A case study of Freeport’s New Visions School of Discovery and Exploration was recently released, which detailed glowing reviews of the school’s curriculum, environment and community. NYKids, the research group that created the case study, described the school as having exceptional high performing students and attendance.
After recognizing New Visions as a “positive outlier” school in terms of its suburban context and performance, NYKids researchers contacted school leaders Principal Jessica Romero and Assistant Principal Christopher Lomot to conduct the case study in the building. Both Romero and Lomot, who have held their current roles for the past five years, got permission to conduct the study from district leadership. The researchers met with staff members, parents and district administrators for about two days of interviews.
Some of the highlights NYKids took away from their research was the New Visions team’s commitment to holistic care for students, its commitment to appreciating diversity and inclusivity, especially in a school district with families whose first language is not English, and providing an overall welcoming environment.
New Visions is a kindergarten through fourth grade school, and the newest school in the Freeport Public Schools district, having first opened in 2003. The case study of the school was released publicly online in late August.
NYKids has studied Freeport schools, particularly Freeport High School, in past years. Those case studies have largely focused on the performance of its large Hispanic and Latino population and the academic success its students have had despite a lower median household income than its more affluent neighboring communities in Nassau County.
Based off statistics the case study cites from the 2024-2025 school year, 70 percent of New Visions’ 433 students are labeled as being “economically disadvantaged,” a figure that is consistent with the district’s 69 percent rate as a whole. Despite this, NYKids found the school to “demonstrate exceptionally high performance” in academics and attendance.
“This level of consistent outperformance across both domains highlights this school as a critical case for understanding effective practices in high-need, linguistically diverse suburban settings,” the case study reads.
In an interview with the Herald, Romero and Lomot expressed pride in the school’s performance and appreciation for the case study.
“I think they did a great job of capturing what we’re proud of at our school and we feel we do well,” Lomot said. “There was an emphasis about our establishing a very positive culture here, which is something we definitely felt strongly about.”
On the academic side of things, Romero told the Herald that the school is also very proud of its English and math proficiency, which she said sits at 76 and 92 percent respectively. Both rates are much higher than the New York state average of 46 and 61 percent proficiency in English and math according to the state Education Department’s 2025-2026 data for third and fourth graders.
Romero and Lomot detailed that the school’s positive culture and efficient test scores are not the result of “top down” leadership, where they as school administrators dictate school policy to teachers that blindly follow. Instead, they said it begins with trusting their staff and collaborating with them to identify great classroom practices that help advance the school’s goals.
“We’ve cultivated teacher leaders in our building, so it’s not top down, we support one another,” Romero said. “They come to us, we come to them, and they help lead this building.”
When asked what further school improvement they want to see in the next few years, New Visions’ leaders stated that they want to see more students exceeding grade levels in their work. Romero added that strengthening connections with families is also important.
“We always believe in strengthening the partnership that we have with our families,” she said. “They’re huge, key players in this growth.”
