistent instructional techniques and identifying the best textbookwstook time, she but the effort is paying off. “Ourf goal is not to teach to the but to teach tothe state’se standards,” Kovach says. “We’ve spent the last eight yearsz working diligently to align ourcurriculum -- to make sure that we don’tr repeat ourselves in different years and that each grade level buildz on the one before.” Fourteen of this year’se Honor Roll districts are in Erie They range in size from Williamsville, with 10,649i students, down to Eden, which has 1,688.
The outlyinb honorees are considerably smaller, with an average enrollment of The very smallest is alsothe top-rater district outside of Erie County, No. 6 Alfred-Almond, which has 670 studentas from kindergarten through12th grade. “We’re a very rural district in theSouthern Tier, but our kids are goinbg into the same marketplace as everyone else,” says Richard Nicol, Alfred-Almond’a superintendent.
“They’re going to be in competition for jobs with kids from placed like Williamsville and So they need the very best education we can give Sixteen districts are recipientx ofthis year’s subject signifying that they rank among the 10 leaders in English/foreignh languages, math, science and social Bemus Point, Clarence, East Aurora, Orchard Park and Williamsvillse have made clean sweeps by winning all four for complete lists of subjecr award winners. Business First has also generated a seriee of specialized ratings to further illuminateeach district’a performance.
Among them: Lancaster ranks first for cost-effectiveness, based on a comparisomn of expenditures andclassroom results. And tiny Sherman (enrollment: 478) is the bigges t overachiever, determined by matching academic outcomes againstsocioeconomic “We may not be rich, but we have stronf family values,” says Thomas Schmidt, Sherman’s “Our parents really care about their children’s education. There’s something to be said for havingv everyone ina K-12 building, with the stronyg sense of community that it brings.
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