Here’s The Best School District In New York: Report

CROSS RIVER, NY — A new report has ranked the best school district in New York, and the answer may surprise you. The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware corporation that publishes financial news and commentary, sifted through various school data to determine the best school district in every state.

In New York, the Katonah-Lewisboro Union Free School District in Westchester County topped the list. The district has 3,233 students and spends $31,154 per student, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is 94.3 percent and 74.2 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• Child poverty
• Spending per student
• Graduation rate
• Teachers per student
• Percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• Preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

“That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country,” the authors wrote. “The majority of a school’s budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage.”

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the U.S. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

In Westchester County, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $86,226 — much higher than the national average of $55,322. Furthermore, the poverty rate in the county was 10 percent, slightly lower than the national average of 12.7 percent.

The nationwide rankings report, published on Monday, follows a January report from the same site that found New York ranked 9th in the country for best schools.

Here’s a breakdown of schools in New York, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 80.4 percent (13th lowest)
• Public school spending: $18,665 per pupil (3rd highest)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 30.9 percent (math) 32.8 percent (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 35.7 percent (9th highest)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 55 percent (13th highest)

According to the authors, New York distributes education resources to try to close the inequity gap. Between 2003 and 2015, the achievement gap between eighth graders living in poverty and their wealthier peers closed more than any other state, their analysis found.

"Widely accessible, free to the public preschool likely helped shrink achievement gaps," the authors wrote.

Slightly more than 58 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in the state go to preschool, the third highest percentage in the country, the authors wrote.

"Well-funded public school systems in turn help provide these early education programs," they said.

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