Summary:
The city of Miami Lakes, Florida, is served by three public schools within the highly-rated Miami-Dade County Public School District, offering a range of options from elementary through high school for its 5,486 students.
The standout school in the area is Miami Lakes Educational Center, a magnet high school that earns a 5-star rating and ranks in the top 7% of Florida high schools. It boasts a perfect 100% graduation rate, dramatically lower chronic absenteeism (16.1%), and consistently outperforms district and state averages in subjects like Algebra 1 and English Language Arts. In contrast, Barbara Goleman Senior High is a solid 4-star school with a 99.8% graduation rate, but it faces a significant challenge with a 44.5% chronic absenteeism rate—nearly three times higher than its peers—and its state ranking has been declining over the past three years. Bob Graham Education Center (PK-8) is a standout for its exceptional advanced coursework, achieving near-perfect proficiency (100% in Geometry and Biology 1) on high school-level exams, effectively preparing its students for rigorous high school programs.
A key takeaway is that per-student spending does not directly correlate with performance; Bob Graham spends the most ($12,859 per student) but is outperformed by Miami Lakes Educational Center ($11,011 per student), which serves a slightly higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students. The most critical differentiator is chronic absenteeism, which strongly impacts academic outcomes. While Barbara Goleman maintains a high graduation rate despite its absenteeism issue, the data suggests that families prioritizing a focused, high-achieving environment should look closely at Miami Lakes Educational Center, while those with younger children will find an exceptional accelerated learning pipeline at Bob Graham Education Center.
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