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Lived in both districts. Connetquot gets for special ed.
Sachem is bigger and with my son out of special ed and in elem school now I cant complain.
Connetquot taxes are definately higher and suffers from the Ronk end of the district bringing down the Oakdale Bohemia, little bit of W. Sayville and little bit of Sayville side.
Sachem and Connetquot demographics are very similar, and there are "Ronkompton" areas that go to both Sachem and Connetquot. Overall having lived in the proximity to both areas since I was born, I'd take Connetquot over Sachem.
Sachem and Connetquot demographics are very similar, and there are "Ronkompton" areas that go to both Sachem and Connetquot. Overall having lived in the proximity to both areas since I was born, I'd take Connetquot over Sachem.
I would agree with you if my son continued to need special ed.
Things seem equal otherwise. I couldnt find a house I could afford in '07 in Bohemia.
Our new Supt @ RP (also =7)comes from Connectquot.
You can't rely too much on the Greatschools ratings, especially the District ones, as they do not look at all aspects (only Math, English, and Science tests) and the high schools on Long Island are not even rated (they say N/A). For a brief time they did have ratings that were eventually removed. And those ratings were bogus - Centereach High School got a 4 - and the reason was because they included in the results of a Math A Regents exam that was getting phased out that was only taken by 44 students (and they did not weight it based on the number of students that took the test) - since this test only had a 64% pass rate (again, 44 students took the test), it brought the overall score down significantly. Plus, the district score is not as important as your school's individual scores, especially for the larger districts like Sachem and Connectquot.
And, here's how Greatschools calculates the District rating - which means that the ratings you see totally exclude the high schools:
"District Ratings are calculated by taking the Overall Rating for each school in the district and weighting it by the number of students enrolled at the school. We then take the average of the weighted ratings."
The way you can better understand how a school performs is to look in detail at the reports on http://nystart.gov and slice and dice the data. For example, if your child is not special needs, then you want to look at the General Education scores which are different than the overall scores (that show Special Ed). And, you need to visit the school and take a tour, if you really want to understand how the school operates.
You can't rely too much on the Greatschools ratings, especially the District ones, as they do not look at all aspects (only Math, English, and Science tests) and the high schools on Long Island are not even rated (they say N/A). For a brief time they did have ratings that were eventually removed. And those ratings were bogus - Centereach High School got a 4 - and the reason was because they included in the results of a Math A Regents exam that was getting phased out that was only taken by 44 students (and they did not weight it based on the number of students that took the test) - since this test only had a 64% pass rate (again, 44 students took the test), it brought the overall score down significantly. Plus, the district score is not as important as your school's individual scores, especially for the larger districts like Sachem and Connectquot.
And, here's how Greatschools calculates the District rating - which means that the ratings you see totally exclude the high schools:
"District Ratings are calculated by taking the Overall Rating for each school in the district and weighting it by the number of students enrolled at the school. We then take the average of the weighted ratings."
The way you can better understand how a school performs is to look in detail at the reports on http://nystart.gov and slice and dice the data. For example, if your child is not special needs, then you want to look at the General Education scores which are different than the overall scores (that show Special Ed). And, you need to visit the school and take a tour, if you really want to understand how the school operates.
BTW, Middle Country also gets a 7 as well.
If you drill in at the school level GS shows it all too.
That sounds about right. I would expect Middle Country to be 7 but I wouldnt expect to see Newfield high on the State Needs Improvement list.
Like I said the schools were never considered bad until this recent event.Im sure they'll get it corrected.
Good point about Special Needs.
RP is outstanding (best in NE Brookhaven)and Ive heard the same of Sachem.
(its just a little tougher to navigate due to its size)
Nice to hear good things about Connectquot too.
I dont think GS take on the SDs is too far from reality.
Last edited by Crookhaven; 12-29-2010 at 03:01 PM..
Sachem SD is huge, I think it takes more effort on the part of a big SD to maintain its level of education/rating/ranking whatever.... which means that its able to muster the resources more easily compared to smaller districts.
Having said that, I really do not see much difference between Sachem and Connetquot, atleast not enough to say that I will not buy or buy a house in any one of them. There are good and bad areas in both SD's and that is probably the primary reason why the elementary and middle school ratings vary within districts, especially Sachem where they have so many of them. I personally think Sachem is a great value for first time home owners with small kids or couples expecting to raise a family because some of the elementary and all middle schools are almost at par with the best in other premium SD's.
Anyway, agree with NYSTART as another place where you can get some data that you can interpret as you like. Greatschools does a decent job too IMO.
For the years 2008 and 2009 here are the 4 yr college hopeful percentages....
I am not going to interpret this as a huge advantage at all. Ok the bottom line is that both SD's are above average on LI and are pretty even, its not like one is ranked way above the other. I cannot comment on services for special ed though, sorry. Sachem property taxes are low giving you a better bang for your buck.
John910's post to Crookhaven suggest he knew something more about the district. I was calling him on it.
I went to sachem schools. They were good. About on par with the surrounding districts.
Question for Crookhaven: Why are you hell bent on choosing Sachem North over Sachem East? This clearly shows me that you are clueless about sachem schools if it is for the reason I am thinking of.
Sachem SD is huge, I think it takes more effort on the part of a big SD to maintain its level of education/rating/ranking whatever.... which means that its able to muster the resources more easily compared to smaller districts.
Having said that, I really do not see much difference between Sachem and Connetquot, atleast not enough to say that I will not buy or buy a house in any one of them. There are good and bad areas in both SD's and that is probably the primary reason why the elementary and middle school ratings vary within districts, especially Sachem where they have so many of them. I personally think Sachem is a great value for first time home owners with small kids or couples expecting to raise a family because some of the elementary and all middle schools are almost at par with the best in other premium SD's.
Anyway, agree with NYSTART as another place where you can get some data that you can interpret as you like. Greatschools does a decent job too IMO.
For the years 2008 and 2009 here are the 4 yr college hopeful percentages....
I am not going to interpret this as a huge advantage at all. Ok the bottom line is that both SD's are above average on LI and are pretty even, its not like one is ranked way above the other. I cannot comment on services for special ed though, sorry. Sachem property taxes are low giving you a better bang for your buck.
I went to sachem schools. They were good. About on par with the surrounding districts.
Question for Crookhaven: Why are you hell bent on choosing Sachem North over Sachem East? This clearly shows me that you are clueless about sachem schools if it is for the reason I am thinking of.
Ive actually been rather complementary.I'm no so much hell bent on the School, like I said the District is fine.I'm hell bent on the Area and I believe rightly so given the state of flux in parts of Farmingville and Ronkonkoma.A simple Google search is all you need to see which communities youd be smarter and safer to invest in long term.It is what it is.
As for Sachem overall I believe its a very good large district that delivers quality services for less, I know many who teach there and they are all excellent.Suffolk county could learn plenty from them
Ive actually been rather complementary.I'm no so much hell bent on the School, like I said the District is fine.I'm hell bent on the Area and I believe rightly so given the state of flux in parts of Farmingville and Ronkonkoma.A simple Google search is all you need to see which communities youd be smarter and safer to invest in long term.It is what it is.
As for Sachem overall I believe its a very good large district that delivers quality services for less, I know many who teach there and they are all excellent.Suffolk county could learn plenty from them
JM2C
Crooks
East covers more than Farmingville (where I live, and is actually not a bad area at all), and only a tiny sliver of Ronkonkoma (where I used to live, which has an awful reputation on this forum for some unknown reason to me).
Now, for example, why is living in the section of Holbrook that goes to Sachem North is better than living in the section that goes to Sachem East.
You can't rely too much on the Greatschools ratings, especially the District ones, as they do not look at all aspects (only Math, English, and Science tests) and the high schools on Long Island are not even rated (they say N/A). For a brief time they did have ratings that were eventually removed. And those ratings were bogus - Centereach High School got a 4 - and the reason was because they included in the results of a Math A Regents exam that was getting phased out that was only taken by 44 students (and they did not weight it based on the number of students that took the test) - since this test only had a 64% pass rate (again, 44 students took the test), it brought the overall score down significantly. Plus, the district score is not as important as your school's individual scores, especially for the larger districts like Sachem and Connectquot.
And, here's how Greatschools calculates the District rating - which means that the ratings you see totally exclude the high schools:
"District Ratings are calculated by taking the Overall Rating for each school in the district and weighting it by the number of students enrolled at the school. We then take the average of the weighted ratings."
The way you can better understand how a school performs is to look in detail at the reports on http://nystart.gov and slice and dice the data. For example, if your child is not special needs, then you want to look at the General Education scores which are different than the overall scores (that show Special Ed). And, you need to visit the school and take a tour, if you really want to understand how the school operates.
BTW, Middle Country also gets a 7 as well.
EXCELLENT POST
I cringe every time I see a district slighted or validated because of it's ridiculous Greatschools.net rating. That website is a fine resource for what it is, but like villager-li so astutely pointed out, it's rating system is essentially meaningless and not compatible with most (if any) LI school districts.
If you put any stock in academic performance as an indicator of overall quality, the only place you EVER need to look is the nystart.org site mentioned above. This is where every single other website, publication, etc. compiles their data from and you can view it in the most detailed form possible, with records going back several years. Throw everything else you've ever looked at in the trash: Newsday, Greatschools, the billions of realtor websites, US News, NY Times....all nonsense. Especially the NY Times (which uses only elementary data....a notoriously poor indicator) and Newsday's absurd "Schools in Need of Improvement" list, which focuses little on academics and mostly on whether a school has appropriate handicapped accessible bathrooms.
Great point on keeping an eye towards General vs. Special Ed statistics as well....there is a big disparity at some schools.
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for special ed.
