The Marcellus Central School District was ranked 23rd in New York State by Business First Magazine out of Buffalo, New York. The rankings are based on four years of student performance data on 21 state tests, according to G. Scott Thomas, the projects editor for the publication. Business First has ranked school districts in the Buffalo region since 1992. This year marks the first time it ranked districts across all of upstate. All told, 5 of the 23 component school districts in the OCM BOCES were ranked in the top 25 of the 431 districts listed in the report. Marcellus Central School District, which was among the top five school districts in the OCM BOCES as ranked by Business First, was joined by Fayetteville-Manlius at 99.8% (second overall); Cazenovia at 98.1% (ninth overall); Jamesville-Dewitt at 96.3% (seventeenth overall); and Westhill at 96.1% (eighteenth overall) on the list of the top 25 schools in New York State. With respect to other school districts in Central New York, Skaneateles CSD (99.1%), which is in the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES ranked fifth overall and New Hartford CSD (98.6%), which is in the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES ranked seventh overall.
The rankings reflect the collective performance of each district's public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. The rating formula analyzed four years of data from the New York State Education Department, covering the period from 2007 through 2010, the latter being the most recent year for which a complete set of test data was available. The formula placed the greatest weight on results from the most recent academic year. Ten percent of each district's rating was determined by the percentage of graduates who earned Regents diplomas, with special emphasis on diplomas with advanced designations. Another 50 percent was based on its high school students' scores on Regents exams in 13 subjects: English, French, Latin, German, Spanish, integrated algebra, mathematics B (or geometry), earth science, living environment, chemistry, physics, global history and U.S. history. The final 40 percent was based on eight elementary and middle school tests: English, math and science for fourth graders, social studies for fifth graders, and the same four subjects for eighth graders. Each test from each year was analyzed twice. The formula considered the percentage of students who demonstrated superior skills (defined as a Regents score of 85 or better) as well as the percentage with basic skills (defined as a Regents score of 65 or better). Marcellus CSD scored a 94.9% using this formula.
"The problem with ranking any set of qualities is that it creates ‘winners and losers’ states Dr. Ed Reid, the Executive Director of the School Alliance for Continuous Improvement (SACI). Dr. Reid added in his editorial to a Binghamton, N.Y. newspaper, that "Among any ranked group, only one member can be ranked in first place and there will always be a last place. The interval between the top and bottom may be very narrow, but a ranked group will always have a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. A track meet is a good example of ranking in action. For instance in a 100 meter dash, ten runners may cross the finish line a split second apart, but by using technology, each of the finishers can be ranked in order of finish from 1st to 10th . The field in a marathon event is easier to sort out and rank from first to last because the space between finishers is wider." Dr. Reid is concerned that some districts which may appear to be ranked far apart may truly be closer than they appear because the difference between them is not statistically significant. Quality school improvement is more of a marathon than a sprint. Dr. Reid, who was part of the Middle States Association team that accredited the Marcellus Central School District and has publically applauded the long-range strategic planning done by the district, concluded that he is "mainly concerned that this kind of ranking of schools (by Business First out of Buffalo) not be confused with actual measures of school quality." As many are aware, the Marcellus Central School District recently completed its tenth consecutive SACI site review over the past decade (since former Superintendent Dr. Timothy Barstow brought the SACI initiative to Marcellus) and has recently transitioned from its first
five-year cycle of curriculum task force audits (for all core and non-core academic areas) to the next five-year cycle focused on the integration of the new National Common Core Standards.
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