Plainview-old Bethpage/jfk High School, Plainview NY

Original Research by School Decision on Plainview-old Bethpage/jfk High School

Plainview-Old Bethpage/JFK High School is a regular public high school serving grades nine through twelve in a Nassau County suburb built on post-war family housing and now experiencing selective adult-oriented redevelopment. The school's enrollment is stable at a mid-sized level for its grade band, with a demographic profile that reflects the area's established homeowner population: a strong majority of students are white, a substantial share are Asian, a small share are Hispanic, and fewer than one percent identify as Black. About one in seven students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.

JFK serves a community where homeownership is the norm and home values have moved steadily upward. The median home price in Plainview is at a high regional level, and the market has remained a seller's market even as inventory has grown modestly over the past year. Rental housing is available but also priced above regional medians. Families commuting from the school to employment hubs will likely need a car; transit relies on bus service and requires planning. The Plainview-Old Bethpage district maintains its tax levy below the state cap, a pattern sustained over more than a decade, which shapes longer-term property-tax trajectories for the community.

State assessment data for this school were not available, nor were a graduation rate, chronic absenteeism rate, or enrollment data for students with IEPs or English learners. These gaps reflect New York's reporting structure for schools versus districts; a parent may want to request recent achievement metrics and demographic detail directly from the school or the district office to understand recent academic performance and support capacity.

The district faced a significant constraint in January 2025 when voters rejected a bond that would have expanded JFK High School's instructional space and cafeteria capacity. The overcrowding the bond was meant to address remains unresolved. Since then, the district has funded facility fixes through its annual operating budget and reserves, including cafeteria air conditioning, pool repairs at JFK, and some classroom additions at elementary schools. This piecemeal approach means the school is managing space pressures with existing resources rather than through a major capital project. A parent considering enrollment may want to visit the building to assess hallway flow, lunch logistics, and classroom density.

JFK is the sole high school in its district and draws from a service area including Plainview, Old Bethpage, and small portions of Farmingdale. The school sits on Kennedy Drive in Plainview, in a residential but car-dependent setting without a walkable downtown or transit hub nearby. The district recently launched a free state-funded Universal Pre-Kindergarten program, reflecting an effort to support families at the entry point, though JFK itself is years away from that pipeline.

Program offerings at the school were not detailed in available sources. A parent interested in AP course breadth, dual-credit pathways, career and technical education, or specialized academic tracks will benefit from reviewing the district and school website directly and visiting to discuss course sequences and post-secondary pathways.

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Academic performance

How students graduate and prepare for what comes next.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

98.0%Cohort of 391 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

45 tested

93.3%

scored 3 or higher

Calculus BC

48 tested

75.0%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science A

26 tested

88.5%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science Principles

34 tested · Grade 9, Grade 10

97.1%

scored 3 or higher

Statistics

28 tested · Grade 10

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

Sciences

Biology

46 tested

89.1%

scored 3 or higher

Chemistry

44 tested · Grade 10

88.6%

scored 3 or higher

Environmental Science

109 tested · Grade 9

83.5%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 1

99 tested · Grade 10

74.7%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 2

15 tested

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism

20 tested

75.0%

scored 3 or higher

Physics C: Mechanics

20 tested

80.0%

scored 3 or higher

English

Research

41 tested

97.6%

scored 3 or higher

Seminar

235 tested · Grade 10

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

History and Social Sciences

Human Geography

28 tested · Grade 9, Grade 10

78.6%

scored 3 or higher

Macroeconomics

97 tested

86.6%

scored 3 or higher

Psychology

119 tested · Grade 10

94.1%

scored 3 or higher

U.S. History

133 tested · Grade 10

97.7%

scored 3 or higher

World Languages and Cultures

Chinese Language and Culture

14 tested

64.3%

scored 3 or higher

French Language and Culture

11 tested

54.5%

scored 3 or higher

Italian Language and Culture

3 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Spanish Language and Culture

68 tested

86.8%

scored 3 or higher

Arts

Art History

24 tested · Grade 10

66.7%

scored 3 or higher

Music Theory

8 tested · Grade 10

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Other

Language and Comp

292 tested · Grade 10

69.2%

scored 3 or higher

Literature and Comp

214 tested

86.9%

scored 3 or higher

Studio Art 2d Design

39 tested

94.9%

scored 3 or higher

Studio Art 3d Design

11 tested

63.6%

scored 3 or higher

U S Government and Politics

161 tested

96.3%

scored 3 or higher

World History

81 tested · Grade 10

96.3%

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	442	97.0%
Math	431	91.0%
Ela	424	95.0%
Science	129	60.0%

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.