NCES CCD 2024-25 9 schools NY

Best-Resourced Schools in Watertown, NY

Compiled from official source data by .

9 public K-12 schools in Watertown from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
9
Schools
4,207
Students
32.4/100
Avg Resource Index
12.3:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Lean reported-resource profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Watertown has more public-school enrollment than 47% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Watertown's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

6 of Watertown's 9 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 1 middle and 1 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

The composite and staffing measures point in different directions

Watertown's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 18th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 86th percentile. The 68-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.

City enrollment
Top 53%
School count
Top 46%
Resource Index average
18th percentile
Teacher staffing
86th percentile

Watertown Senior High School accounts for 28.1% of all Watertown public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Watertown-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Watertown school enrollment varies 7.7× across entities

Watertown school enrollment ranges from 153 students (lowest) to 1,181 students (highest), a spread of 1,028 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Watertown reports 64.6% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Watertown student-teacher ratio is 12.3:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Jefferson-Lewis-Hamilton-Herkimer-Oneida Boces 59
2. Starbuck Elementary School 38
3. Watertown Senior High School 30
4. Case Middle School 30
5. Ohio Street School 29
6. Harold T Wiley School 28
7. Knickerbocker School 28
8. Sherman School 27
9. North Elementary School 23

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Watertown

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Starbuck Elementary School 59.5/100
  2. 2 Ohio Street School 55.7/100
  3. 3 North Elementary School 53.3/100
  4. 4 Case Middle School 52.0/100
  5. 5 Harold T Wiley School 50.9/100

What do families ask about schools in Watertown?

Which Watertown school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Jefferson-Lewis-Hamilton-Herkimer-Oneida Boces has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Watertown schools in this federal-data comparison at 59/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Watertown, NY? ▼

Watertown has 9 public schools with a total enrollment of 4,207 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 12.3:1.

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Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.