Roscoe Central School, Roscoe NY

Original Research by School Decision on Roscoe Central School

Roscoe Central School sits on Academy Street in a small Catskills hamlet where the Beaver Kill meets the Willowemoc Creek, just off Route 17 in Sullivan County. It is the only public school in its district, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in a single building. The enrollment is quite small, even by the standards of rural New York, with grades sometimes holding fewer than a dozen students each. That size shapes almost everything about daily life here: every student knows every teacher, and every teacher likely knows every family.

The school is classified as rural and remote, with no other public school within a meaningful radius. For families choosing Roscoe, this is the public school pathway, full stop. The peer environment is predominantly white, with a notable Hispanic population and a smaller number of Black students. Close to half the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic character of the surrounding community. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the data provided.

State assessment results on the New York State Testing Program are a mixed picture. In the elementary grades, math proficiency runs from moderate to solid, and fifth-grade ELA proficiency is genuinely strong. As students move into the middle grades, however, proficiency rates in both math and ELA drop off noticeably, particularly in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, where math results are the weakest across the school. Eighth-grade ELA proficiency is also low. Science results at the tested grades land roughly in the middle range. When the school's overall proficiency index is placed against other districts in Sullivan County, it sits above the midpoint among that county's districts, which is worth noting for context, though the middle school math and ELA numbers are still a soft spot a parent may want to raise directly with the school.

No trend data was available to judge whether these results are improving or holding steady. The district brief search was exhausted without surfacing any parent-relevant strategic changes or new initiatives, so that piece has been left out rather than guessed at. No information on AP courses, dual enrollment, career pathways, or graduation rate was provided; given the small high school cohort sizes visible in the enrollment data, parents of high-schoolers would want to ask directly about what advanced coursework exists.

The housing market around Roscoe is notably more affordable than the New York state median, though home values have seen modest recent appreciation. The "Trout Town, USA" identity that publicly reported sources describe is not incidental to the school community: tourism and outdoor recreation drive the local economy, with fly-fishing shops, guide services, a resort operation, a brewery, and a distillery among the visible employers. The school district itself is one of the more substantial local public employers in a place where large industry is absent. Short Line buses connect the hamlet toward both Binghamton and New York City, but daily life here is car-oriented and rural. Population has trended down modestly over recent decades, and recent investment has leaned toward downtown beautification and hospitality rather than new residential growth.

A family drawn to a genuinely small, single-campus PK–12 school in a tight-knit rural community with access to the Catskill outdoors will find something here that larger districts cannot replicate. The elementary grades show real academic promise, while the middle school performance picture gives reason to ask questions before assuming the trajectory holds.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=80%Cohort of 17 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,253 schools plotted. 14 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

New York Regents Exams

4 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
Social Studies	27	81.0%
Ela	23	87.0%
Science	21	86.0%
Math	5	100.0%

Math

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 53%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 41%

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

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 9% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 34 pts below state median

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 36% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 44% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 56%

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

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 71%

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

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 36% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 18% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 28 pts below state median

Science

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 42%

even with state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 46% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median

This schoolROSCOE 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-income29%Higher-income63%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income44%Higher-income71%27 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income67%Higher-income75%8 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income20%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income40%Higher-income0%40 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income43%Higher-income63%20 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income56%Higher-income71%16 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income50%17 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income17%Higher-income40%23 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income40%Higher-income20%20 pp gap