John F Kennedy School, Great Neck NY

Original Research by School Decision on John F Kennedy School

John F Kennedy School is a public elementary school serving prekindergarten through fifth grade in Great Neck, an affluent North Shore peninsula community in Nassau County. The school enrolls a student body that is roughly balanced between White students, Hispanic students, and students of Asian descent, with a modest share of the enrollment qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.

The school's most recent state test results show solid proficiency in math across the tested grades. In third grade, the majority of students met proficiency benchmarks, and proficiency rose meaningfully in grades four and five, where most students scored at proficient or above levels. English language arts results follow a similar pattern of improvement as students advance, with proficiency growing from the third-grade baseline through fifth grade. In fifth grade, science proficiency sat somewhat below the school's math and ELA performance. These results place the school's overall proficiency index in the top quartile among Nassau County's elementary schools, a meaningful position that reflects stronger-than-typical student achievement in the county context.

The school is situated within the Great Neck Union Free School District, which serves an affluent, largely suburban peninsula united by one school district, one library system, and one park district. Great Neck's character mixes upscale residential neighborhoods with a compact commercial downtown around the LIRR station. The public schools themselves sit on separate suburban campuses spread across the peninsula rather than concentrated in the downtown; John F Kennedy School occupies a neighborhood-based location typical of the district's elementary schools. The broader area offers strong transit to Manhattan via the Port Washington Branch LIRR line and walkable downtown streets in the Plaza village, though the wider peninsula tends toward car-dependent suburban character.

Housing values in the Great Neck ZIP codes are high, and have been rising modestly. Rental rates are likewise substantial. The area supports a strong job market anchored by healthcare institutions like Northwell Health and NYU Langone Hospital, education, finance, and retail, alongside the district itself as a major employer.

The district has been active in capital planning. Voters established a Capital Reserve Fund in 2024 that authorized annual spending on facility upgrades including classroom and library renovations, ADA improvements, and playground work. Using this reserve, the district has launched phased improvements to athletic facilities at its middle and high school campuses, with a synthetic turf field installed at North Middle School and further improvements to the South campus athletic complex approved by voters for the 2026-27 school year. These upgrades occur without raising the tax levy.

No data on special education enrollment, English learner enrollment, chronic absenteeism, or district-level teacher staffing were available in the records reviewed. The school's attendance and discipline data, as well as any specialized programs or course offerings at the elementary level, were similarly not reported in the source materials.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 372%

School 72% · District 90% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 483%

School 83% · District 91% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 588%

School 88% · District 93% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 85% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 475%

School 75% · District 87% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 580%

School 80% · District 88% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Science

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 80% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 598%

School 98% · district not reported

▲ 7 pts above state median · even with county median

This schoolGREAT NECK 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-income44%Higher-income74%31 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income65%Higher-income80%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income67%Higher-income83%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income54%Higher-income85%31 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income70%Higher-income89%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income69%Higher-income93%24 pp gap