Highgate Heights, Buffalo NY - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Highgate Heights

Highgate Heights is a pre-K through eighth-grade public school in Buffalo serving a student body that is overwhelmingly economically disadvantaged and racially diverse. About nine in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the enrollment is dominated by Black students, with a notable share of Asian students and smaller populations of Hispanic and other backgrounds. The school has a small total enrollment distributed across its ten grade bands, ranging from about thirty-five to forty-five students per grade.

State test results, available for grades three through eight in math and English language arts plus grades five and eight in science, show proficiency rates well below both state benchmarks and the typical range for districts in Erie County. Math proficiency is highest in third grade at around forty percent but drops sharply in fourth and fifth grade, where it falls to single digits. By sixth grade, math proficiency sits at around six percent. Eighth grade improves slightly, climbing to around eighteen percent. English language arts follows a similar pattern, with third grade at about twenty-five percent proficiency and a steep decline afterward, remaining in the single digits or low teens through eighth grade. Science testing in fifth and eighth grades shows proficiency around thirteen percent and nineteen percent respectively. In context, Highgate Heights ranks in the bottom quartile among the county's tested schools on an overall proficiency index. The data suggests students are not meeting state standards in either subject across nearly all grade levels.

The school is part of Buffalo City School District, which is implementing several systemwide changes relevant to families. The district has adopted a science-of-reading, phonics-based literacy model, including full adoption of Orton-Gillingham for kindergarten and first grade, backed by substantial teacher training. Starting in 2025-26, all students receive free breakfast and lunch with no application required under New York's Universal School Meals Program. The district faces significant budget constraints, with a four-year structural deficit. Though district officials decided in January 2026 not to close any schools this year, they are pursuing a management consultant to study future closures, consolidations, and staffing reductions, introducing uncertainty into the medium-term stability of school assignments and staff.

Buffalo itself is a walkable urban city with mixed-use downtown and neighborhood commercial corridors. Housing is older and varied: late-19th and early-20th-century wood-frame homes, rowhouses, and some newer conversions of office and warehouse buildings. The city is in an active redevelopment phase with substantial affordable housing construction underway, particularly on the East Side and downtown. Local major employers span healthcare, government, finance, and manufacturing.

Parents may want to look into further detail with the school about the gap between current student proficiency and expectations for advancement to high school, the specifics of how the new districtwide phonics approach is being implemented at Highgate Heights, and how the district's budget and possible future staffing changes might affect class sizes or program continuity.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 34% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 26% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 47 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 23% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 66%

School 6% · District 25% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 24% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 818%

School 18% · District 18%

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

English language arts

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 32% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 46%

School 6% · District 23% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 47 pts below state median · ▼ 36 pts below county median

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 26% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 64%

School 4% · District 27% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 710%

School 10% · District 26% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 813%

School 13% · District 31% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Science

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 20% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 17% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 541%

School 41% · district not reported

▼ 51 pts below state median · ▼ 52 pts below county median

Grade 820%

School 20% · district not reported

▼ 58 pts below state median · ▼ 55 pts below county median

This schoolBUFFALO 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.