Despite the many challenges schools and students navigated during the past school year, Duanesburg continued to rank high — 21st out of 84 area schools — in the Albany Business Review’s annual schools report. Because Common Core and Regents tests were canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the publication’s rankings for 2019-20 are a compilation of English, math, science, social studies scores and graduation rates from the past five years.
The Albany Business Review bases school district performance on data released by the New York State Education Department. All kindergarten through 12th grade districts in the 11-county greater Capital Region are included. Duanesburg’s ranking was higher than all districts in Schoharie and Schenectady counties, the two counties the district straddles, with the — exception of the large suburban district Niskayuna. DCS also ranked in the middle of the pack in terms of cost per pupil 42nd of 90 area schools, and in the bottom quarter (66 out of 87) in terms of pay for its superintendent.
“It is gratifying to have the Albany Business Review tell us what we know to be true about our effort to provide an exceptional educational experience for our students,” said Superintendent James Niedermeier. “The fact that we are able to do this in a fiscally responsible way is also very important.”