Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School
501 Genesee Street, Rochester, NY, 14611-3699 -  Map
School Overview:
Definition of Terms
Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School
School Level High school
School Type Magnet School
Grades Offered Grades 7 - 12
County Monroe County, NY
Students & Faculty
Total Students 1930 students
% Male / % Female 49%  /  51%
Total Classroom Teachers 165 teachers
Students by Grade
Grade 7 - 470 students
Grade 8 - 357 students
Grade 9 - 303 students
Grade 10 - 310 students
Grade 11 - 226 students
Grade 12 - 264 students
This School
(NY) School Average
Teacher : Student Ratio 1:12 1:14
Students by Ethnicity
This School
(NY) School Average
% American Indian n/a n/a
% Asian 3% 6%
% Hispanic 7% 17%
% Black 82% 19%
% White 8% 55%
Additional Student Information
This School
(NY) School Average
% Eligible for Free Lunch 55% 28%
% Eligible for Reduced Lunch 10% 6%
% Migrant Students Enrolled n/a n/a
School Performance:
(NY) Statewide Testing Performance
School Statewide Performance View Education Department Test Scores
School District:
School District Name Rochester City School District
This School's Agency
(NY) District Average
Number of Schools Managed 60 4
Number of Students Managed 36,472 students 2,265 students
District Total Revenue $583,593,000 $31,819,000
District Expenditure $555,539,000 $31,869,000
District Revenue / Student $16,001 $14,048
District Expenditure / Student $15,232 $14,070
District Graduation Rates 49% 97%
In the News:
View all past news stories
School Notes:
  • Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School, sometimes referred to as Wilson Magnet or just Wilson, is a high school in Rochester, New York. It is in the Rochester City School District. It is consistently rated among the top high schools in the United States; it was ranked #24 on the 2006 version of Newsweek's Top 1200 U.S. high schools. 87% of its teachers have Master's degrees. It has offered a large variety of AP courses for many years, and has recently also offered a number of IB courses. Among the AP courses it has offered are Latin BC (2nd year AP Latin), Calculus BC (2nd year AP Calculus), and Physics BC (2nd year AP Physics); it currently offers 15 AP courses. It also offers courses such as first and second year Japanese, a post-AP computer science class, photography, astronomy, and a marine biology mini-class, which is based around an annual marine biology laboratory field trip to the Bahamas. 83% of its alumni go on to college, including to Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, MIT, and Stanford.
  • History: Wilson began as West High School in 1905 on what was then the edge of Rochester. It was renamed the Joseph C. Wilson Junior High School in 1972, in honor of Joseph C. Wilson, founder of Xerox Corporation, a longtime pillar of the Rochester economy.
  • During the 1970's, Wilson became plagued with a poor academic record, a high suspension rate, high teacher turnover, and the lowest attendance in the district. In an effort to turn the school around Wilson was converted into a "magnet school" in 1980 with a School of Performing Arts, an "Academy of Excellence" focusing on the Humanities, and the Academy of Science and Technology. School of Performing Arts was later moved to its own wing of Monroe High School, and the Academy of Excellence has also since been dropped, leaving the focus now solidly on the Academy of Science and Technology.
  • By 1985 the school was named one of the 10 best senior high schools in New York. In 1998 it was in the top 1.5 percent of high schools in the nation based on percentage of enrollment taking AP exams.
  • In May 1989, four months after taking office, as part of his campaign to be known as "the education president", President George Bush visited Wilson for an hour, praising the school. "You are an example for the entire world," Bush told students. Wilson was chosen because of its national reputation as an urban school, which had become academically excellent through the help of private industry. The Secret Service had arrived at Wilson two weeks ahead of Bush, and spent that time covering many of the windows with black tape, installing metal detectors, and making other security precautions. Ironically, Bush's visit to promote education overlapped with and disrupted the AP Physics exam.
  • Twenty Wilson 9th-10th. graders and 20 Xerox Corp. engineers met with President Bush at the White House in 1992 to celebrate their victory in the U.S. FIRST Design Engineering Competition and to receive the Chairman's Award for most outstanding partnership between a high school and its mentor company. Another major Rochester-based corporation, XEROX, has also been actively involved with Wilson, organizing and funding a robotics club the X-Cats with senior engineers volunteering their time.
  • In 2000, Wilson became one of only 270 U.S. high schools approved to offer International Baccalaureate (IB) classes.
  • Willie the Wildcat became the school mascot when Wilson became a high school. The student body voted on black and white with a red accent for the school colors and The Wildcat as the mascot.
  • Diversity: Wilson Magnet has a strong diversity of backgrounds among its students and faculty. The majority of the students are African American; there is also strong representation by Caucasians, Hispanics (many from Puerto Rico), and Asians, including significant representation from Vietnam and Laos, and a significant number with a mixed ancestry background.
  • Sports: Wilson has traditionally had a very competitive basketball team, and solid teams in football, soccer, and swimming. It has a popular ski club, and it started a golf team in 1989.
  • Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL
  • Add information about this school (e.g., awards, news stories, notable alumni, fun facts)
 
School Zip Code:
About This Zip Code (14611)
School Zip (14611)
(NY) State Average
Population (Approximate) 19,774 people 18,208,943 people
% (age 25+) w/College Degree 15% 32%
Population Average Age 29 years old 34 years old
Average Household size 2.6 persons 2.6 persons
Median Household Income $20,582 $41,761
Avg. # of Rooms in Household 5.4 rooms 4.6 rooms
Median Age of Housing Structure 70 years old 56 years old
View current housing listings in this area
Median Value of Housing Unit
Zipcode (14611)



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% Owning / % Renting 38% / 62% 42% / 58%
School Map:
1. Preschool-parent Prog - n/a - 0.6 mi. away - view location
2. Thomas Jefferson MiddleSchool - 1015 students - 1.2 mi. away - view location
3. Alternative Educ Center At Lofton - 279 students - 1.3 mi. away - view location
4. Finger Lakes Ddso High School - 6 students - 1.4 mi. away - view location
5. Linden St Group Home - n/a - 1.4 mi. away - view location
View all schools in: Rochester, Monroe County, Zip 14611 
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Note: Data has been gathered from several government and commercial data sources. School data reflects 2006 statistics (most recent year available).


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