Gananda Middle School, Walworth NY

Original Research by School Decision on Gananda Middle School

Gananda Middle School serves students in grades six through eight within the Gananda Central School District, a small district straddling Walworth and Macedon in Wayne County east of Rochester. The school sits on the Dayspring Ridge campus alongside Richard Mann Elementary and Ruben A. Cirillo High School, serving a community organized around the master-planned Gananda development.

The school enrolls roughly one hundred ninety students, most of them white, with about one-third from families qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special education enrollment and English learner populations were not available.

The middle school's performance on New York state assessments shows a pattern worth examining closely. In seventh-grade mathematics, proficiency sits well above the typical midpoint for its county peers. Seventh-grade English language arts performance is mixed, closer to the county median. Sixth-grade results lag: fewer than half of sixth graders meet proficiency in either mathematics or English language arts. Eighth grade presents a puzzle. In English language arts, proficiency climbs into the mid-range; in mathematics and science, it drops. The eighth-grade science participation rate is notably low, with only one-third of students tested, which may reflect scheduling differences or alternative pathways rather than a wholesale issue but deserves clarification with the school.

Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among the county's districts, a genuine strength. Yet the grade-by-grade swings, especially the low sixth-grade results and low eighth-grade math proficiency, suggest that pathways through the school are uneven. Some students gain momentum between sixth and seventh grade; others falter by eighth. A parent might want to discuss with the school what accounts for these shifts and how the school monitors and supports students, especially at transition points.

The district itself has faced recent turbulence. A budget referendum failed in May 2025 when voters rejected a proposal with a tax-levy increase exceeding the state cap; the revised budget passed in June at the cap level but required eliminating two positions and scaling back services. That remains a live signal of community tax sensitivity and the trade-offs families navigate. The district has also begun merging athletic programs with Marion, starting with soccer in fall 2025, driven by declining enrollment district-wide. A longer-term feasibility study is examining whether further consolidation makes sense. These shifts affect program scope and student experience.

On the ground, Walworth itself is a car-dependent suburban-to-rural town in the Rochester fringe, with a mix of established neighborhoods and newer subdivisions. New-home construction is ongoing; the town covers roughly thirty-three to thirty-four square miles with a modest population spread thinly across it. The median home value sits below the state benchmark but near the national median. Most residents are homeowners in a white-collar workforce who commute toward Rochester; the town has no downtown proper, though its small hamlet core hosts municipal offices and local businesses. Civic anchors are the town parks and town government, and the schools sit on their own campus rather than in a town center.

For families considering Gananda Middle, the school offers a setting where the overall proficiency profile is solid and places it ahead of many county peers. But the uneven year-to-year results and the district's recent budget strain and program consolidation are real factors worth exploring. The school is appropriately sized for a small district and embedded in a stable, family-oriented suburban community that values schools and continues to grow. Parents should ask directly about how the school supports students through the sixth-to-seventh and seventh-to-eighth transitions, what drives the participation gaps in eighth-grade science, and how the recent budget and athletic consolidations may reshape offerings going forward.

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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
Science	37	92.0%
Math	18	100.0%

Math

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 775%

School 75% · District 74% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 42% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Science

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 889%

School 89% · district not reported

▲ 11 pts above state median

This schoolGANANDA 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 6Lower-income41%Higher-income45%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income28%Higher-income58%30 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income64%Higher-income63%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income29%Higher-income42%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income44%Higher-income86%41 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income47%Higher-income61%14 pp gap