Garden City or Manhasset? (New York, Hempstead: to buy, school district, college)

[twingles]

I am borrowing my wifes log in to post about comparing the commute from the Garden City line compared to the Port Washington line. I have lived in both areas and commuted from both. First, the mutliple train stations and having 2 different train lines is never a disadvantage. Miss a train to the Stewart Manor, Nassau Blvd., or Garden City stations and you can catch a train on the other line to New Hyde Park, Merrillon Ave., or Mineola. And the schedule somewhat coordinates intself so that your wait time is no longer than for a Manhasset train if you live there. If you do not like changing at Jamaica, use the Mineola line because they have more direct trains. Second, more station options means more people can walk to the train regardless of where they buy a house in town. That is not true in Manhasset. Parking stinks, and there a lot of places you cannot walk from. Third, the 2 train lines are a huge advantage off peak if you ever have the need to go in to or come back from the city on weekends or during off peak hours. Fourth, the Manhasset line, while direct, has more stops. When I commuted from Port Washington, that line seemed to get delayed quite often and backed up as you approached Manhasset. I did not consider that commute a more favorable commute.

Lots of other reasons to pick one town over the other. Diversity, size, etc. And one other thing about garden city and to a lesser degree manhasset. SAt scores are certainly important but they don't seem considerably different to me to sway people from one to another. A lot of people choose to move to Garden City because of the success, depth and scope of its athletic programs. Not saying it should be as important as test scores but to a lot of people it is. Certainly to enough people to negate any test score differences.

All are nice towns.

[azzurrony]

Mr. Twingles,

Thanks for the response. I agree with all of your points. For people that prefer to walk to the train, GC can't be beat. When A.T. Stewart and his family helped plan GC, they wanted it to be a suburb where their employees could easily commute from. That's why the Central Railroad of LI (which later became the LIRR) has five separate stops in GC plus Mineola which is right on the border.

[WJFM]

Using SAT scores to measure school district performance has another problem. High SAT scores result from focused external coaching classes and not from school academics. Places like Scarsdale have kids that attend 4 different SAT coaching centers and 50 different tests that can add more points to their score.

I have family in Westchester, and I have seen the people spend thousands on SAT coaching. I assume the same is true for the high end districts in LI too. It is one statistic that says something about school demographics, but should not be used as the end-all performance metric for a school district.

Originally Posted by CoolaTroopa

I'd personally pick Manhasset. Both are nice areas though.
My reasoning is as simple as the fact that Manhasset is closer to the Long Island Sound.

There are many flaws to the SAT results by the way.
#1: Not all the students take the SATs. I think Bellport has an above-average SAT average by the way but not a high percentage of students take the exam.
#2: I don't know what's up with South Side's result but I know South Side has a class of ~300 and they only have 108.. instinct tells me its SAT average is way higher than 977.. way higher! I read elsewhere it's closer to ~1080 (Gilligan). Rockville Centre not only has one of the best school districts on Long Island- it also is in one of the wealthier areas. Two reasons which put these SAT scores in doubt.. unless, these rich kids aren't getting test prep or are just much worse test takers than those in Garden City/Syosset/Jericho/Wheatley etc....then damn, I'd tell everyone in Rockville Centre to move to Oceanside, Wantagh, and Bellmore.. places with much higher averages but 'worse schools'. *rolleyes*. I can see it now- front page of Newsday.

"VILLAGE OF OCEANSIDE DESPERATELY TRIES TO KEEP THOSE ROCK-BRAINED NIMRODS FROM ROCKVILLE CENTRE OUT"
...
Letter to Editor
"Oceanside is a hamlet, not a village.. how could you be so dumb?"

[azzurrony]

WJFM,

I think you bring up a great point. Recently, the GC Superindendant was criticized because GC does not have an SAT prep class as part of its curriculum. Apparently, a few other schools in LI and Westchester do.

It's gotten so bad that now people are advocating that we have time allotted in the school day for students to learn how to take a standardized test. Those classes are nothing more than tips and tricks on trying to maximize your score.

Is this really what we want in our school curriculum? I personally don't. I think these prep courses are best left as elective courses taking outside of school.

[WJFM]

If most students in your district do take these courses outside, why not bring them in as an elective in for senior year students.

[RiddleMeThis]

Originally Posted by WJFM

If most students in your district do take these courses outside, why not bring them in as an elective in for senior year students.

Sure, let's hire another teacher. That doesn't cost anything.

[WJFM]

If its going to improve the chances of students getting into the colleges of their choice, why not. Test-taking is a necessary evil in today's society, I do not see anything wrong in getting students acquainted with the art of test-taking by spending something like 1 hour a week on strategies for SAT etc.

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by WJFM

If its going to improve the chances of students getting into the colleges of their choice, why not.

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Only if some other teaching position is terminated simultaneously to adding this new additional teaching position.
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[Dorothy Habben]

The SAT argument omits the important point that it measures the scores ONLY of students taking the exam who go to the public schools in the district. Old Westbury is one of the most affluent areas on Long Island, perhaps in the nation. Most students go to private schools. And the SAT scores of the Westbury School District, which encompasses most of Old Westbury, are quite low. Does that say Old Westbury is undesirable? Does the fact that many Manhasset kids go to St. Mary's and many Garden City kids go to Chaminade or Sacred Heart impact the SAT scores? Undoubtedly! And we don't even know whether it raises or lowers them! SAT scores are a single measure, one that, not so incidentally, many colleges and universities have begun to discount as true predictors of success.

[hotkarl]

Oh how I miss the 1950's...
even though I wasn't around then.
Life was good.