Holmes Elementary School

Holmes Elementary School in Miami, FL, is a PK-5 public school serving 395 students in a high-poverty community within the Miami-Dade school district, and it is currently in the midst of a remarkable turnaround story.

After years of ranking in the bottom 10% of Florida elementary schools, Holmes has engineered a powerful, sustained improvement, jumping from the 8th percentile in 2022-2023 to the 35th percentile in 2025-2026. The most striking differentiator is its explosive growth in mathematics: 5th-grade math proficiency soared to 71%, which is not only the highest among all nearby schools but also outperforms both the district (67%) and state (62%) averages. This is a complete reversal from just two years prior, when only 25% of 5th graders were proficient. In English Language Arts (ELA), Holmes shows a unique "late bloomer" profile, with proficiency rising from 27% in 3rd grade to 54% in 5th grade—the opposite trend of nearby schools like Edison Park K-8 Center (56% in 3rd to 37% in 5th) and Charles R. Drew K-8 Center (36% in 3rd to 38% in 5th). Notably, Holmes achieves these results with the lowest per-pupil spending ($13,414) among all nearby schools, indicating high operational efficiency.

Despite these academic gains, chronic absenteeism remains a critical challenge at 30.8%, though this is a significant improvement from a pandemic-era high of 51.1%. The school’s performance is also uneven across subjects: while math is now a clear strength, 5th-grade science proficiency (37%) lags far behind the district (59%) and state (60%) averages. Compared to the nearby Liberty City Elementary School, which has a similar student population and has also shown strong improvement, Holmes excels in upper-grade math (71% vs. 63%) and 5th-grade ELA (54% vs. 44%), while Liberty City has a much stronger 3rd-grade ELA program (65% vs. 27%). This suggests that while both schools are improving, they have different areas of focus and success.