Kenney Middle School, Hannibal NY

Original Research by School Decision on Kenney Middle School

Kenney Middle School serves grades five through eight in Hannibal, a small rural community in western Oswego County where the school sits within the village center alongside the district's other schools. The enrollment is small, with the student body drawn almost entirely from the town; a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student population is predominantly white, reflecting the broader community makeup.

On state assessments administered in the most recent school year, proficiency in math and English language arts ranged across the grades. In mathematics, sixth-grade students showed the strongest performance, while eighth-grade students also performed solidly. Fifth-grade math proficiency was notably low. In English language arts, sixth graders again led, with eighth graders posting moderate results; fifth and seventh graders lagged further behind. Science proficiency in fifth grade was particularly low; by eighth grade it rose modestly. When placed against the districts in Oswego County, Kenney's overall proficiency index falls below the midpoint, meaning the school sits in the lower half of the county's performance distribution. The data raises a straightforward question a parent may want to explore with the school: what supports are in place, particularly in the lower grades, to build proficiency early?

The school's peer environment is small and stable. The surrounding town is flat in growth trajectory, with a population decline over recent years, so the student population is unlikely to expand significantly. Hannibal itself is a car-dependent, rural-suburban mix where most residents own their homes, the landscape is creeks and farmland, and employment centers like Fulton and Oswego lie a short drive away. Housing values in the area are moderate relative to state and national benchmarks, making the community accessible to families seeking affordability combined with rural land and a tight-knit town feel.

The district has built lasting college-credit pathways worth noting: an Early College High School track in health sciences through Cayuga Community College, launched in 2020, and a P-TECH program offering a high school diploma paired with an Associate in Applied Science degree in mechanical or electrical technology. Both are tuition-free and open doors to career pathways or continued higher education. These programs apply to high school, but they signal the district's commitment to college and career readiness and are part of the environment ninth graders entering from Kenney will encounter.

Kenney is a neighborhood middle school serving a small, economically constrained community where proficiency needs strengthening, particularly in the elementary and early middle grades. The fit depends on what a family prioritizes: if you value a small, familiar school rooted in a stable rural town with manageable housing costs and eventual access to dual-enrollment college opportunities, this is a realistic pathway. If test performance and strong academic momentum are the priority, current data suggest looking closely at what interventions the school has in place and whether they're working.

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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	14	100.0%
Science	11	91.0%

Math

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 16% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 17%

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

Grade 641%

School 41% · District 41%

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

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 44% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 23% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 53 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 649%

School 49% · District 49%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 36% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 15%

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

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 28% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 585%

School 85% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 861%

School 61% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median

This schoolHANNIBAL 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-income20%Higher-income50%30 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income71%30 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income18%Higher-income55%37 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income43%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income12%Higher-income42%30 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income39%Higher-income46%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income26%Higher-income59%33 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income38%Higher-income72%34 pp gap