Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 34748

This analysis covers three elementary schools in zip code 34748 (Leesburg, FL), serving grades PK-5, with a critical distinction that Rimes Early Learning & Literacy Center only serves students up to 2nd grade and therefore has no state test data. All three schools are part of the Lake County School District, which is ranked 32nd out of 70 districts in Florida, and they serve a high-poverty population with Free/Reduced Lunch rates ranging from 60.97% to 62.58%.

Beverly Shores Elementary School stands out as the strongest academic performer and the only school showing a clear upward trend, improving its state percentile rank from the 10th to the 23rd percentile. It consistently outperforms Leesburg Elementary School in nearly every subject, with its 5th graders achieving a 59% proficiency rate in Math (2024-2025), matching the state average, and a 49% proficiency rate in Science. Beverly Shores also spends $1,799 more per student ($14,291) than Leesburg Elementary ($12,492), correlating with better outcomes and a lower student-teacher ratio (15.6:1 vs. 18.3:1). In contrast, Leesburg Elementary has stagnated in the 6th-9th percentile range, with an average ELA proficiency of just 30.7% and Math proficiency of 35.7%.

Chronic absenteeism is a critical crisis across all three schools, with rates far exceeding the district (37.7%) and state (31.4%) averages. Leesburg Elementary School has the highest rate at 50.1%, meaning more than half its students miss 10% or more of the school year, which is the most powerful explanatory factor for its low performance. Rimes Early Learning & Literacy Center serves as a unique community asset with a very low student-teacher ratio of 10.5:1, focusing on intensive early intervention for PK-2 students, though its effectiveness cannot be measured by state tests. The key takeaway is that Beverly Shores Elementary School demonstrates that high-poverty schools in this area can achieve competitive results, particularly in math and science, providing a potential model for improvement.