EDUCATION: Rating the Business First rankings

Local News

September 11, 2008

LP, NW surge ahead, Falls stays the same

By Caitlin Murray<br><a href="mailto:murrayc@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Caitlin</a> The Niagara Gazette Thu Sep 11, 2008, 09:32 PM EDT

The results are in and while Niagara Falls held the same spot in Business First’s 2008 annual ranking of 97 school districts, Lewiston-Porter and Niagara-Wheatfield saw a marked improvement over last year.

• Lewiston-Porter jumped up six spots, from No. 20 last year to No. 14. It isn’t a surprise to see Lew-Port ranking higher — the high school moved up nine slots and the middle school moved up 12 in individual school rankings. But Interim Superintendent Don Rappold was clearly thrilled with the results.

“That’s wonderful!” he said, attributing the improvement to strong staff development and focused curriculum instruction.

“Most of those other schools (ahead of Lew-Port on the list) have been there year after year after year,” Rappold said. “They’re excellent. I think it’s significant that we’ve jumped from 20 to 14 and we’ll continue to improve.”

• Niagara-Wheatfield also saw an improvement, going up two spots from No. 28 last year to No. 26 this year.

Michelle Spasiano, assistant superintendent for instruction, said the district has been continuing on a “trajectory for improvement for about 10 years,” and they’ve noticed even more improvement in recent assessments they expect to see in future rankings.

“We have a huge laser-like focus on our literacy program that, on the elementary level, is going to impact middle school and high school too,” she said.

• Niagara Falls held onto the same ranking as last year — No. 93.

But Superintendent Carmen Granto said he doesn’t pay attention to Business First rankings because it’s not a fair indication of how well a district teaches students.

“Our district will always be there — I’m shocked there’s schools below us,” he said.

Niagara Falls has made improvements in its state Adequate Yearly Progress report and saw more of its schools named as “higher-performing, gap-closing” in the latest assessments from the Education Department, Granto said. To compare Niagara Falls with a consistently high-performing, wealthy district like Clarence is like “mixing apples and oranges.”

The poverty perspective

A new category looked at the relationship between socioeconomic status and academic performance.

“The critics say our list is driven by economics,” said Scott Thomas of Business First. “We’ve always admitted socioeconomic standing is a factor, but we’ve always said it’s not the only factor.”

Data indicating socioeconomic standing were compared against overall academic performance.

“If the critics were right, the two lists matched completely,” Thomas said.

• Lew-Port ranked fifth overall in district wealth, but ranked 14 in overall performance. Business First classified Lew-Port as a moderate underachiever for being nine spots below the rank it should be if socioeconomics are a main determinant in performance.

Rappold agreed that despite moving several spots into the top 15, Lew-Port should be higher.

“We’re 14, but we should be in the top five,” he said.

• Niagara Falls ranked 93 overall out of 97 districts and that’s exactly where it should be based on district wealth, according to the comparison.

Granto is openly critical of the Business First rankings, saying the list states the obvious — wealthier school districts perform better.

“You’ve got to measure each child’s growth,” Granto said. “Showing improvement from where we get them and leave them — to me that’s the measurement.

“... If you’re just going to categorize everything, people know how it’s going to come out.”

• Niagara-Wheatfield did about as well as it should based on its socioeconomic status. It was ranked 26th academically and 25th socioeconomically.

Buffalo Business First’s 2008-09 “Guide to Western New York Schools” will be released today.

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