Haldane High School, Cold Spring NY

Original Research by School Decision on Haldane High School

Haldane High School serves a community that is small, tight-knit, and economically stable. The school enrolls roughly a few hundred students in grades nine through twelve, distributed evenly across all four grade levels. A small share of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Hispanic population and smaller numbers of Asian and multiracial students. The school sits on a shared campus with the district's elementary and middle schools in Cold Spring, a dense, historic Hudson River village that blends upscale commuter residences with a preserved 19th-century downtown and functions as a weekend destination for day-trippers.

The village itself is compact and highly walkable, centered on a Main Street packed with independent boutiques, galleries, and restaurants. Most working residents commute out, with easy access via Metro-North's Hudson Line, which stops at the heart of town. Housing in Cold Spring is expensive; median property values are substantially above the state and national benchmarks, and the area is attracting active-adult development rather than young families. The most recent significant housing addition, the Butterfield project, is age-restricted to 55 and older. This shapes the school's student base: families tend toward higher income and education levels, and the school does not serve a transient or rapidly growing student population. The district approved a major capital referendum in November 2024 that will fund a new high school addition with classrooms, a student center, STEAM labs, and support suites, as well as infrastructure and security upgrades, raising property taxes noticeably over the coming years.

State assessment results and graduation rate data were not available for this report, so a reader cannot see how Haldane's test proficiency compares to other districts in Putnam County or track its completion rate. The school's attendance record and discipline data were also not reported. These absences are unusual for a school of this type and grade band; a parent may want to ask the school directly for recent proficiency trends, graduation data, and student outcomes information to form a fuller picture of academic performance.

What the available enrollment data does show is a school serving a stable, small cohort without significant special education or English learner identification reported. Program offerings, course breadth, and AP availability were not detailed in the available information, another gap a family considering the school would want to explore directly with staff. The school's website may carry information on course catalog, dual credit partnerships, arts and athletics offerings, and student support services that would help round out a picture of daily life and academic pathway options.

Haldane is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and operates within a district that has recently adopted new elementary literacy curricula emphasizing structured phonics and research-based reading instruction. The high school itself sits in a village with strong civic anchors including a library, riverfront parks, and easy train access to New York City, which may shape both daily student experience and the kinds of enrichment and work opportunities available in the area. The school serves families invested in staying, not passing through, and draws from a community that is affluent and stable by regional standards.

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Academic performance

How students graduate and prepare for what comes next.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=95%Cohort of 68 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,253 schools plotted. 14 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Advanced Placement & IB

18 subjects offered · 2023-24

Each card is one AP or IB subject. The headline number is the share of students scoring 3 or higher on the exam — the threshold for college credit at most universities. The bar below each rate shows the underlying distribution across performance levels.

Score:12· no credit345· extremely well qualified

Math and Computer Science

Calculus AB

19 tested

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science A

1 tested · Grade 10

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science Principles

1 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Statistics

20 tested · Grade 10

70.0%

scored 3 or higher

Sciences

Biology

19 tested

73.7%

scored 3 or higher

Chemistry

1 tested · Grade 10

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 1

31 tested · Grade 10

58.1%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 2

17 tested

82.4%

scored 3 or higher

History and Social Sciences

Psychology

22 tested

54.5%

scored 3 or higher

U.S. History

32 tested

93.8%

scored 3 or higher

World Languages and Cultures

French Language and Culture

4 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

German Language and Culture

1 tested · Grade 10

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Spanish Language and Culture

23 tested

47.8%

scored 3 or higher

Arts

Studio Art Drawing

1 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Other

Language and Comp

18 tested

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

Literature and Comp

20 tested

95.0%

scored 3 or higher

U S Government and Politics

30 tested

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

World History

36 tested · Grade 10

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

New York Regents Exams

4 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	80	80.0%
Ela	78	92.0%
Social Studies	74	86.0%
Science	70	83.0%

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.