Lackawanna Middle School, Lackawanna NY

Original Research by School Decision on Lackawanna Middle School

Lackawanna Middle School serves students in grades six through eight in a small, working-class city immediately south of Buffalo that has long roots in steel manufacturing and is now in active redevelopment. The school enrolls a student body that is roughly evenly split between white students and students of color; a substantial share of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic composition of the district.

The academic picture here is straightforward and warrants close attention. State testing data from the most recent year shows proficiency rates that are considerably low across both math and English language arts in the grades assessed. In math, proficiency hovers at roughly fifteen percent across grades six and seven, with a similar result in grade eight. English language arts shows a similar pattern in grades six and seven, though grade eight proficiency jumps to about one third, suggesting some students may gain ground as they move through the school. Science proficiency in grade eight is around one quarter. These results place the school in the bottom quartile among districts in Erie County when overall proficiency is measured across tested subjects and grades.

The school's size is modest, with enrollment distributed fairly evenly across the three grades it serves. The district is currently in the middle of a capital construction project that will reshape which buildings students attend. As part of this effort, grade five and six students will relocate to the McKinley building; parents weighing this school would want to understand how that transition unfolds and what it means for their sixth-grade student. The same project is delivering facility upgrades across the district, including new athletic fields with synthetic turf and lighting, secured entries, renovated locker rooms and auditorium, and library and media center work, so the physical plant will be modernized as families experience this school.

Lackawanna itself is a place of transition. It was devastated by the closure of the Bethlehem Steel plant in the early 1980s but is now in a period of economic recovery, with a strong housing market and new manufacturing operations on the remediated steel site. The city is ethnically rooted and diverse, with civic life anchored by the Our Lady of Victory Basilica and Olmsted-designed South Park and Botanical Gardens. Housing is relatively affordable for the region, and the community is described as walkable in pockets, particularly around the downtown and civic center.

For a family considering this school, the question is not whether Lackawanna Middle will accelerate a student toward elite outcomes. The test results indicate that most students are not yet meeting proficiency benchmarks, and parents would want to investigate what intervention and support the school offers and how it plans to move those numbers. The school is open and operating within a district making real capital investments, and it sits in a city showing signs of genuine economic and housing revival. A parent interested in this school would benefit from conversations with school leadership about the academic support structure, what the proficiency gaps reflect about instruction and student circumstances, and what concrete progress looks like year to year.

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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	57	75.0%

Math

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 17% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 51 pts below state median · ▼ 40 pts below county median

Grade 616%

School 16% · District 16%

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 14%

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

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 15% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 22% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 54 pts below state median · ▼ 45 pts below county median

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 32% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 19% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 24% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

This schoolLACKAWANNA 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-income10%Higher-income23%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income10%Higher-income29%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income75%48 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income13%Higher-income46%34 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income14%Higher-income14%0 pp gap