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The biggest factors in student success are genetics, dedication from the parents, dedication from the student him/herself, and peer pressure. The school itself makes a significant difference if all other things are equal, and parents are definitely doing the right thing by trying to put their child in a superior district (shows that they care, above all), but if a Hempstead kid didn't care about school or planned to graduate, sending him to Cold Spring isn't going to make him a college student, especially if you surround him/her with the same bad influences that they had in their old district.
The environment in Cold Spring Harbor is going to be very different than the environment in say Roosevelt. I had to go to Roosevelt to observe a physics teacher and here is what I saw. There were around 25 kids, about five of them were in the front paying attention, and the other ones were far in the back just hanging out. He would yell at them from time to time and teach the ones in the front. It was a terrible learning environment. I wouldn't send my kid there in a million years. And, it was like a war zone. The teachers would go to the faculty room and it was like the safe area. You couldn't pay me enough to work in that school.
Where I am now, there is tremendous pressure to do well in school. The kids are so stressed out that they will come to me in tears when they get a bad grade on occassion because they feel that they aren't doing well enough for their parents or for themselves. It's a tough place to be but from all of this pressure comes an intense desire to do well and they do well in the end. So, you have to decide whether you want your kid under this pressure or if you want to send them to a school that isn't one of the best and have them be a little more mentally sane. Now, I teach physics so I am going to have a different crowd than say a general science class, so all schools won't do this to the kids unless the kids choose to be in the more competitive classes, so there is some free will here.
I wonder how stable these numbers have been over the last 40 years. The percentage for NB, CSH and some other schools looks to be in the same ballpark as it was when I went to school.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CoolaTroopa
This is from Newsday.
I think % who go on to four-year colleges says the most about quality of schools. I adjusted the percentages to include students who dropped out.
97.73%: Cold Spring Harbor
96.04%: Jericho
92.81%: Wheatley
89.07%: Roslyn
87.63%: Manhasset
87.58%: Syosset
87.23%: Garden City
85.93%: Great Neck South
85.23%: Hewlett
81.80%: South Side
81.15%: Herricks
80.75%: New Hyde Park
80.49%: Locust Valley
80.38%: Plainview-Old Bethpage
79.98%: Half Hollow Hills West
79.93%: Harborfields
79.31%: Port Jefferson
78.48%: John F. Kennedy
77.09%: Paul D. Schreiber
76.30%: Great Neck North
75.48%: Half Hollow Hills East
75.02%: Oceanside
74.30%: North Shore
74.26%: Calhoun
73.46%: Elwood
73.04%: Oyster Bay
72.73%: Lynbrook
72.69%: Wantagh
71.98%: Bethpage
71.41%: Smithtown East
71.23%: Northport
70.00%: Pierson
69.68%: Ward Melville
69.40%: Commack
69.36%: Mattituck
69.20%: Hauppauge
68.98%: Massapequa
67.12%: Smithtown West
66.30%: Babylon
66.21%: Kings Park
65.77%: Plainedge
62.86%: Mount Sinai
61.80%: Floral Park
60.78%: Mepham
60.59%: Sayville
59.99%: Bayport-Blue Point
59.47%: Valley Stream North
59.00%: West Islip
58.77%: Southampton
58.76%: Seaford
58.23%: Lawrence
58.19%: Westhampton Beach
57.90%: Huntington
57.85%: Valley Stream South
57.05%: Island Trees
56.81%: Shoreham-Wading River
56.27%: East Meadow
55.95%: General Douglas MacArthur
55.68%: East Rockaway
54.95%: Miller Place
54.94%: West Hempstead
54.54% Center Moriches
54.51%: Mineola
54.32%: Islip
54.24%: Long Beach
54.10%: East Islip
53.57%: Eastport-South Manor
52.92%: Elmont
52.85%: Valley Stream Central
52.51%: Connetquot
52.38%: WT Clarke
52.26%: Carle Place
52.06%: Walt Whitman
51.94%: Rocky Point
51.54%: Baldwin
51.53%: Sewanhaka
51.23%: H. Frank Carey
49.73%: Glen Cove
47.90%: Sachem East
46.74%: Division Ave
45.99%: Malverne, East Hampton
45.71%: Hicksville
45.59%: Bay Shore
45.55%: Farmingdale
44.07%: West Babylon
43.84%: Sachem North
43.00%: Comsewogue
42.94%: North Babylon
41.70%: Deer Park
40.84%: Lindenhurst
40.75%: Riverhead
37.89%: Westbury
36.74%: Amityville
36.71%: William Floyd
36.61%: Newfield
36.36%: Bellport
35.23%: Uniondale
33.51%: Patchogue-Medford
33.23%: Centereach
31.99%: Copiague
31.34%: Longwood
27.79%: Hampton Bays
26.14%: Freeport
24.49%: Brentwood
23.27%: Wyandanch
21.74%: Central Islip
19.51%: Roosevelt
17.28%: Hempstead
I'm admittedly nostalgic for Oceanside which seems to do pretty well by this standard. However, Syosset is better (in terms of public schools) and I know that.
I didn't include the really small high schools.
There is no "absolute" best school district. There are many factors which play in here.
If you are looking for the highest SAT scores in high schools, its Jericho. There is a general tendency to believe that Jericho is purely academic exceellent and not much else, but that is not true. I am a Jericho resident, and I know people here take sports seriously too. For example, check out Jericho Athletic Association. Some students from Jericho are also enrolled in Julliard's for music.
That being said, many school districts in LI are very good. Garden city, Syosset, Herricks, Manhasset, Great Neck etc should also be in your radar.
How is banning tag a 'leftist' ideology? Seems like the school does not want the risk of a injured student suing the school.
Rather than post a sign, "Play tag at your own risk", or getting parents/guardians to sign permission slips, as the Right might do, the Left outright banned tag as they have a "I know better than you attitude".
Banning tag does seem extreme. When I searched for it, I found a whole lot of school districts, ranging from Colorado to South Carolina have also done the same. I was not aware Jericho had banned it as well.
I though multiple valedictorians doing a skit instead of a standard speech was interesting and innovative. No complaints there.
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