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Hello,
I am beginning research on towns and school districts in Nassau and western Suffolk counties. I'm an educator in New York City at both the elementary and university levels, and a mother to a kindergarten aged child. I understand that ratings on school districts on websites like greatschools.org are based on test scores. To me, test scores aren't a great indicator of how well a school does, or more importantly, what a school has to offer.
I'd love some input as to what you love/dislike about your school district, from elementary through high school. I'm looking for things like:
-student performance, not only in terms of testing, but also graduation rates, college acceptance and attendance, etc.
-community feel & quality of life (i.e. parent involvement, the presence or lack of bullying, events held at school and attendance of such events, etc.)
-open-mindedness, progressive nature
We are primarily looking at communities like:
Port Washington
Northshore School District
Harborfields
Northport
Elwood
Half Hollow Hills
Sayville
Babylon
Rockville Centre
But we are open to hearing about other areas/communities/districts as well, as I'd love to have a broad picture.
Please indicate the town you live in, the school district you attend, and what you love, or what you don't love about the named district, across grade levels. :-)
Since you are an educator in NYC you probably already have an inkling that every district you listed are virtually identical with respect to what they offer. They all have language classes starting somewhere in elementary, it might vary a bit from kindergarten to 3rd grade. They all have band and orchestra, again starting in elementary. They all have AP, North Shore offers IB (which is a disaster). They all have the same EC's - robotics, mock trial, etc.... You can guess the rest!
What is most important to you from your list of 11 factors?
If college admissions is at the top, then that's easy! Jericho, Manhassett and Great Neck are the top three - all others on your list are indistinguishable regarding college placement.
Hello,
I am beginning research on towns and school districts in Nassau and western Suffolk counties. I'm an educator in New York City at both the elementary and university levels, and a mother to a kindergarten aged child. I understand that ratings on school districts on websites like greatschools.org are based on test scores. To me, test scores aren't a great indicator of how well a school does, or more importantly, what a school has to offer.
I'd love some input as to what you love/dislike about your school district, from elementary through high school. I'm looking for things like:
-student performance, not only in terms of testing, but also graduation rates, college acceptance and attendance, etc.
-community feel & quality of life (i.e. parent involvement, the presence or lack of bullying, events held at school and attendance of such events, etc.)
-open-mindedness, progressive nature
We are primarily looking at communities like:
Port Washington
Northshore School District
Harborfields
Northport
Elwood
Half Hollow Hills
Sayville
Babylon
Rockville Centre
But we are open to hearing about other areas/communities/districts as well, as I'd love to have a broad picture.
Please indicate the town you live in, the school district you attend, and what you love, or what you don't love about the named district, across grade levels. :-)
Thank you for sharing!!
What you don't want my bank account number? You are all over the map in terms of communities that you are looking at. Why not focus on narrowing that down first, as they are in some cases as different as night and day. Then come back with some school districts to inquire about.
As an educator, you should know the value of limiting the scope of questions. You can always ask more questions, but like children there is only so much, someone is going to answer. The more you hone it down, the better the quality of the response that you will get.
Many of these areas are subjective and many others can be answered by just reading the individual district website. However, it might take a while to read up on your broad band of possibilities. Maybe the better way to proceed would be for you to study up on each and then ask specific questions. For example, I have researched and found out that school district A has a foreign language requirement as does school district B, however, School B has foreign language immersion at an earlier grade level than School A and School district C has no immersion at all. How important do you feel that aspect is in your experience?
The response will only be as good as the question.
Since you are an educator in NYC you probably already have an inkling that every district you listed are virtually identical with respect to what they offer. They all have language classes starting somewhere in elementary, it might vary a bit from kindergarten to 3rd grade. They all have band and orchestra, again starting in elementary. They all have AP, North Shore offers IB (which is a disaster). They all have the same EC's - robotics, mock trial, etc.... You can guess the rest!
What is most important to you from your list of 11 factors?
If college admissions is at the top, then that's easy! Jericho, Manhassett and Great Neck are the top three - all others on your list are indistinguishable regarding college placement.
If college admissions is at the top:
Move out of state; i.e. your child will have a better chance of getting accepted to a desirable school in NY state if they live out of state.
Hello,
I am beginning research on towns and school districts in Nassau and western Suffolk counties. I'm an educator in New York City at both the elementary and university levels, and a mother to a kindergarten aged child. I understand that ratings on school districts on websites like greatschools.org are based on test scores. To me, test scores aren't a great indicator of how well a school does, or more importantly, what a school has to offer.
I'd love some input as to what you love/dislike about your school district, from elementary through high school. I'm looking for things like:
-student performance, not only in terms of testing, but also graduation rates, college acceptance and attendance, etc.
-community feel & quality of life (i.e. parent involvement, the presence or lack of bullying, events held at school and attendance of such events, etc.)
-open-mindedness, progressive nature
We are primarily looking at communities like:
Port Washington
Northshore School District
Harborfields
Northport
Elwood
Half Hollow Hills
Sayville
Babylon
Rockville Centre
But we are open to hearing about other areas/communities/districts as well, as I'd love to have a broad picture.
Please indicate the town you live in, the school district you attend, and what you love, or what you don't love about the named district, across grade levels. :-)
Thank you for sharing!!
If you do look at a house in Rockville Centre, don't be misled to think that if it has Oceanside schools it is a bad thing. I was in that position. Now I have kids in the schools and don't regret it. We also have many teachers who work in different district who live in Oceanside or RVC with Oceanside Schools. your school taxes will also be a little less too
You’re literally all over the map. You must have a budget in mind...that comes first.
I do agree with this, you are all over
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