Broward

The Broward County school district in Florida is a large and diverse system of 318 schools, including 195 elementary, 48 middle, 61 high, and 14 alternative schools, serving a wide range of communities from affluent suburbs to high-poverty urban areas.

Standout high schools include Atlantic Technical College, which ranks in the top 2% of Florida high schools with a perfect 100% graduation rate and exceptional test scores (94% proficiency in 10th-grade ELA), and Pompano Beach High School, also boasting a 100% graduation rate and a remarkably low chronic absenteeism rate of 10.7%. Large traditional schools like Cypress Bay High School and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are consistent top performers, ranking in the top 10% of the state. At the middle school level, City/Pembroke Pines Charter Middle School stands out with near-perfect proficiency in advanced courses like Algebra 1 (99%) and Geometry (99%). For elementary schools, Eagle Point Elementary School is ranked #7 in the entire state, achieving near-perfect proficiency rates across all subjects. In contrast, schools like Henry D Perry Education Center and Whiddon Rodgers Education Center face severe challenges with extremely low graduation rates (36% and 49%) and chronic absenteeism above 87%.

Key metrics reveal a district average graduation rate of 91.4% and a chronic absenteeism rate of 33.6%, which is above the state average. The data shows a stark achievement gap linked to socioeconomic status, with schools in affluent areas like Weston and Parkland (e.g., Imagine Charter School At Weston with 0.27% free/reduced lunch) consistently outperforming high-poverty schools like Renaissance Charter School At Plantation (95.39% free/reduced lunch). Interestingly, charter schools show a wide performance spectrum, with some like City/Pembroke Pines Charter High School among the best in the district, while others like Renaissance Charter Schools At Pines are among the lowest-performing. A notable finding is that high per-student spending does not guarantee high performance, as Whiddon Rodgers Education Center has the highest spending ($16,796) but the second-lowest graduation rate, while Atlantic Technical College achieves top results with high spending ($13,602).