Ed Smith School Info

About Ed Smith School

Edward Smith School on the East Side of the Syracuse City School District serves about 750 students in Kindergarten through 8th grade, and about 36 children in its two full-day pre-Kindergarten classrooms.

Over the decades, Ed Smith School earned a national reputation as an innovative pioneer in inclusive education. Ed Smith remains committed to providing a quality education to all students, drawing on highly experienced staff and teachers, not only in Special Education and elementary education, but also in Art, Music, Physical Education, and English as a New Language. The middle school has teachers certified in English, Social Studies, Math/Algebra, Science/Living Environment, Spanish, Design and Modeling, Technology, and Family and Consumer Science.

Ed Smith has a long tradition of teaching children about issues of social justice, and service learning remains a priority at every grade level. For instance, Kindergarteners have made sandwiches and place mats for the Samaritan Center and 6th graders have written cards for children affected by gun violence.

Thanks to several federal grants, Ed Smith families currently have access to an on-site, free-of-charge morning care and after-school program that operates four days a week from mid-October through May, and all SCSD children are eligible to receive free breakfast and lunch at school, regardless of household income.

Ed Smith benefits from its proximity to and collaboration with the Syracuse University School of Education through professional development opportunities, teacher interns, and special grant-funded initiatives enhancing classroom instruction. Like all public schools in New York State, it adheres to the Common Core curriculum and measures learning progress through periodic Star and ANet tests as well as annual NYS Assessments in ELA and Math in grades 3-8 and in Science in grades 4 and 8.

School and District Resources

Mural of Ed Smith School along the cafeteria wall
Four students with their arms around each other