The top reported proficiency rate is 68% in Science. The lowest is 65% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Burns Avenue School
Burns Avenue School is a public elementary school in Hicksville serving prekindergarten through fifth grade. It sits in a community and school district navigating real fiscal constraints while managing academic growth across early grades.
The school has a student body that is nearly evenly split between Hispanic and Asian students, with smaller populations of white, Black, multiracial, and Native American students. Roughly forty-five percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a proxy for economic need. The school is small for its grade band, with total enrollment distributed across seven grades. Prekindergarten and kindergarten are its largest cohorts; third through fifth grade, the tested grades, contain a more modest population.
On state assessments, the school shows uneven but often solid performance across grades and subjects. In third grade, roughly half of students met or exceeded proficiency in both math and English language arts, a level that reflects work ahead in early literacy and numeracy. Fourth grade performs considerably stronger: roughly two-thirds of students were proficient in math, and roughly four-fifths in English language arts. Fifth grade is the school's strongest-performing cohort, with roughly four-fifths of students proficient in math and roughly two-thirds in English language arts. Science results for fifth grade landed near English language arts, with just under two-thirds proficient. Overall, the school sits above the midpoint among districts in Nassau County on combined proficiency across tested subjects and grades. The pattern suggests that either students are building skills as they progress, or the school's instruction strengthens in the upper grades. A parent may want to look into what the school attributes this trajectory to, and whether supports are in place for third and fourth graders who have not yet reached proficiency.
Worth noting: test participation rates in third and fourth grade sit notably below full enrollment, ranging from fifty to seventy percent. The school has also been flagged by New York State, along with the district, as needing additional targeted support. The district itself is designated a Target District for accountability purposes, and at least one of its schools has been classified for additional support due to subpar academic performance. Burns Avenue should be asked directly whether it is among those flagged schools and what support structures are in place.
The Hicksville Union Free School District, which operates this school, faces real budget pressure. The district approved a budget in 2025 that required a supermajority vote because it exceeded the state tax cap. Facing a significant deficit, it has leaned on reserve funds, a retirement incentive, and enrollment-driven class-size changes. A recent curriculum decision eliminated one elective period for sixth and seventh graders, replacing it with a "success studio," a change that narrows subject exploration for middle-school students. For families with children who may move into the district's middle schools, this signals tighter course offerings than might have existed before.
Hicksville itself is a mixed commercial and residential suburb roughly twenty-nine miles east of Manhattan in the Town of Oyster Bay, functioning as a retail and dining hub for central Nassau County. The town is in the early stages of transit-oriented redevelopment centered on the Long Island Rail Road Hicksville Station, with new downtown zoning and ongoing mixed-use housing projects meant to activate street life and create a walkable downtown core. The station is the most heavily used LIRR station in Nassau County and is undergoing modernization. Cantiague Park offers recreational amenities including a golf course, ice-skating rink, and swimming pools.
Housing in the Hicksville zip code remains expensive. The median home value is solidly in the upper range for the region, and rents have risen noticeably in the past year. The housing market in Nassau County shows more inventory than it did a year ago, though demand has cooled. For families moving to the area or buying into a home-school match here, these are working-class to upper-middle-class neighborhoods with real affordability constraints for renters and moderate-income buyers.
Burns Avenue serves a distinct peer group and locale within the district. Its early-grades focus, small enrollment, and immigrant and working-family composition set it apart from larger suburban schools. The school's test results are mixed but not weak, and its position above the county midpoint in proficiency suggests that capable instruction is present. But the district's state designation for support and the school's own third-grade proficiency rate underscore that progress is uneven. For families, the practical question is whether the school's strengths in grades four and five will extend downward if fourth-grade-level support is applied in third grade, and whether the district's fiscal and accountability pressures are being met with real classroom investment or defensive cost-cutting.
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