Summary:
The 9 public schools in Brandon, Florida, part of the Hillsborough district, serve a diverse community of over 7,300 students across elementary, middle, and high school levels, with a majority of students coming from economically disadvantaged households.
There is a stark performance divide among Brandon schools. Brooker Elementary School and Burns Middle School are the standout performers, consistently earning 3-star ratings and exceeding state averages in core subjects. Burns Middle achieves exceptional results in advanced math, with 100% proficiency in Geometry. In contrast, Kingswood Elementary School and Yates Elementary School face significant challenges, holding 0 or 1-star ratings with proficiency rates well below district and state averages. Schmidt Elementary School also struggles, while Limona Elementary School performs solidly. Mann Middle School shows a notable weakness in math, with 7th-grade proficiency at just 22% compared to the state average of 53%. Brandon High School presents a paradox: it boasts a high graduation rate of 95.6% but has low academic proficiency in core subjects and an alarmingly high chronic absenteeism rate of 57.2%.
A critical finding is the "spending paradox," where the lowest-performing schools like Schmidt, Kingswood, and Yates receive the highest per-student funding, while top performers like Brooker and Burns spend less. Chronic absenteeism is a systemic crisis, averaging 38.87% across Brandon—well above the state average of 31.4%—and is strongly linked to lower academic outcomes. The socioeconomic divide is also evident, as schools with higher free/reduced lunch rates tend to have lower performance, highlighting the need for targeted support to address educational equity in the area.
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