Dewitt Middle School, Ithaca NY - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Dewitt Middle School

DeWitt Middle School sits in Ithaca, a Finger Lakes college city shaped by Cornell and Ithaca College. The school serves grades six through eight and enrolls a student body that skews toward white students, with meaningful representation from Asian, multiracial, and Black students, and smaller numbers of Hispanic and Native American students. The demographics available do not include data on free-and-reduced-price lunch qualification, English learners, or special education enrollment, so those enrollment profiles remain unclear from the data provided.

State test results for the current school year show a school facing real academic difficulty in mathematics, particularly among eighth graders. Sixth-grade math proficiency sits in the low-to-mid range, improving noticeably by seventh grade, but eighth-grade proficiency drops sharply. English language arts tells a different story: sixth graders show solid proficiency, seventh graders hold steady, and eighth graders actually improve. Eighth-grade science proficiency reaches the mid-range. Participation rates in mathematics testing among eighth graders are notably low, well below the other grades, which a parent may want to ask the school about directly, as it could signal scheduling changes, alternative coursework, or other factors that shape how those results should be read. The school did not test fifth graders, which is consistent with its grades-served.

Overall, DeWitt's proficiency index sits below the midpoint when compared against other districts in Tompkins County, positioning it among the lower-performing schools in its immediate peer set. The school's performance is mixed enough that a prospective family should treat academics as a question to explore in depth with school staff.

Ithaca itself is a walkable college town anchored by the pedestrian Ithaca Commons, a car-free retail and cultural heart in the downtown core, and the surrounding neighborhoods range from dense, student-oriented Collegetown near Cornell to quieter residential hills. The city's permanent population nearly doubles during the school year as students arrive. The downtown is densifying with recent major housing projects, and the city is on a growth trajectory, though that growth is concentrated downtown and near the colleges rather than spreading evenly across the district's service area.

The district itself is navigating significant shifts. In May 2025, voters approved a major capital project with bond financing for building renovations and improvements, a multi-year tax commitment that will affect property tax bills for years. That vote came after taxpayers rejected the district's 2024-25 budget in May 2024 over a proposed large tax levy increase, signaling real taxpayer resistance. The district has also formally adopted new standardized curricula in reading and writing across the system, a pedagogical change that shapes classroom instruction. Beyond those near-term moves, enrollment has declined across the district, and a Cornell-conducted study from January 2026 found elementary schools operating at roughly half capacity. The board has stated there are no active closure plans, but potential consolidation of elementary schools is under study and could reshape which schools families' children attend. For families considering a move into the district, these trends are worth understanding as longer-term context.

Housing in the Ithaca area is above both state and national benchmarks in price, and rents are climbing. The affordability picture shows renters spending a notable share of household income on rent, and homebuyers carrying meaningful mortgage-to-income ratios relative to national norms.

DeWitt Middle School is a regular public school serving the district's middle grades with no special magnet or charter designation. The school itself is small to mid-sized for its grade band. A parent weighing this school would benefit from asking directly about the eighth-grade mathematics situation, the low participation rates in eighth-grade testing, and how the school supports students across the mixed proficiency landscape. The broader district context of enrollment decline and potential school consolidation is also worth understanding as part of a longer-term lens on the area.

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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	91	99.0%
Science	84	100.0%

Math

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 57% · ▼ 57 pts below district

▼ 51 pts below state median · ▼ 52 pts below county median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 43% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 760%

School 60% · District 61% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 38% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 61% · ▼ 61 pts below district

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

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 57% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 760%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 866%

School 66% · District 67% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 18 pts above state median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 58% · ▼ 58 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 47 pts below county median

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 56% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 21 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 874%

School 74% · district not reported

▼ 4 pts below state median

This schoolITHACA CITY 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-income29%Higher-income79%49 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income37%Higher-income73%36 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income40%Higher-income81%40 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income19%Higher-income61%42 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income41%Higher-income72%31 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income14%Higher-income50%36 pp gap