Two of our schools recently landed on the U.S. News & World Report’s first-ever K-8 rankings of best public elementary and middle schools. Smallwood Drive Elementary was named a Best Elementary School and Amherst Middle School was named a Best Middle School because they place among the top 30% in the state, according to the agency’s ranking methodology.

Smallwood Drive Elementary School was ranked at #414 out of 2,831 New York elementary Schools. Amherst Middle School was ranked at #192 out of 1,673 New York middle schools.

For each state, schools were assessed on their pupils’ proficiencies in mathematics and reading, as measured by state assessment tests. Half of the ranking formula was the results themselves; the other half was the results in the context of socioeconomic demographics. In other words, the top-ranked schools are high achieving ones that succeeded in educating all of their students. All data for the rankings are from third-party sources, including the U.S. Department of Education.