Summary:
Zip code 33542 in Zephyrhills, Florida, is home to two elementary schools, Woodland Elementary School and West Zephyrhills Elementary School, both serving grades PK-5 within the Pasco school district.
When comparing the two schools, Woodland Elementary generally emerges as the higher-performing option, consistently achieving better results in math and science proficiency for the 2025-2026 school year. For instance, Woodland posted a 40% science proficiency rate compared to West Zephyrhills' 32%, and a 39% average math proficiency versus 33%. However, West Zephyrhills Elementary shows a slight edge in English Language Arts (ELA), with a 39.7% average proficiency rate compared to Woodland's 37.3%. Both schools face significant challenges, ranking in the bottom 5% of all Florida elementary schools. A critical shared issue is chronic absenteeism, with rates around 46% at both schools—far exceeding the state average of 31.4%. This high absenteeism is a strong indicator of underlying challenges that likely contribute to the low academic performance.
An interesting finding is that West Zephyrhills Elementary spends more per student ($12,106) than Woodland Elementary ($11,288), yet achieves lower overall test scores, suggesting that financial resources alone are not the solution. Additionally, a data anomaly from the 2024-2025 school year shows West Zephyrhills reporting a 90% proficiency rate in 6th Grade Math, which is highly suspect since the school only serves up to 5th grade. This outlier should be verified before being used for any decision-making. Both schools are persistently low-performing, indicating a need for comprehensive, long-term intervention strategies focused on addressing root causes like absenteeism.
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