Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For such a wealthy and bucolic area, one would think the schools would be performing better. Even if you set aside average test scores, the district on any given year produces fewer presidential scholars, Intel/Siemens prize winners, National AP Scholars, etc. compared with Great Neck, Syosset, Roslyn, Herricks, etc. Seems like an underachieving/mediocre school system they have there. Why is this so?
In today's politically correct world this is not easy to answer but lookup the demographics of the students at Locust Valley compared to the other schools you listed. You will see that there is a very small percentage of asian students who typically perform very well in academics.
Yes too many Asians moving further out on the island due to NYC overcrowding and willing to pay sky high taxes for top notch education. I recently found out Jericho middle schoolers can "accelerate" starting from 7th grade. Meaning algebra 1 @ 7th -> geometry 8th -> algebra 2 @ 9th. Science too but forgot the order...They don't "track" and let students move ahead if they want by taking summer courses that end w/ regents exam. If you score 85 or higher you get bumped up to next level when school starts. I don't know of any other schools that do that... plus HS students can opt to NOT TAKE LUNCH and take another course all leading up to more AP classes I guess. I would not want to put that kind of pressure on my kid...but many tiger moms/dads want it for their kids.
Yes too many Asians moving further out on the island due to NYC overcrowding and willing to pay sky high taxes for top notch education. I recently found out Jericho middle schoolers can "accelerate" starting from 7th grade. Meaning algebra 1 @ 7th -> geometry 8th -> algebra 2 @ 9th. Science too but forgot the order...They don't "track" and let students move ahead if they want by taking summer courses that end w/ regents exam. If you score 85 or higher you get bumped up to next level when school starts. I don't know of any other schools that do that... plus HS students can opt to NOT TAKE LUNCH and take another course all leading up to more AP classes I guess. I would not want to put that kind of pressure on my kid...but many tiger moms/dads want it for their kids.
That is not unique to Jericho. Other districts have that as well, not just the ones with high-level reputations. Even Memorial JHS/Valley Stream Central offers that.
Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 25 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,219 posts, read 17,102,322 times
Reputation: 15538
Maybe because the bulk of the youth from this "wealthy and bucolic area" are attending private education options leaving the gardeners kids (so to speak) along with the regular locals to attend the schools.
That is not unique to Jericho. Other districts have that as well, not just the ones with high-level reputations. Even Memorial JHS/Valley Stream Central offers that.
Yeah I was about to say. Back when I went to school in Bushwick in the late 80s early 90s we were allowed to take high school regents math in 7th grade. In 8th grade we had earth science regents. So it's hardly unique anywhere. Though it was only about 5% or 20 or so kids in each grade being qualified enough to take it. Mind you it was also what most would consider a bad school. Even now with all the gentrification and homes reaching 7 figures the rating is only 4/10 with only 9% of 8th graders passing the non-regents exams.
Last edited by bumblebyz; 09-15-2017 at 09:44 PM..
Maybe because the bulk of the youth from this "wealthy and bucolic area" are attending private education options leaving the gardeners kids (so to speak) along with the regular locals to attend the schools.
Why arent more of the types who would excel in school and win academic awards not buying homes in locust valley, a very beautiful part of long island that is not too far away?
For such a wealthy and bucolic area, one would think the schools would be performing better. Even if you set aside average test scores, the district on any given year produces fewer presidential scholars, Intel/Siemens prize winners, National AP Scholars, etc. compared with Great Neck, Syosset, Roslyn, Herricks, etc. Seems like an underachieving/mediocre school system they have there. Why is this so?
Folks have long pointed to the performance of nearby Oyster Bay High School (consistently and thoroughly outperformed by Locust Valley BTW) and wondered why it too lags far behind its neighbors such as Syosset, Jericho and Cold Spring Harbor. And the same odd shortage of National Merit Finalists/Semifinalists, Intel/Siemens candidates and prize winners, National AP scholars, Presidential Scholar Candidates, etc.
In LV's case I think it is mostly explained by size and demographics as noted. And as also noted one cannot assume that most of the children living in those large homes in those bucolic sections actually attend the high school (Friends Academy is within the district's boundaries and other children may either attend Chaminade or boarding school). On the other hand it does do very well in certain rankings at certain times.
Oyster Bay District's performance (consistently and substantially below that of all of its neighbors including Locust Valley) may be even more shocking to those who drive through the wealthy and bucolic sections of Oyster Bay Cove. They'll have a National Merit Semifinalist/Finalist about once every five years at best (neighboring Syosset will have 20 a year). It seems to never do well in rankings anymore. A look at demographics (including free/reduced lunch program) and a realization of who actually attends the public school goes at least a small way towards an explanation in their case.
For such a wealthy and bucolic area, one would think the schools would be performing better. Even if you set aside average test scores, the district on any given year produces fewer presidential scholars, Intel/Siemens prize winners, National AP Scholars, etc. compared with Great Neck, Syosset, Roslyn, Herricks, etc. Seems like an underachieving/mediocre school system they have there. Why is this so?
Any chance high student achievement is primarily linked to personal effort, IQ, parental involvement, and peer competition? Where you have greater numbers of these higher performing students you have more of these particular academic accolades.
We could test this theory by sending kids with low personal effort, low IQ , parental disinterest and noncompetitive peers to a Roslyn, Syosset, Great Neck, Herricks, etc. Wouldn't necessarily need to be lacking in all four of these. And see how they do.
Then flip it and send the future Presidential Scholar with his/her strong work effort, IQ, interested parents and competitive peers to Locust Valley. He'll still get a perfect score in SAT/PSAT. They (Locust Valley) do get occasional NMF's and he/she'd be one.
My point is that the student population at Locust Valley may not resemble the student population at the other schools you mention. Not sure, in this case, I would blame the Locust Valley school system.
(there are a thousand reasons - including housing stock and price - for the difference in populations between the districts you mention and smaller LV but that is another rstory)
Last edited by Quick Commenter; 09-16-2017 at 08:17 AM..
Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 25 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,219 posts, read 17,102,322 times
Reputation: 15538
Quote:
Originally Posted by Forest_Hills_Daddy
Why arent more of the types who would excel in school and win academic awards not buying homes in locust valley, a very beautiful part of long island that is not too far away?
Perhaps a quick look on Zillow returns a list of homes that are well in excess of $1mil, maybe this upper end price point turns off buyers. Hard to know why...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
