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Best kept secret at GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
387
Elementary
DISTRICT 317 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 360246000016
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
274 S PEARL ST, ALBANY, NY 12202 · (518) 475-6650 · Albany County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL387 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 1% of New York public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded New York public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
12.4:1
31 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.0:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
82%
318 students
DISTRICT 67% · STATE 58%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 64 | 17% |
| Grade 1 | 41 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 51 | 13% |
| Grade 3 | 61 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 83 | 21% |
| Grade 5 | 87 | 22% |
This year's kindergarten class (64) is 26% smaller than its 5th grade class (87).
Student demographics
63%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 74% · STATE 72% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
NYS Assessments 2024-25 . % Proficient (Level 3 + Level 4)English Language Arts
21.0%
NY avg 58.3% . +8.0pp since 2023
Math
10.0%
NY avg 57.4% . -5.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the NYS Assessments, New York's statewide test, about 21 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 10 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New York schools, those numbers are about 58 and 57. Reading and writing scores are up about 8 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 5 points.
NYS Assessments results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 21.0% | 10.0% |
| 2023-24 | 13.0% | 15.0% |
% Proficient (Level 3 + Level 4), all students and all tested grades.
Source: NYS Assessments. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of NY schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
14.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
44.8%
based on NY schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-30.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 14% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 45% typical for New York schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's state test result (14.5% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL this school | 387 | 82.2% | 14.5% |
| SCHOOL 7-VIRGIL GRISSOM ROCHESTER | 486 | 81.1% | 14.9% |
| CITIZENSHIP AND SCIENCE ACADEMY OF ROCHESTER CHARTER SCHOOL ROCHESTER | 361 | 83.4% | 35.4% |
| BELLEVUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SYRACUSE | 415 | 79.8% | 8.8% |
| NIAGARA CHARTER SCHOOL NIAGARA FALLS | 342 | 83.0% | 57.9% |
| BRIGHTER CHOICE CHARTER SCHOOL FOR GIRLS ALBANY | 316 | 81.0% | 55.1% |
Matched among New York elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In New York | In Albany County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 14.5% | #2,299 of 2,335 | #46 of 46 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 10.0% | #2,328 of 2,342 ▼ 43 | #46 of 46 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 21.0% | #2,270 of 2,343 ▲ 14 | #45 of 46 ▲ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 387 | #1,437 of 2,585 | #19 of 47 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.4:1 | #1,422 of 2,338 | #25 of 46 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 63.3% | #544 of 2,388 | #18 of 46 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 82.2% | #701 of 2,534 | #8 of 47 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -24.7% | #445 of 1,757 | #6 of 31 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
387
-106 (-22%) vs 2020
-10% since 1990-91, when it was 429
Student : Teacher
12.4:1
was 13.7:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 387 | 31.2 | 12.4:1 | 82% (318) |
| 2023-24 | 406 | 32.4 | 12.5:1 | 83% (336) |
| 2022-23 | 404 | 30.6 | 13.2:1 | 93% (374) |
| 2020-21 | 493 | 36 | 13.7:1 | 87% (428) |
| 2017-18 | 514 | 41 | 12.5:1 | 61% (312) |
| 2015-16 | 499 | 36 | 13.9:1 | 78% (387) |
| 2010-11 | 453 | 44 | 10.3:1 | 92% (419) |
| 2000-01 | 615 | 47 | 13.1:1 | 94% (579) |
| 1990-91 | 429 | 26 | 16.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
About GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
The public elementary school GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is located in ALBANY, New York. It covers pre-K through 5, with a total enrollment of 387 students.
ALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT includes 16 schools. Together they enroll 8,509 students.
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's enrollment is 54% Black. Other groups include 25% Hispanic, 8% Asian, 6% White, and 6% multiracial. By comparison, Albany County residents are about 12% Black. The chance that two students picked at random at GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 63%.
Dividing enrollment by its 31.2 full-time-equivalent teachers gives a ratio of about 12.4:1. Across elementary schools in New York, the average ratio is about 12.8:1. Eligible students account for 82% of enrollment in the free or reduced-price lunch program. On average, public schools in Albany County report 45%.
The allk12 Grade for GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is F. Compared with New York public elementary schools, the school scored higher than 1% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL scores 30.3 points below its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests: 14.5% actual versus 44.8% predicted. That puts it in the bottom 10% of New York schools on BeatsExpectations.
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is located in Albany County, where median household income is about $85,333, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 46%, and about 8% of people live in poverty. GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of 75 public schools in Albany County, which together enroll about 39,946 students.
The next-closest public school is KIPP ALBANY COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL, about 0.6 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. On proficiency, GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is behind the 30.4% nearby average, ranking 8th of 8.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Mid-size. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
The student count in 2024-25 was 387, 22% below the 493 of 2020-21. The number of students per teacher fell from 13.7 to 12.4 over 4 years.
The allk12 site hosts a discussion page for GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL covering things like school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
Albany County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
317,018
Census ACS
Median income
$85,333
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
46%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
75
39,946 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in ALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
- ALBANY HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,937 students
- WILLIAM S HACKETT MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 615 students
- NORTH ALBANY ACADEMY MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 588 students
- STEPHEN AND HARRIET MYERS MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 570 students
- NEW SCOTLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLElementary · 451 students
- ALBANY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIESElementary · 378 students
Other schools in ALBANY
- ALBANY HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,937 students
- COLONIE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,640 students
- SAND CREEK MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 873 students
- KIPP TECH VALLEY CHARTER SCHOOLElementary · 840 students
- KIPP ALBANY COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOLElementary · 688 students
- LISHA KILL MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 640 students
Nearby schools
- KIPP ALBANY COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL0.6 mi · 688
- GREEN TECH HIGH CHARTER SCHOOL0.8 mi · 450
- THOMAS S O'BRIEN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY0.8 mi · 262
- WILLIAM S HACKETT MIDDLE SCHOOL0.9 mi · 615
- ALBANY LEADERSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL FOR GIRLS1.1 mi · 383
- DELAWARE COMMUNITY SCHOOL1.1 mi · 276
Frequently asked questions
About GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWhat is the total enrollment at GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enrolls approximately 387 students in grades PK-05.
Is GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL an elementary, middle, or high school?
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is an elementary school covering grades PK-05.
How many teachers does GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL have?
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL employs 31 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.4:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
At GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, the student body is approximately 6% White, 25% Hispanic, 54% Black, 8% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Is GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL public or private?
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a public K-12 school, overseen by ALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.