Great Neck South High School, Great Neck NY

Original Research by School Decision on Great Neck South High School

Great Neck South High School sits on a suburban campus in Lake Success, at the southern end of the Great Neck Peninsula, serving students in grades nine through twelve. The school enrolls roughly thirteen hundred students across evenly distributed grade cohorts. The peer group is overwhelmingly Asian, reflecting both the demographics of the broader Great Neck area and, more broadly, the residential composition of the peninsula. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator of economic diversity within the enrollment.

The school is part of the Great Neck Union Free School District, a well-resourced district that in May 2024 voters approved a standing capital reserve fund to support ongoing facility upgrades without new tax borrowing. The district is currently executing a multi-phase upgrade of athletic facilities across its campuses. At South High, Phase II of the athletic complex, approved in the 2026 budget cycle, will include a synthetic playing field, track resurfacing, and drainage improvements, part of a broader pattern of facility investment at the school.

State testing data for Great Neck South was not available in the materials reviewed, so we cannot characterize proficiency or performance trends from that source. No graduation rate, college enrollment outcomes, course offerings, or AP breadth information was provided, so a parent seeking detail on academic pathways, college preparation, or program depth would need to contact the school directly or visit its website for those specifics.

The school's location on Lakeville Road places it in a commuter zone rather than within walking distance of the downtown Great Neck Plaza and its LIRR station. The broader community is an affluent suburban setting on a North Shore peninsula in Nassau County, characterized by tree-lined streets, a mix of single-family homes and apartment buildings, and a compact commercial center anchored by the LIRR station roughly a mile and a half away. The housing market in the zip code is strong and expensive, with median home values substantially above state and national benchmarks and steady market activity. For families considering the area, the combination of school location, residential character, and housing costs positions this as part of an upscale suburban corridor rather than an urban or dense mixed-use setting.

The district has stability and fiscal capacity to invest in facilities and infrastructure. Civic life in Great Neck centers around the downtown plaza and LIRR station, but the public schools sit on separated suburban campuses, so daily school experience is campus-based rather than integrated with walkable downtown civic space. A parent evaluating this school would benefit from direct conversation with the district about academic programming, college readiness support, co-curricular offerings, and any recent assessment or performance data the school can share.

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Academic performance

How students graduate and prepare for what comes next.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

96.0%Cohort of 315 students · Class of 2021

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,253 schools plotted. 14 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Advanced Placement & IB

30 subjects offered · 2023-24

Each card is one AP or IB subject. The headline number is the share of students scoring 3 or higher on the exam — the threshold for college credit at most universities. The bar below each rate shows the underlying distribution across performance levels.

Score:12· no credit345· extremely well qualified

Math and Computer Science

Calculus AB

52 tested

98.1%

scored 3 or higher

Calculus BC

47 tested · Grade 10

95.7%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science A

77 tested · Grade 9, Grade 10

83.1%

scored 3 or higher

Precalculus

7 tested · Grade 9, Grade 10

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Statistics

80 tested · Grade 10

87.5%

scored 3 or higher

Sciences

Biology

79 tested · Grade 9, Grade 10

93.7%

scored 3 or higher

Chemistry

36 tested · Grade 10

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

Environmental Science

108 tested · Grade 10

71.3%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 1

100 tested · Grade 10

90.0%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 2

20 tested

90.0%

scored 3 or higher

Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism

25 tested

80.0%

scored 3 or higher

Physics C: Mechanics

26 tested

84.6%

scored 3 or higher

History and Social Sciences

European History

21 tested

66.7%

scored 3 or higher

Human Geography

113 tested · Grade 9, Grade 10

92.0%

scored 3 or higher

Macroeconomics

127 tested

92.9%

scored 3 or higher

Microeconomics

79 tested · Grade 10

87.3%

scored 3 or higher

Psychology

173 tested

81.5%

scored 3 or higher

U.S. History

173 tested

95.4%

scored 3 or higher

World Languages and Cultures

Chinese Language and Culture

30 tested · Grade 9

80.0%

scored 3 or higher

French Language and Culture

13 tested

92.3%

scored 3 or higher

Latin: Vergil (archived)

15 tested

86.7%

scored 3 or higher

Spanish Language and Culture

33 tested

93.9%

scored 3 or higher

Arts

Art History

18 tested · Grade 10

83.3%

scored 3 or higher

Studio Art Drawing

33 tested

78.8%

scored 3 or higher

Other

Language and Comp

107 tested

98.1%

scored 3 or higher

Literature and Comp

51 tested

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

Studio Art 2d Design

11 tested

63.6%

scored 3 or higher

Studio Art 3d Design

2 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

U S Government and Politics

63 tested

96.8%

scored 3 or higher

World History

167 tested · Grade 9, Grade 10

94.6%

scored 3 or higher

New York Regents Exams

4 courses reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Social Studies	375	99.0%
Ela	361	94.0%
Math	339	99.0%
Science	94	94.0%

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.