Elwood or Harborfields school district - how good? (Babylon, Huntington: homes, college)

[amyla]

[quote=Glad2BHere;778505]That concerns me. We looked at greatschools.net and didnt like what we saw. Do you know what neighborhood is getting pulled in that is bringing things down?>

Also do you know if they bus kids to different schools to break things up? I know Dix Hills was doing that so that is why we crossed DH off our list. If I pay 16,000 in taxes, I better have the best school, not the school by the houses that have 7,000 taxes. It is insane.

Thanks alot[/quote
Just for your information, the elementary school in DH next to the houses who pay $7000/yr taxes has the best test scores in the district-less affluent does not mean less of an education is all cases.

[jsb19]

The elementary school next to the lower taxed areas in Dix Hills is Paumanock. They actually bus some of the kids from the wealthiest parts of Dix Hills (mainly new construction developments like Legends and Country Pointe) to even things out. So you really cannot judge any of the 7 elementary schools by location. My daughter attends Vanderbilt, which actually has the largest percentage of non-whites but is in the heart of Dix Hills proper, as mmuch of Wheatley Heights attends that school. All schools perform well and they try to keep all of them as balanced as possible in terms of race and socioeconomic level. By the way, to cross the town off the list because of this is really pretty astonishing - we are in the 21st century. Look at a district based on its test scores and accomplishments, not solely based on the tax differential amongst households that attend.

[Some other guy]

I went to Elwood, my opinion is that its a great school district. My biggest complaint was that it was very small, which meant less choices in classes to take, though they did offer more AP classes than my previous high school on the south shore which was 4x as big. There is a small part of Greenlawn where the "diversity" comes from, but the worst thing anyone in that small (we are talking maybe 8 x 5 blocks?) area is going to do is teach your kids to play basketball.

I can't compare and contrast the two schools as I have no direct Harborfields experience, but I can tell you that Elwood is a great school, I hope to be able to afford to move back there one day. From what I saw of Harborfields kids, they were facsimiles of my friends. I don't think either school is appreciably better or worse than the other, and I think any rivalry between the two reflects this.

[Investigator01]

Harborfields High School 0 96% 99% Northport Senior High School 1.1 96% 94% Elwood/John Glenn High School 1.7 96% 90% Hebrew Acad-Acad Excellence-Huntingt 2.0 --- --- Commack High School 3.7 92% 98% Huntington High School 4.0 84% 79% Nassau/Suffolk Services-Autistic 4.1 --- --- Half Hollow Hills High School West 4.2 93% 94% St. Anthony's High School 4.3 --- --- Walt Whitman High School 4.3 80% 86%
This is straight from Great Schools.net. The numbers represents the number of students passing the reading and math regents test. It clearly shows Elwood and Harforfields are excellent school differences. It also shows that being in a school with children whose parents make less money than you is not always a bad thing. The child will learn to appreciate diversity and other valuable life lessons. My first room mate in college was froma rural area of Ohio and had never seen an African American in person until he met me. After his initial shock, we became really good friends. We both graduated with honors. Long story short, there is a variety of issues taht influence the educational environment, and race and welath does not play a role. The advantage comes from parents with a solid educational background and good teachers. Unfortunately some areas are lacking one or both of these characteristics.

[TheEggs]

Newsweek's Top 1300 can't be deemed completely accurate because the number of students attending the school varies tremendously and this accounts for different rates i.e. graduation and passing of Regents examinations.For those who pointed out that Elwood Union Free is so much smaller than Harborfields, i would have to seem that incorrect since the number of students in each school are extremely close, giving Harborfields MAYBE 20 more kids in each grade. My kids attended both schools, first Harborfields until we switched to Elwood. We (My wife and I) bought a home in Harborfields and were dissapointed by the diversity of students with varying incomes, especially since teens from the neighborhood south of Pulaski and west of Broadway, are notorious for acting up throughout the area. Saw that Elwood had very similar graduation rates and passing regents rates, including a high Advanced Regents Diploma recieval rate, moved there and were more satisfied. My son is now in medical school and my daughter is graduating early and will be attending Yale thsi February I can't dis either school since both are good, but I would most definitely go with Elwood.

[TomMoser]

Originally Posted by TheEggs

We (My wife and I) bought a home in Harborfields and were dissapointed by the diversity of students with varying incomes, especially since teens from the neighborhood south of Pulaski and west of Broadway, are notorious for acting up throughout the area.

Actually, the students from the area that you are refering to do not all go to Harborfields. In that area, three school districts come together: SD 6 (Harborfields), SD 13 (South Huntington) and SD 1 (Elwood). It depends upon what block you are on.

[AlexisT]

Originally Posted by Glad2BHere

That concerns me. We looked at greatschools.net and didnt like what we saw. Do you know what neighborhood is getting pulled in that is bringing things down?>

Also do you know if they bus kids to different schools to break things up? I know Dix Hills was doing that so that is why we crossed DH off our list. If I pay 16,000 in taxes, I better have the best school, not the school by the houses that have 7,000 taxes. It is insane.

Thanks alot

Of course, because only rich people deserve the best schools.

In any case, yes, HHH does break things up. (My parents live in the district.) However, if you actually looked at the maps, you'd see why they do it. Some new developments are bused out of area to keep enrollments balanced. In some cases, it's the poorer students who are bused, not the richer ones (for example, according to the current HHH map, the 2 Avalon rental areas are bused out). It's because there's been a lot of development in the district in the past 10-15 years.

[PizzaPedro]

I have also lived in both districts, and live in neither anymore, and found that people in Harborfields seem to be more interested in academics. The numbers bear this out. The insiutation about "undesirables" just isn't accurate. If you look at free lunches or the other similar indicators, you will see that the numbers for Elwood are twice as high as Harborfields. If you look at the kind of students from the areas you are talking about, again the numbers for Elwood are twice as high as Harborfields. I wouldn't have a problem sending a child to either district, but Harborfields is academically superior by any objective measure.

[HF2005]

Originally Posted by NYC2RDU

(I feel like I'm stalking you through the forum)

Elwood is considered better by the locals but Harborfields has a good reputation as well. The only consideration with Harborfields is that there's one less than desirable neighborhood that gets pulled in and you want to make sure you're not near it (South of Pulaski between between Park and Broadway). It's not a horrible neighborhood but it presents more issues than you'll typically expect in the general area.

Thank you for refering to my neighborhood as "less then desireable." It mignt not be the most expensive part of the school district, but I can tell you that I still recieved an amazing education from one of the best school districts on Long Island. Is that neighborhood not desireable because there are more minorities there? If that is the case then that is just appalling. As for Elwood.. if its considered better by the locals then why after all these years is there STILL ocasional talk about trying to merge Elwood with Harborfields. Harborfields without a doubt has a better reputation.

As for the people that say that Harborfields has higher scores then Glenn because of the number of students? Really? Then why is Cold Spring Harbor better then both and they have a smaller school district? It's all percents, it has to do with the total number of students and what percent of them did well on tests, and which ones didn't.

Every school district has a neighborhood that is not as wealthy as the rest. That is just the way it is. I graduated from Haborfields and am now a teacher myself working in a different high school. I can honestly say that the growth and development of students that come out of Harborfields are far more capable then some of the other schools. As a teacher, if you are worried about these districts, set up meetings. I don't know about Elwood, but the Harborfields community will welcome you with open arms and discuss what they can offer your family.

[jdrose]

Not too mention the obvious racism regarding the "bad areas" - people from long Island sicken me....racist snobs and don't even know it. Someone above said they "crossed out" Dix Hills because of "pulling in" "other" neighborhoods......