Summary:
This analysis examines six elementary schools in Homestead, FL (zip code 33033), serving Pre-K through 8th grade, an area characterized by high economic disadvantage with an average free/reduced lunch rate of 71.6%.
The standout performer is The Charter School At Waterstone, which is the only school in the area to earn a 4-star rating for three consecutive years and ranks in the 75th percentile statewide. Its proficiency rates in Math and English Language Arts are consistently 10-20 percentage points higher than the Miami-Dade district average. In stark contrast, three traditional public K-8 centers—Leisure City K-8 Center, Campbell Drive K-8 Center, and Irving & Beatrice Peskoe K-8 Center—have all received 1-star ratings for the past three years and rank in the bottom 20th percentile statewide. Two other charter schools, Somerset Preparatory Academy (Homestead) and Academir Charter School Of Math And Science, show inconsistent performance, with Somerset dropping from a 4-star to a 3-star rating and Academir bouncing between 2-star and 3-star ratings.
Key findings reveal that spending does not equal success: Campbell Drive spends the most per student ($13,949) yet is one of the lowest-performing schools, while Waterstone spends less ($11,262) and achieves the best results. Chronic absenteeism is a clear correlate of low performance, with the three 1-star schools all having rates above 29%, compared to Waterstone's lowest rate of 22.1%. A notable trend in the struggling K-8 centers is a "middle school bump" in Math, where 8th-grade proficiency rates (e.g., 76% at Campbell Drive) dramatically exceed 3rd-grade rates (34%), possibly due to specialized middle school curricula or students taking Algebra 1 exams instead of grade-level tests.
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