Homer Junior High School, Homer NY

Original Research by School Decision on Homer Junior High School

Homer Junior High School serves grades six through eight in the village of Homer, a small historic town north of Cortland in the central part of the state. The school sits on Clinton Street within the village core, integrated into the everyday life of a walkable downtown rather than removed to a separate campus.

The school's academic profile is mixed. In science, eighth-grade students show stronger performance, with proficiency running well above the midpoint on the state assessment. Mathematics shows a more uneven pattern across grades: sixth graders struggle to reach proficiency at lower rates, seventh graders cluster near the midpoint, and eighth graders fall somewhere between. English language arts is the softest area, with proficiency rates below the midpoint across all three grades, particularly in seventh grade where fewer than half of tested students reached proficiency. When proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grades are combined, Homer Junior High ranks in the top quartile among districts in Cortland County, suggesting stronger overall performance relative to its peer schools in the county.

Participation rates are generally solid in grades six and seven, hovering near or above most, though eighth-grade testing participation in math drops notably below earlier grades, which a parent may want to look into further with the school. State testing data for social studies is available only from more than a decade ago and thus is not used to characterize current performance.

The school enrolls a small student body, with roughly equal numbers across the three grades. About a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a proxy for economic need in the family population. The enrollment is predominantly white, with small counts of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The school's enrollment includes students from the immediate village and surrounding areas served by the Homer Central School District.

The village itself is experiencing downtown revitalization, recently named a state priority for economic development, with mixed-use building rehabilitation and new residential construction underway. Housing values in the zip code area are moderate relative to state benchmarks, and mortgage costs are manageable for families at median income levels. The school is situated within easy walking distance of the village green, library, and civic amenities.

The district faces a significant fiscal challenge. For several years it has operated with a structural deficit, and at the end of the current school year it will reduce staffing to balance the budget for the coming year, a change that will affect programming and class sizes. The district expects recovery to take multiple budget cycles. Property tax increases have been steep in recent years as health insurance and other costs have risen. On the positive side, voters approved a substantial facilities improvement project in 2021 with no additional tax impact, addressing long-overdue infrastructure and safety upgrades across all district schools, including the junior high.

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Academic performance

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

New York Regents Exams

1 course 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	28	100.0%

Math

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 50%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 10 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 42%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 737%

School 37% · District 37%

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 48%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Science

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 30 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 888%

School 88% · district not reported

▲ 9 pts above state median

This schoolHOMER 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-income23%Higher-income54%31 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income48%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income63%35 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income28%Higher-income47%19 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income35%Higher-income64%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income26%Higher-income69%42 pp gap