North Lauderdale Elementary School

North Lauderdale Elementary School is a public school in North Lauderdale, FL, serving 605 students in grades PK-5 as part of the Broward district, and it serves a predominantly low-income community with about 67% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

The most important thing to know about this school is that it is showing a dramatic, recent turnaround in test scores, but it is being held back by a severe chronic absenteeism crisis. In the most recent school year, every subject and grade level saw a double-digit percentage point increase in proficiency. For example, 5th-grade math jumped from 46% to 64%, and 3rd-grade math rose from 45% to 62%, with 5th-grade math now actually exceeding the state average. This is a remarkable improvement, especially when compared to nearby schools like Tamarac Elementary School and Broadview Elementary School, which have seen their rankings stagnate or decline. However, the school's chronic absenteeism rate is a staggering 42.9%, the worst in the area and far higher than the district average of 33.6%. For context, Somerset Preparatory Academy Charter School At North Lauder, just 0.35 miles away, has a chronic absenteeism rate of only 3.1%, yet its academic performance is poor and declining. This creates a paradox: the students who are attending North Lauderdale are clearly receiving much better instruction, but the high number of students missing class is limiting the school's overall potential.

Math is a relative strength for the school, with proficiency rates now much closer to state averages, while English Language Arts remains a persistent weakness. The school also operates with a higher student-teacher ratio (20.1:1) and lower per-student spending ($12,059) than most nearby traditional public schools, making its recent academic gains even more impressive. While Panacea Prep Charter School remains a high-performing outlier with very different demographics, North Lauderdale Elementary stands out as an island of recent improvement in a sea of stagnation, suggesting that specific, localized efforts are driving its success. The next critical step for the school is to tackle its absenteeism crisis while continuing to build on its academic momentum.