The top reported proficiency rate is 35% in Math. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Park Avenue School
Park Avenue School sits on Park Avenue in Westbury, a dense suburban village in Nassau County on Long Island, serving children in grades one through five as part of the Westbury Union Free School District. The school draws from a community that is actively reshaping itself around its Long Island Rail Road station, where a state-funded downtown revitalization initiative brought streetscape improvements, new mixed-use housing, and a pedestrian plaza linking the station to the Post Avenue commercial corridor. The village is multicultural and family-oriented, with a walkable downtown core, LIRR access to Penn Station, and a regional identity tied to shopping, light industry, and employers in finance, pharmaceuticals, and aerospace manufacturing.
The student body is large for an elementary school serving these grades, and its demographic makeup is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial Black student population and very few white or Asian students. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which tells a family something concrete about the economic circumstances the school serves. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs were not available in the data provided; parents with children in those populations may want to ask the school directly about program capacity and supports.
State assessment results from the New York State Testing Program are available for grades three through five in math, ELA, and fifth-grade science, using Levels 3-4 as the proficiency threshold. In math, proficiency across the three tested grades runs from roughly three in ten students to roughly four in ten, with the fifth grade performing the strongest of the three. In ELA, the picture is somewhat weaker, with third grade sitting below one in four students at proficiency, fourth grade at roughly a third, and fifth grade closer to three in ten. Fifth-grade science results are notably low, with only about one in eight students reaching the proficient level. Placed against other districts in Nassau County, the school's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. These are not strong numbers by the standards of Nassau County, which as a county contains many high-performing districts, and parents weighing academic preparation for middle school may want to ask the school about its intervention strategies, tutoring supports, and how it tracks individual student progress over time. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible from the data here to say whether results are improving, holding steady, or declining.
Two district-level developments are worth noting for families with younger children. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, the district launched an expanded universal pre-K program offering both full-day and half-day tuition-free options for four-year-olds, allocated by lottery and funded by state grants with transportation provided. This is a meaningful addition for families entering the district. Separately, voters approved use of capital reserve funds for facility improvements and upgrades, relevant in a district that has documented overcrowding concerns.
The graduation rate does not apply to Park Avenue School, which serves only elementary grades. Metrics for chronic absenteeism were not available in the data provided.
On housing, the Westbury zip code carries home values well above both the state and national medians, placing it in decidedly expensive territory even by Long Island standards. Rents are also high, and the rent-to-income ratio is stretched relative to national benchmarks. The county-level market shows homes selling relatively quickly in the spring, with listing prices rising year over year. Families relocating into the Westbury attendance zone are entering one of Long Island's pricier ZIP codes, though Westbury itself skews more affordable than some neighboring villages. The transit-oriented development near the LIRR station continues to add rental units, some at affordable or workforce rates, which may gradually expand housing options.
Park Avenue School is a public elementary school serving a high-needs, predominantly Latino and Black community in a village actively investing in its physical and civic infrastructure. Its test results are below the midpoint of Nassau County districts, a gap that deserves honest attention from any family evaluating academic trajectory into middle school.
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