Palmyra-macedon Primary School, Palmyra NY

Original Research by School Decision on Palmyra-macedon Primary School

Palmyra-Macedon Primary School is a small public elementary school serving pre-kindergarten through second grade in the village of Palmyra, a historic canal town east of Rochester. The school sits on Canandaigua Street within Palmyra's walkable village core, near the civic center and local library.

The school's enrollment is modest, typical for a primary-grades building, with the largest cohort in kindergarten. A meaningful share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of students across other racial and ethnic groups. Data on students with disabilities or English learners was not available.

Academic performance on state testing, based on the most recent available results from 2008-09, shows strong proficiency in mathematics and science. In math, students in grades three and five achieved proficiency rates substantially above the midpoint, while fourth-graders showed solid but comparatively lower performance. In science, fourth-graders achieved proficiency well above the midpoint. In English language arts, proficiency rates were lower than in math and science. Third-graders achieved proficiency near the lower end, fourth-graders performed around the midpoint, and fifth-graders showed stronger results. Social studies proficiency in fifth grade was notably high. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Wayne County.

A parent should note that these state test results are now more than fifteen years old. Current performance data was not available, so this snapshot does not reflect how the school teaches today. A parent may want to ask the school directly about more recent assessment results and how instruction has evolved since then.

The Palmyra-Macedon Central School District has undertaken a substantial curriculum shift in recent years, adopting the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme at the primary and intermediate schools. This is an inquiry-based, whole-child framework that shapes instruction from the earliest grades onward and continues through the IB Diploma Programme at the high school. Families choosing this district are choosing a pathway toward IB-credentialed education from the start. The district also completed facility improvements district-wide, including HVAC and fire safety upgrades and new athletic fields, without requiring a tax-rate increase.

The village itself is walkable and car-optional for daily errands, with a small but intact business district on Main Street, tree-lined streets, and the Erie Canal and its public trail within walking distance. Housing is a mix of historic Victorian, Federal, and Colonial Revival homes in the village core and more typical mid-to-late-20th-century residential builds in the surrounding neighborhoods and countryside. Home prices have risen modestly in recent years. Employment is anchored by manufacturing, particularly Garlock Sealing Technologies, the county's largest employer, along with health care and retail. The area functions as both a local community and part of the Rochester commuter belt, with some residents working outside the county.

The primary school itself offers no specialized programs or alternative curricular paths beyond the IB framework, as would be typical for a K-2 building. A family's choice of Palmyra-Macedon Primary rests primarily on its location in the village, its academic standing relative to peers in the county, and commitment to the IB Primary Years approach beginning in these early grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 392%

School 92% · District 51% · ▲ 41 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 49 pts above county median

Grade 481%

School 81% · District 57% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 591%

School 91% · District 32% · ▲ 59 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 42% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 52% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 585%

School 85% · District 30% · ▲ 55 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

Science

Grade 491%

School 91% · district not reported

▲ 5 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 594%

School 94% · district not reported

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

This schoolPALMYRA-MACEDON 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 3Lower-income59%Higher-income86%27 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income60%Higher-income81%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income72%Higher-income93%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income83%Higher-income100%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income66%Higher-income96%30 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income88%Higher-income93%5 pp gap