Red Jacket Middle School, Shortsville NY

Original Research by School Decision on Red Jacket Middle School

Red Jacket Middle School serves grades six through eight in Shortsville, a small Finger Lakes village in Ontario County. The school sits on the Manchester-Shortsville Central School District campus along Route 21, outside the village center. Enrollment is small, with roughly evenly distributed cohorts across the three grades.

The student body is predominantly white, with a modest Hispanic enrollment and very small numbers of Asian and Black students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the area. No data was available on the share of students with IEPs or English learners.

On state testing in math, performance varies by grade. Sixth grade proficiency is below where many middle schools aim, while seventh grade sits closer to midpoint, and eighth grade dips again. English language arts shows a different pattern: sixth grade reaches about half proficient, seventh grade drops noticeably, but eighth grade rebounds to proficiency above half the cohort. Eighth grade science proficiency is low. Older data from social studies testing suggested stronger performance historically, though that test is no longer administered in the subject at the middle level. Across math and ELA tested grades, Red Jacket's overall proficiency falls above the midpoint among Ontario County's districts.

Test participation rates are generally strong in sixth and seventh grade but noticeably lower in eighth grade math and science, which a parent may want to look into further with the school to understand the context. One particular soft spot appears in eighth grade science, where both proficiency and participation are notably below where they sit in other subjects.

Shortsville itself is a quiet, tree-lined village built originally on mill power, now with a small residential and business base. The area has lost its major industrial employers over the decades. Civic life centers on the Canandaigua Outlet, local parks, and trails; the school district library is co-located on the school campus rather than in the village. Housing in the area has tightened and grown modestly in value, with the market leaning toward smaller transactions and quick sales rather than large new development. The village sits within easy reach of Rochester and Canandaigua but relies on highway access rather than public transit.

The school serves a rural-small-town context with limited but stable housing options, a working-family population, and a peer environment that is predominantly white and economically strained. Test results show uneven mastery across subjects and grades, with stronger eighth grade ELA offset by weak eighth grade science. A family considering this school should connect directly with staff about the participation rate gaps in eighth grade and the science proficiency concern, and think carefully about whether the school's academic support resources and teaching approaches align with their child's needs.

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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	13	92.0%
Science	13	100.0%

Math

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 50% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

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

English language arts

Grade 650%

School 50% · District 50%

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

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 36% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 860%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Science

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 886%

School 86% · district not reported

▲ 7 pts above state median

This schoolMANCHESTER-SHORTSVILLE CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT (RED JACKET), 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-income50%Higher-income50%0 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income37%Higher-income39%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income54%Higher-income68%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income14%Higher-income48%34 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income45%Higher-income61%16 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income21%Higher-income69%48 pp gap