The top reported proficiency rate is 98% in Social studies. The lowest is 69% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Stewart School
Stewart School sits on Stewart Avenue in Garden City, a built-out village on Long Island's Nassau County that was conceived as one of the country's earliest planned communities. The village's architectural covenants and prohibition on subdivision keep the housing stock largely intact — tree-lined residential streets of Victorian Gothic, Tudor Revival, and Colonial Revival homes on generous lots, with co-ops and small apartment buildings clustered nearer the LIRR station and the compact downtown along Franklin and Seventh Avenues. Home values here are well above both the state and national midpoints, and they have been climbing. Monthly housing costs, whether owning or renting, reflect that premium sharply. Families with younger children should also know that the Garden City Union Free School District launched a Universal Pre-Kindergarten program in fall 2025 through a residents-only lottery, adding an early-education option that did not exist before.
Stewart School itself serves grades two through five — the upper elementary years in the district's sequence. Because it stops at grade five, there is no graduation rate to report, and that absence is simply a function of the grade band. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet.
On the New York State assessments, Stewart's academic results are genuinely strong. In math, the vast majority of third and fourth graders scored proficient or above, and fifth grade results remained high as well, though slightly lower than the earlier grades. In ELA, third graders performed at a very high level, with fourth and fifth graders close behind. Taken together across tested subjects and grades, Stewart's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile of the districts in Nassau County, which is the comparison set used here. That is a meaningful position in a county with many high-performing suburban schools.
Fifth grade science results are the one area where the picture differs. Proficiency there, while still representing the majority of students tested, runs noticeably below the math and ELA results. This is worth asking the school about directly — whether the curriculum, the assessment format, or something else accounts for the gap.
The student body is predominantly white, with meaningful Asian and Hispanic populations and very small numbers of Black and multiracial students. Free and reduced-price lunch data were not available in the data provided, so the economic profile of the student population cannot be characterized here.
The district has been active on the facilities side. Voters approved a tax-neutral capital bond in early 2024 that has delivered new turf athletic fields, a high school fitness center, boiler replacements, and building air conditioning at primary buildings including Stewart's level. In spring 2026, voters approved further capital propositions for roof and window replacements elsewhere in the district and a new long-term capital reserve fund, also structured with no additional tax impact. The district's publicly reported budget for 2026-2027 carries a modest tax levy increase within the state cap, though officials have flagged the state-mandated transition to electric school buses as a cost pressure on the horizon that families watching the property-tax trajectory may want to follow.
The village itself sits about 18 miles from Long Island City by rail. Five LIRR stations serve the village, and the central Garden City station connects to Nassau Inter-County Express bus lines, making the commute to New York City practical for many residents. Adelphi University's main campus is within Garden City, and Roosevelt Field, the largest mall in New York State, is nearby. Day-to-day errands within the downtown core are manageable on foot, but most of the residential neighborhoods are suburban in form and residents typically drive.
For a family entering grades two through five, Stewart School offers strong academic results, a well-resourced district that has been investing in its buildings, and a setting that trades heavily on the physical character and stability of Garden City itself. The housing market reflects that demand clearly.
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