Woodland Elementary School

Woodland Elementary School in Zephyrhills, FL, is a public school serving 792 students in grades PK-5 within the Pasco County School District, and it faces significant challenges that set it apart from many nearby schools. The school has received a 0-star rating from SchoolDigger for the last four years, placing it in the bottom 10% of all Florida elementary schools. Academic proficiency rates in English Language Arts and Math for grades 3-5 range from 34% to 43%, which is dramatically lower than high-performing schools just a few miles away in Wesley Chapel, such as Academy At The Farm (where ELA proficiency reaches 65%-89%) and Kirkland Ranch K-8 (68%-80% in ELA).

The most critical issue at Woodland Elementary is a crisis-level chronic absenteeism rate of 46.6% in the 2023-2024 school year—nearly double the district average of 29.2% and more than three times the rate at high-performing schools like Union Park Charter Academy (17.6%) and Academy At The Farm (14.9%). This absenteeism is directly linked to low academic performance, as the three schools with the highest absenteeism rates in the area—Woodland, West Zephyrhills Elementary (45.6%), and Chester W. Taylor Junior Elementary School (38.5%)—are also the lowest-performing. Additionally, 66.67% of Woodland students qualify for free or reduced lunch, reflecting a high level of economic disadvantage that is comparable to nearby Zephyrhills schools but starkly different from Wesley Chapel schools like Academy At The Farm (14.45%) and Kirkland Ranch K-8 (21.05%).

Interestingly, Woodland’s per-student spending of $11,288 is relatively high compared to peers like Pinecrest Academy Wesley Chapel ($8,084) and Union Park Charter Academy ($8,562), suggesting that funding alone is not the solution. The school’s struggles are deeply rooted in community challenges, particularly poverty and absenteeism, which create a clear geographic divide between the Zephyrhills cluster of schools and the higher-performing Wesley Chapel corridor. While there was a brief improvement in 3rd-grade math proficiency (47% in 2024-2025), it was not sustained, dropping to 37% the following year. For parents, the key takeaway is that any meaningful improvement at Woodland will likely require aggressive community outreach and attendance interventions before academic gains can be expected.