Centre Avenue Elementary School, East Rockaway NY

Original Research by School Decision on Centre Avenue Elementary School

Centre Avenue Elementary sits in East Rockaway, a small incorporated village on the South Shore of Long Island, roughly 15 miles from Manhattan. The village is primarily residential with a maritime heritage, four named business districts, and walkable corridors along Main Street and Atlantic Avenue where everyday errands are manageable on foot. A Long Island Rail Road station connects the village to the city. Home values here sit well above the state and national benchmarks, and the local housing market has shown steady price appreciation with low vacancy, making the area competitive for buyers entering the district.

The school serves prekindergarten through sixth grade and draws from East Rockaway Union Free School District, a small district with two elementary buildings. Enrollment at Centre Avenue is small relative to most Nassau County elementaries. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, putting the economic needs share toward the lower end. The student body is predominantly white with a meaningful Hispanic population and smaller shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. Data on English learners and students with IEPs were not available in the records we reviewed.

On the New York State Testing Program, Centre Avenue performs above the midpoint among the districts in Nassau County when proficiency across tested subjects and grades is combined into a single index. That is a meaningful position in a county that includes some of the state's higher-performing suburban districts. Reading the subject results more closely, ELA is the clearer strength. Proficiency in English language arts is solid across the tested grades, with the fifth and sixth grade cohorts showing particularly strong results. Math proficiency runs in a similar range for third and fourth grade but dips somewhat at fifth and sixth grade, so a parent may want to ask the school about how math instruction and pacing develop across the upper elementary years. Science results, tested only at fifth grade, came in noticeably lower than the ELA and math figures, which is worth a conversation with the school. Social studies data were only available from a much earlier school year and cannot be used as a current indicator.

Participation rates in state testing deserve attention. Third grade participation was near universal in both ELA and math, which gives those results strong validity. Participation in the upper grades, particularly fifth and sixth grade, was lower, meaning the tested group represents a smaller share of each cohort. This is a common pattern in some schools and can affect how the proficiency figures read, so parents should be aware the upper-grade numbers reflect fewer students.

The district has made a school-wide commitment, publicly reported in local news coverage, to project-based learning. Every teacher has completed multi-year professional development in this model, and the district describes a completed shift away from traditional instructor-led instruction toward student-directed, hands-on work grounded in the Gold Standard PBL framework. For families, this is less a data point and more a pedagogical identity. Whether it fits depends on how a child learns and what a parent values in a classroom.

Two district-level changes are directly relevant to Centre Avenue families. The district now operates a Universal Pre-K program, publicly reported as lottery-based with placements including a JCC-Lynbrook site, meaning four-year-olds have access to a free public early-learning seat. Separately, the district is actively exploring a structural realignment that would reorganize Centre Avenue and the district's other elementary building, Rhame Avenue, into one K-3 building and one fourth through sixth building, potentially beginning in the 2027-28 school year. No final decision has been made, publicly reported sources note, but the plan is being discussed in response to enrollment disparities between the two buildings. Because the district does not provide busing for most students, any realignment would add shuttle transportation costs paid by taxpayers and could change which building a given child attends. Families choosing the district now should watch this closely.

A graduation rate does not apply to Centre Avenue, which exits at sixth grade. Students continue at East Rockaway Junior/Senior High School.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 362%

School 62% · District 51% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 468%

School 68% · District 62% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 55% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 52% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 374%

School 74% · District 57% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 45% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 579%

School 79% · District 56% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 683%

School 83% · District 55% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 45% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 598%

School 98% · district not reported

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

This schoolEAST ROCKAWAY UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income33%Higher-income86%53 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income0%Higher-income71%71 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income100%50 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income67%Higher-income93%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income44%Higher-income68%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income17%Higher-income84%68 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income25%Higher-income82%57 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income50%Higher-income71%21 pp gap