Dania Elementary School, Dania Beach FL

Original Research by School Decision on Dania Elementary School

Dania Elementary sits on SE 2nd Avenue in Dania Beach, a small coastal city in Broward County that describes itself as being in the middle of a civic and commercial "Renaissance." The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within the Broward district, drawing from a community that blends established single-family neighborhoods, a historic downtown being rebuilt into mixed-use, and a growing set of large employers near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades. Families here can reach parks, a beach pier, a Tri-Rail station, and a free city shuttle within a compact area, though citywide walkability is still developing outside the downtown and beachfront zones.

The student body is racially and ethnically diverse, with Hispanic students making up the largest group, followed by Black students and white students, alongside smaller shares of Asian and multiracial students. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a school where many families are navigating economic pressure in one of South Florida's more expensive housing markets. Local home values sit roughly in line with the state midpoint but have dipped year over year, and rents consume a substantial share of a typical household income, making affordability a real constraint for families in this zip code. Data on English learner enrollment and special education rates was not reported, so parents with children in those programs may want to ask the school directly.

On the Florida FAST assessments in the most recent school year, reading and math results tell a mixed story. Third-grade math proficiency was the strongest result across tested grades, while fourth-grade ELA came in just above the midpoint. Fifth-grade math was the lowest result in the dataset, and third-grade ELA also fell below half of students testing proficient. Science results for fifth grade, the only grade tested, came in just under half. Across the board, proficiency rates lean below what would place this school in the stronger half of Florida schools, and parents whose children are approaching or in fifth grade may want to have a specific conversation with the school about what supports are in place for math skill-building. The comparison data did not yield a usable peer ranking because Broward County's school count in this dataset reduces to a single district, so a direct neighbor comparison was not possible.

Multi-year trend data was not available in the data provided, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, flat, or declining over time. That context would be worth asking about.

Program-specific offerings were not reported in the available data. Dania Beach itself has a community center at Frost Park, a public library near City Hall, and transit connections that give families reasonable access to broader Broward resources, but what enrichment, arts, language, or intervention programming exists inside the school building is a gap in the picture here.

The city around the school is genuinely in motion. Major multifamily residential projects are under construction, the Dania Pointe development has brought corporate and retail anchors, and infrastructure investment is ongoing. That growth context means the neighborhood serving this school could look noticeably different within a few years, which matters both for housing decisions and for how the local school population may shift.

For a family weighing this school, the honest picture is a racially diverse, economically mixed elementary in an actively changing community, with academic results that are uneven and, in several grades, below the midpoint for Florida. A parent who is satisfied with that context and can be an active partner in monitoring their child's progress, particularly in math and early literacy, will find a school embedded in a neighborhood with real civic assets and a trajectory of investment around it.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 68% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 69% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 63% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 61% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 62% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 62% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Science

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 57% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

This schoolBROWARD, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income42%Higher-income48%7 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income64%Higher-income50%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income54%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income61%Higher-income59%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income67%Higher-income43%23 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income51%20 pp gap