Otto L Shortell Middle School, Wampsville NY

Original Research by School Decision on Otto L Shortell Middle School

Otto L. Shortell Middle School serves students in grades six through eight in Wampsville, a very small county seat village in central Madison County, New York. The school is part of the Oneida City School District, headquartered in nearby Oneida.

The school's most recent state assessment results show proficiency well below the county midpoint. In English language arts, proficiency rates across the three grades range in the low twenties. Mathematics shows modestly higher performance, in the upper twenties to near thirty percent across grades. Eighth-grade science proficiency is notably lower, in the mid-teens, though the participation rate for that test was also lower than for other assessments. The school's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile relative to the ten districts in Madison County. These are weak results that reflect a real challenge in student learning across tested subjects. A parent evaluating this school should ask the administration directly what interventions or support structures are in place to address proficiency gaps, and whether recent strategies have shown any change.

Enrollment is stable and relatively balanced across grades, with a total near four hundred students. Just under half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating moderate economic need in the population. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller numbers of students identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, multiracial, or Hispanic; the data did not include counts for English learners or students with IEPs. The school is a regular public school with no magnet or charter designation.

The district itself experienced a major disruption in the 2025-2026 school year when a severe storm flooded Oneida High School in June 2025, causing the high school building to close for the entire school year. As a temporary solution, high school students were relocated to Otto L. Shortell Middle School on a split schedule, with high schoolers attending in the morning and middle schoolers in the afternoon. The high school reopened in late January 2026 after repairs and flood-prevention upgrades. For a family with a middle schooler at Shortell, this meant sharing facilities with displaced high school students during the first half of the school year, a significant logistical and operational reality that has now resolved but speaks to how the school functions during regional crises. The district also approved a capital improvement bond in November 2025 covering LED lighting, HVAC upgrades, and energy-efficiency work across all buildings, funded through state aid and energy savings rather than a local tax increase.

Wampsville itself is a car-oriented village of very small population centered on Madison County government offices rather than a traditional downtown. The village sits on New York Route 5 between Canastota and Oneida, both larger towns. Civic life is anchored by the county courthouse and administrative complex on North Court Street rather than a walkable main street or park district. Population has declined modestly over recent years. Otto L. Shortell Middle School occupies a campus on Markell Drive in Wampsville and draws students from Wampsville and surrounding areas served by the Oneida City School District.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

New York Regents Exams

1 course reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Science	33	67.0%

Math

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 25% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 26% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 29% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 22% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 723%

School 23% · District 21% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 28% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Science

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 876%

School 76% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median

This schoolONEIDA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income17%Higher-income31%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income10%Higher-income32%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income16%Higher-income38%22 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income17%Higher-income38%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income17%Higher-income37%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income22%Higher-income36%14 pp gap