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If you had an hour of school board time for WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, what would you bring up?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
743
Combined
DISTRICT 447 · STATE 544
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·BUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 360585000381
WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
95 FOURTH ST, BUFFALO, NY 14202 · (716) 816-3900 · Erie County
GRADES PK–09COMBINED11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL743 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
12.1:1
61 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 9.4:1 · STATE 8.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
96%
711 students
DISTRICT 88% · STATE 58%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other combined schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 59 | 8% |
| Kindergarten | 60 | 8% |
| Grade 1 | 55 | 7% |
| Grade 2 | 57 | 8% |
| Grade 3 | 72 | 10% |
| Grade 4 | 91 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 88 | 12% |
| Grade 6 | 82 | 11% |
| Grade 7 | 99 | 13% |
| Grade 8 | 78 | 10% |
| Grade 9 | 1 | 0% |
| Ungraded | 1 | 0% |
This year's kindergarten class (60) is 23% smaller than its 8th grade class (78).
Student demographics
69%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 73% · 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
26.0%
NY avg 58.3% . -3.0pp since 2023
Math
22.2%
NY avg 57.4% . -2.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the NYS Assessments, New York's statewide test, about 26 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 22 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all New York schools, those numbers are about 58 and 57. Reading and writing scores are down about 3 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 2 points.
NYS Assessments results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 26.0% | 22.2% |
| 2023-24 | 29.0% | 24.5% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
26.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
39.8%
based on NY schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-13.0pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 27% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 40% typical for New York schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among New York's top nor bottom 10%.
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 WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's state test result (26.8% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL this school | 743 | 95.7% | 26.8% |
| CITIZENSHIP AND SCIENCE ACADEMY OF SYRACUSE CHARTER SCHOOL SYRACUSE | 764 | 82.1% | 22.0% |
| RENAISSANCE CHARTER SCHOOL 2 (THE) ELMHURST | 830 | 85.7% | 48.2% |
| MICHAEL J PETRIDES SCHOOL (THE) STATEN ISLAND | 1,423 | 67.8% | 58.6% |
| HUDSON HIGH SCHOOL HUDSON | 493 | 62.1% | 53.3% |
| SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL - BED STUY 1 BROOKLYN | 919 | 68.8% | 92.0% |
Matched among New York K-12 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 WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks
Among K-12 schools| Measure | This school | In New York | In Erie County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 26.8% | #99 of 101 | N/A |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 22.2% | #99 of 101 ▼ 1 | N/A |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 26.0% | #99 of 101 ▼ 1 | N/A |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 743 | #19 of 192 | #1 of 6 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.1:1 | #131 of 146 | N/A |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 69.3% | #19 of 152 | N/A |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 95.7% | #5 of 136 | N/A |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -13.6% | #47 of 95 | N/A |
Ranked against other public K-12 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
743
-49 (-6%) vs 2020
-21% since 1990-91, when it was 943
Student : Teacher
12.1:1
was 13.4:1
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 | 743 | 61.3 | 12.1:1 | 96% (711) |
| 2023-24 | 771 | 68.4 | 11.3:1 | 95% (735) |
| 2022-23 | 761 | 68 | 11.2:1 | 93% (711) |
| 2020-21 | 792 | 59 | 13.4:1 | 86% (685) |
| 2017-18 | 860 | 60.6 | 14.2:1 | 82% (706) |
| 2015-16 | 866 | 59 | 14.7:1 | 78% (675) |
| 2010-11 | 915 | 58 | 15.8:1 | 88% (805) |
| 2000-01 | 867 | 53 | 16.4:1 | 74% (642) |
| 1990-91 | 943 | 52 | 18.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
About WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a medium-sized combined-grade school that serves part of BUFFALO, New York. Enrollment in 2024-25 was 743 students in pre-K through 9. Against the 544-student average for combined schools in New York, enrollment here is 37% higher.
Federal data list 61 schools in BUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, with 29,425 students enrolled.
Federal enrollment data show Black students as the largest group at WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, at 44%. Enrollment also includes 29% Asian, 15% Hispanic, 9% White, and 3% multiracial. Among people living in Erie County, the Black share is about 13%. WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's diversity index is 69%, against a US figure of 70%.
The school has about 12.1 students per teacher and 61.3 full-time-equivalent teachers. This ratio sits 3.4 above the 8.7:1 average for combined schools in New York. Federal records put free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at 96%. The 51% average for public schools in Erie County is 45 points lower.
Based on student poverty, the model expects 39.8% at WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL; the school's average proficiency rate on state tests is 26.8%.
According to the American Community Survey, in Erie County, the median household income is $72,839, roughly 38% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 9%. There are 226 public schools in Erie County, enrolling about 122,519 students in all.
The closest public school to WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is HUTCHINSON CENTRAL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL, about 0.4 miles away. WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL comes in 5th of 8 nearby schools on average proficiency.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Large. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
Enrollment is down 6% from 2020-21, when WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL had 792 students, to 2024-25, when it had 743. The ratio of students to teachers went from 13.4:1 to 12.1:1 over the same years.
If you have questions about school safety, transportation, and start times at WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, you can post them here. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Erie County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
950,622
Census ACS
Median income
$72,839
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
38%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
9%
Below federal line
Schools in county
226
122,519 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in BUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
- HUTCHINSON CENTRAL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,140 students
- CITY HONORS SCHOOLHigh · 1,088 students
- INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLElementary · 933 students
- FREDERICK OLMSTED #156High · 928 students
- MCKINLEY VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 862 students
- SOUTH PARK HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 801 students
Other schools in BUFFALO
- CHARTER SCHOOL FOR APPLIED TECHNOLOGIESCombined · 2,260 students
- KENMORE WEST SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,235 students
- HUTCHINSON CENTRAL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,140 students
- TAPESTRY CHARTER SCHOOLCombined · 1,120 students
- CITY HONORS SCHOOLHigh · 1,088 students
- INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLElementary · 933 students
Nearby schools
- HUTCHINSON CENTRAL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL0.4 mi · 1,140
- BUFFALO SCHOOL OF CULINARY ARTS AND HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT0.4 mi · 436
- PS 42 OCCUPATIONAL TRAINING CENTER0.4 mi · 69
- EMERSON SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY0.5 mi · 399
- HERMAN BADILLO BILINGUAL ACADEMY0.6 mi · 514
- ENTERPRISE CHARTER SCHOOL0.8 mi · 402
Frequently asked questions
About WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHow large is WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enrolls approximately 743 students in grades PK-09.
Is WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL an elementary, middle, or high school?
WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a combined-grade school covering grades PK-09.
How many teachers does WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL have?
WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL employs 61 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.1:1.
What is the student diversity at WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
Student demographics at WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL are roughly 9% White, 15% Hispanic, 44% Black, 29% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Is WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL public or private?
WATERFRONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a public K-12 school, overseen by BUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.