But What about the Newburgh Schools?

  |  November 25, 2013
horizons_school

Schools are foremost on the minds of folks with families, and it’s one of the first questions New Yorkers ask when they look at a place to live. The questions are always tough to answer. Other than scores, and a little bg on the education websites, you don’t have much to go on other than anecdotes of current or former school families.

We did, in fact, talk to several parents who were sending their kids to Horizons-on-the-Hudson, the local magnet school in the East End Historic District. They were uniformly happy with the school, and here’s what they said, in reference to kindergarten: Two teachers. Seventeen kids. As one parent told Newburgh Restoration, about the school district, it “provides superior education, opportunity, exposure, knowledge, wisdom, experience, appreciation and perspective.”

An auspicious start, though GreatSchools gives it a troubling score of 3 out of 10. The community, however, gives it 4 out of 5 stars. The school scored below state average in language and math in grade three, though higher than average for English language arts in Grade 4. The scores went down, as they did across the state, when tougher tests were issued. It is indeed hard to reconcile the experience of the parents with the scores. Which should matter more?

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