Larkdale Elementary School

Larkdale Elementary School in Lauderhill, FL, is a small PK-5 school within the Broward School District, serving 399 students in a high-poverty community where about 75% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

The most critical challenge facing Larkdale is its extreme chronic absenteeism rate. In the 2023-2024 school year, 49% of students were chronically absent—nearly 50% higher than the district average and significantly worse than nearby schools like Castle Hill Elementary (27.7%) and Lauderhill Paul Turner Elementary (32.9%). This attendance crisis makes it very difficult for any instructional program to succeed, even though the school spends a substantial $17,364 per student—much more than most neighboring schools. Despite this high investment, academic outcomes remain below district and state averages, though there are bright spots. For example, 4th Grade English Language Arts proficiency reached 53% in 2025-2026, outperforming other grades, and 5th Grade Science scores jumped from 14% to 57% proficiency in just one year, suggesting that specific teachers or programs are making a real difference.

Encouragingly, Larkdale is showing signs of a turnaround. Its state ranking has improved from the 1st percentile to the 10th percentile over the past decade, and the rapid decline in free/reduced lunch rates suggests a demographic shift in the student population. A particularly useful comparison is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Montessori Academy, located less than a mile away with a similar student population. That school has a much lower chronic absenteeism rate (39.6%) and significantly higher academic performance—for instance, 81% of its 3rd graders were proficient in math compared to Larkdale's 57%. This shows that Larkdale's path to becoming a consistently strong school is directly tied to solving its attendance problem, and there are clear, nearby examples of success to learn from.