Summary:
There are five elementary schools serving grades PK-5 in the 33823 zip code of Auburndale, Florida, all part of the Polk school district, which ranks in the bottom 13% of Florida districts.
Berkley Elementary School is the clear standout, earning a 4-star rating and ranking in the 89th percentile statewide. It has the lowest poverty rate (35.78% free/reduced lunch) and the lowest chronic absenteeism rate (14.7%) in the area, with 84.7% of students proficient in math and 76.7% in ELA. In contrast, Clarence Boswell Elementary School and Auburndale Central Elementary School are the lowest performers, with 0 and 1-star ratings respectively. Both struggle with chronic absenteeism rates above 43%, and Boswell has a staggering 50% chronic absenteeism rate. Lena Vista Elementary School also ranks in the bottom 7% of Florida schools, with only 35.7% math proficiency. Walter Caldwell Elementary School sits in the middle, earning a 2-star rating with 56.7% math proficiency and 50.7% ELA proficiency.
The most striking finding is the inverse relationship between spending and performance: the two lowest-performing schools, Boswell ($12,665/student) and Auburndale Central ($12,190/student), have the highest per-student spending, while top-performing Berkley has the lowest ($9,334/student). This suggests additional funds are being used to address challenges like high poverty and absenteeism rather than driving academic excellence. Chronic absenteeism emerges as the defining challenge, with a clear correlation to lower test scores across all schools. For example, 5th grade science proficiency ranges from 75% at Berkley to just 34% at Boswell—a 41-point gap within the same zip code. Class sizes also vary widely, from 14.6:1 at Boswell to 21.8:1 at Auburndale Central, but this does not directly predict performance, as Berkley succeeds with a moderate 17.8:1 ratio.
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