Nokomis School, Holbrook NY - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Nokomis School

Nokomis School is a public elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Holbrook, a car-oriented suburban hamlet on central Long Island in Suffolk County. The school enrolls students across a broad range of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds; about a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is roughly evenly split between White and Hispanic students, with smaller populations of Asian, Black, and multiracial children. The enrollment is small, with roughly even distribution across the lower grades and larger cohorts in third and fourth grade.

Academic performance at Nokomis shows uneven results across grades and subjects. Third grade proficiency is above the midpoint for the county's districts overall when averaged across math and reading, but the school faces a steep decline by fourth grade, where proficiency in both math and reading drops substantially. Fifth grade performance recovers somewhat in reading but remains weak in math and especially science. The science result in fifth grade, where barely a third of students reached proficiency, stands out as a particular area of struggle. Reading proficiency trends upward slightly in the top grades, while math shows the opposite pattern. Test participation rates are low across all grades tested, in some cases well below half, which makes absolute performance numbers less certain; a parent may want to look into this further with the school.

The school sits within Sachem Central School District, which has faced significant financial strain. The district rejected a budget proposal that would have pierced the state tax cap in 2024, leading to program cuts in sports and clubs. More recently, the district carried a multimillion-dollar budget gap for 2025-26 and briefly considered closing a school; it ultimately adopted a budget that preserved curricular programs and most athletic offerings by drawing on reserves. In May 2025, voters defeated a proposition to sharply reduce bus eligibility, keeping existing transportation in place. These budget cycles signal recurring financial pressure that may affect program stability and local property taxes going forward.

Holbrook itself is a mid-sized suburban community anchored by single-family neighborhoods, with commercial activity concentrated along highway corridors rather than around a walkable downtown. The median home value in the zip code is roughly in the high hundreds of thousands, and the market has seen modest price appreciation. Residents typically drive to work, with an average commute of moderate length and around two cars per household. The area is home to the Sachem Public Library, which serves as a local civic hub, and lies within a few miles of Long Island MacArthur Airport. The hamlet is undergoing modest redevelopment, including new rental townhouse communities and conversion of a former mall into an open-air shopping center, rather than large-scale new growth. Schools in the area are arranged as separate campus facilities rather than clustered around a downtown center, and the nearest LIRR stations are in Ronkonkoma and Medford.

Nokomis serves a suburban family community with a diverse student body and modest income variation. The academic profile shows strength in third grade but real difficulty sustaining proficiency through fourth and fifth grades, particularly in math and science. Families considering the school should take the test participation rates into account when interpreting those numbers and might want to inquire about what accounts for the sharp proficiency drop between third and fourth grade. The school operates within a district navigating budget pressures that have already touched classroom programs, which remains an active concern for the households in this area.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 374%

School 74% · District 57% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 54% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 53% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 350%

School 50% · District 49% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 44% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 42% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 46% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 593%

School 93% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolSACHEM CENTRAL 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-income48%Higher-income53%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income22%Higher-income22%1 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income71%Higher-income54%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income62%Higher-income90%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income27%3 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income58%8 pp gap