Manetuck Elementary School, West Islip NY

Original Research by School Decision on Manetuck Elementary School

Manetuck Elementary is a suburban West Islip school serving roughly half a thousand students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The building sits on a residential campus in a car-dependent hamlet on Long Island's South Shore, where families live in single-family homes and strip commercial development lines Montauk Highway rather than around a walkable downtown.

The school's test results point to uneven performance across grades and subjects. In mathematics, third-graders show the strongest outcomes, with about half reaching proficiency, while fourth-graders cluster around half proficiency and fifth-graders fall to under one-third. English language arts follows a similar dip as students move up: third grade sits near half proficiency, fourth grade drops to under two-fifths, and fifth grade rebounds to above half. In fifth-grade science, the school reaches just above two-fifths proficiency. These results, measured by New York State testing, place the school's overall proficiency at a level consistent with the county median across tested subjects and grades, meaning it sits at a midpoint position when compared to other districts in Suffolk County. A parent may want to look into why proficiency declines notably in the upper elementary grades, particularly in fourth grade across both subjects, and what support structures are in place.

Test participation rates vary substantially by grade, from around half in third grade to around four-tenths in fifth grade. Low participation on state assessments can affect how scores are interpreted; a parent should ask the school directly about reasons for those gaps and whether they reflect absences on testing days or other factors.

The school serves a student body that is predominantly white, with a small share of Hispanic students and even smaller numbers of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. About one-sixth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a mixed-income enrollment. The school does not report special education or English learner enrollment rates in the available data, which is not uncommon for elementary schools in this region.

West Islip itself is a built-out suburb with minimal walkability and no downtown center; schools function as separate campuses within the residential grid. The broader community anchors itself around Good Samaritan University Hospital, the West Islip Public Library, and bay-access recreation. The housing market in the immediate postal area shows mid-range values for suburban Long Island, with median rents and purchase prices that reflect a middle-to-upper-middle-class suburb. The district has held property taxes within the state cap for over a decade, relying on voter-approved capital reserves to fund facility upgrades rather than issuing bonds, which has kept tax increases modest. For families with young children, one material change to note: the district moved its full-day pre-kindergarten program to an external provider, South Shore Children's Center, for the 2025-26 school year onward, with enrollment now subject to a lottery rather than guaranteed enrollment. This affects how families plan for early childhood care.

Manetuck fits a family seeking a suburban neighborhood elementary school with peers from mixed-income, predominantly white suburban backgrounds. The declining proficiency trend in the upper grades, particularly fourth grade, warrants direct conversation with the school about academic support and intervention pathways for students who are not yet meeting state standards.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 357%

School 57% · District 65% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 58% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 39% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 60% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 41% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 45% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Science

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 45%

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

Social studies

Grade 594%

School 94% · district not reported

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

This schoolWEST ISLIP 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-income27%Higher-income53%25 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income36%Higher-income38%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income58%Higher-income56%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income49%1 pp gap