Dillard 6-12, Fort Lauderdale FL

Original Research by School Decision on Dillard 6-12

Dillard 6-12 sits in the northwest quadrant of Fort Lauderdale, serving grades six through twelve as a regular public school within the Broward County district. It is a large school for its grade band, with the bulk of its enrollment concentrated in the high school grades rather than the middle school years. The student body is overwhelmingly Black, with Hispanic students making up a much smaller share and all other groups present in very small numbers. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school in a high-poverty context by any standard measure. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in what was provided.

On state assessments, proficiency rates across math, ELA, and science in the tested middle-school grades are well below what most parents would consider strong, and a parent considering Dillard would reasonably want to ask the school directly about its academic support structures, what it does to move students toward grade-level proficiency, and how those efforts play out as students progress into high school. Math shows some improvement between sixth and eighth grade, which is worth noting, but ELA results are more flat across those years. The statewide science assessment at eighth grade follows a similar pattern. No multi-year trend data was available, so whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time cannot be said from what was provided.

Graduation rate data was not available in this data set, which limits the picture for a family trying to understand high school outcomes. Program information was also not provided, so it is not possible to say whether Dillard offers AP courses, dual enrollment, career pathways, or other upper-division options that would shape a student's high school experience. A family whose child is approaching or already in high school would want to ask the school specifically about what is available to them in grades nine through twelve, as those programs matter considerably for post-secondary readiness and are simply absent from what is here.

Broward County, as a district, did not return specific parent-relevant changes in the research conducted for this profile, so district-level strategic priorities or recent initiatives are not described here rather than guessed at.

The neighborhood surrounding Dillard sits apart from the downtown development boom that is reshaping Fort Lauderdale's core. Fort Lauderdale's residential market overall has seen home values pull back modestly compared to a year ago, while rents have edged upward. The local housing cost burden is meaningful: publicly reported affordability data shows rents consuming a very large share of a median income, and the estimated monthly cost of ownership is substantial. That context matters for families thinking about where they can realistically live relative to this school.

Fort Lauderdale as a city is undergoing a pronounced building cycle downtown, with towers under construction and more under review, and publicly reported accounts describe efforts to make parts of the city more walkable and transit-connected. The city's canal system, beach access, and institutions such as the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Museum of Discovery and Science give it a civic and cultural range that many South Florida cities lack. Broward County Transit is publicly reported as the second-largest transit system in Florida, and the Brightline station downtown connects to Tri-Rail, giving Fort Lauderdale regional connectivity that a school-age family could use.

Dillard 6-12 draws from and serves a community with a strong and specific identity in Fort Lauderdale's history. What this profile cannot tell a family is how the school performs in its upper grades, what programs it runs, or whether its trajectory is moving. Those are exactly the questions to bring to the school directly.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

95.0%Cohort of 398 students · Class of 2021

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

867 schools plotted. 183 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 63% · ▼ 34 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 741%

School 41% · District 59% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 47% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 65% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 60% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 59% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Science

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 45% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 9 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 6Lower-income34%Higher-income50%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income46%15 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income30%Higher-income61%31 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income27%Higher-income35%8 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income43%Higher-income36%6 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income41%Higher-income50%9 pp gap