Willink Middle School, Webster NY

Original Research by School Decision on Willink Middle School

Willink Middle School serves a suburban enrollment across grades six through eight in Webster, a growing community east of Rochester. The school sits in the Webster Central School District, a district of about eleven schools that recently secured voter approval for a major facilities renovation and improvement plan, with particular expansion of special education space at Willink itself.

The school's academic profile shows a mixed picture that warrants close attention to grade-level performance. In seventh grade, Willink's students demonstrate stronger proficiency, with solid results in both English language arts and math. However, proficiency drops notably in sixth and eighth grades, particularly in math, where fewer than half of eighth graders performed at proficiency. The eighth-grade science result was similarly below half. English language arts fared somewhat better across grades, but all three grades show room for growth. Relative to other districts in Monroe County, Willink's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint, a positioning that reflects uneven results within the school's three grade bands rather than uniform strength.

The participation rate for eighth-grade math and science testing was substantially lower than for sixth and seventh grades, which a parent may want to look into further with the school to understand whether this reflects absences, opt-outs, or other patterns.

Willink enrolls roughly nine hundred students, reflecting a fairly large middle school for its grade range. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller representations of Hispanic, Black, Asian, and multiracial students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. No data on special education or English learner populations was available. The school is hosting an expanded special education program through the district's recent capital investment, a detail relevant to families whose children may benefit from specialized instruction.

Webster itself is a suburban residential area with established neighborhoods, a historic village downtown that has recently become a focus of revitalization investment, and car-oriented retail and dining elsewhere across the town. Housing values have risen notably in recent years, and the market shows active inventory and growing demand. New residential construction is ongoing. The community is anchored by Xerox's manufacturing headquarters and has attracted recent major private investment in food production. Property affordability is moderate relative to national benchmarks, with rental costs lower than mortgage obligations on typical homes.

The district has made deliberate shifts in reading instruction, implementing a structured literacy approach for students with dyslexia and learning disabilities, a change that touches instruction across the system. For families considering Willink, the combination of an above-average peer context, ongoing facilities improvements, and specific attention to struggling readers offers foundation, though the uneven grade-level test results suggest looking closely at how each specific grade level functions and what supports are available.

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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	129	98.0%

Math

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 55%

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

Grade 785%

School 85% · District 83% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 39 pts above county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 54% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 44 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 61% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Grade 771%

School 71% · District 66% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 63% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 51% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 896%

School 96% · district not reported

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

This schoolWEBSTER 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 6Lower-income51%Higher-income66%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income49%Higher-income78%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income50%Higher-income66%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income43%Higher-income61%18 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income68%Higher-income90%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income42%Higher-income54%12 pp gap