Summary:
Hollandale is served by a single elementary school, Sanders Elementary School, which enrolls students in grades PK–5 and sits in the Hollandale School District, an area marked by very high poverty. Because Sanders is the only elementary school in Hollandale, there are no local schools to compare it to, so the most useful benchmarks are state averages and the school’s own past performance.
Sanders Elementary serves 246 students, with 100% eligible for free or reduced lunch and a chronic absenteeism rate of 22.6%. The school’s state ranking has been consistently in the bottom quartile, hovering around the 13th–17th percentile over the past three years. In the most recent testing year (2025–2026), average proficiency was 32.7% in English Language Arts, 22.1% in math, and 57.6% in science, compared to state averages of 47.1%, 52.0%, and 64.7%. The biggest concerns are in math: 4th grade math proficiency was just 10.3% (versus 51.5% statewide), while 5th and 7th grade math were also extremely low at 17.4% and 17.8%, respectively. Even the strongest math score—6th grade at 36.4%—was far below the state’s 52.7%. On a more positive note, 5th grade science reached 65.2% proficiency (close to the state’s 71.5%), and 4th grade ELA in 2024–2025 actually exceeded the state average at 58.4%.
There are wide year-over-year swings in test scores, which is common in small schools where a single cohort of 30–40 students can shift percentages dramatically. For example, 4th grade ELA dropped from 58.4% to 27.6%, while 5th grade science climbed from 45.7% to 65.2%. The school maintains a relatively favorable student-teacher ratio of 14.1:1, yet proficiency remains low, suggesting that factors such as poverty, absenteeism, and limited resources play a major role. Parents should know that Sanders Elementary is a high-need school with serious math gaps, but it also shows occasional bright spots—especially in science—and some grades have demonstrated meaningful improvement from one year to the next.
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