By Mark Scott
Albany, NY – Eight Buffalo schools are on a state Education Department list of "High Performing-Gap Closing" schools.
Six schools in the Buffalo Public School District and two city charter schools are being recognized for meeting or exceeding all applicable state standards in Math and English during the 2005-2006 school year while making adequate progress the two previous years. They are the Olmsted Schools 56 and 64, the Discovery School, City Honors, Hutch Tech and Leonardo DiVinci. The charter schools are Tapestry and Westminster Community.
Meanwhile, Public School 81 and South Buffalo Charter and the Charter School for Applied Technologies are on a list of rapidly improving schools.
Education Commissioner Richard Mills said the number of schools showing improvement and closing the achievement gap greatly increased from the previous year. He said it's a positive sign.
A number of suburban school districts are also on both lists.
They're available at the State Education Department web site.