Cheektowaga Middle School, Cheektowaga NY

Original Research by School Decision on Cheektowaga Middle School

Cheektowaga Middle School serves grades five through eight in an inner-ring Buffalo suburb that blends dense residential neighborhoods with commercial corridors. The school draws from a town of mixed character—older village housing, mid-century subdivisions, and busy thoroughfares—with a notable Polish-American heritage and homeownership as the norm. The town's economy centers on the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, the Walden Galleria mall, and healthcare and manufacturing employers, and while car-dependent and lacking significant walkability, it has seen new affordable housing development in recent years.

The school itself educates a diverse cohort. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment spans roughly even numbers across grades five through eight, with a modest ninth-grade contingent. Racially and ethnically, the school reflects substantial representation of Black students, white students, and Asian students, with smaller shares of Hispanic and multiracial students.

State test results show the school performing below the midpoint among Erie County's districts on overall proficiency. In math, proficiency across the tested grades hovers in the low-to-mid range, with fifth-grade results slightly higher than those in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. English language arts proficiency is similarly modest, and noticeably dips in sixth and seventh grades before recovering somewhat in eighth. Science results are weaker still—fifth-grade proficiency is quite low, though eighth-grade science performance improves substantially. These patterns across subjects and grades suggest students are managing foundational skills in some areas but struggling with deeper application, and a parent may want to look into the school's teaching strategies and support systems for students working below proficiency targets.

No current data on chronic absenteeism, special education prevalence, English learner population, or discipline practices was available, so a parent seeking a fuller picture of school climate and supports would benefit from direct conversation with staff about those dimensions.

The Cheektowaga Central School District is investing in facilities. Voters recently approved a major capital project addressing building infrastructure, and a second bond for facility and security improvements was presented in April. The district also provides free meals to all students regardless of income, a meaningful benefit. At the same time, the district experienced a rare budget defeat in 2020, a sign of community sensitivity to spending and tax increases that merits awareness by families evaluating long-term housing and school costs in the area.

Housing in Cheektowaga is broadly affordable relative to state and national benchmarks. Home values and rental costs sit modestly below those benchmarks, and the town has been adding new affordable units alongside market-rate subdivisions. The real estate market shows steady activity with adequate supply, making this a stable, accessible housing option for families, though the area remains car-dependent for daily life.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

2 courses 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
Math	22	95.0%
Science	22	100.0%

Math

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 35% · ▼ 35 pts below district

▼ 58 pts below state median · ▼ 48 pts below county median

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 47% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 44%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 46% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 30% · ▼ 30 pts below district

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

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 46% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 12 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 48% · ▲ 1 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Science

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 25%

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 877%

School 77% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

This schoolCHEEKTOWAGA CENTRAL 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 5Lower-income40%Higher-income76%36 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income32%Higher-income47%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income26%Higher-income56%30 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income45%Higher-income60%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income68%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income39%Higher-income61%22 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income60%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income44%Higher-income54%9 pp gap