Olsen Middle School, Dania Beach FL

Original Research by School Decision on Olsen Middle School

Olsen Middle School sits in Dania Beach, a small coastal city in Broward County tucked between Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood. The school serves sixth through eighth graders as a regular public school within the Broward County district, drawing from a community that is actively changing around it.

Dania Beach carries an eclectic character that is part beach town, part redevelopment zone. Its downtown, long anchored by antique shops that earned it the nickname "Antique Capital of the South," is being reshaped into mixed-use development. The Dania Pointe complex has brought in major employers like Spirit Airlines' headquarters, Bass Pro Shops, and a cluster of hospitality and retail tenants. Multifamily housing towers are rising near downtown, and the city is making infrastructure investments including a major drainage project. Home values in the surrounding zip code sit modestly below the Florida statewide benchmark and have dipped year over year, while rents remain high relative to income, with rental costs consuming a substantial share of a typical household's earnings. The area is not an easy market for first-time buyers.

The student body at Olsen reflects the demographic mix of the surrounding community. Hispanic and Black students together make up a large majority of enrollment, with smaller White and multiracial populations. A clear majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, indicating that economic need is a defining feature of the school's context. Data on English learner and special education populations were not available in the records reviewed.

On state assessments, Olsen's results are well below statewide proficiency norms across all three tested grades and all subjects. In English language arts, fewer than half of students at any grade level reached proficiency on the FAST ELA assessment, with seventh grade showing the weakest reading results among the three cohorts. Math tells a similar story, with sixth and seventh graders reaching proficiency at particularly low rates and eighth graders performing somewhat better within the school but still at a modest level. The eighth-grade science results, measured by the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, were especially low, with only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or a plateau. Parents who want to understand the school's trajectory would do well to ask directly about where these numbers have moved over recent years and what interventions are in place.

No program information was available in the records reviewed, so details on electives, enrichment, athletics, or any specialized academic pathways could not be described here. The school's Title I status was not reported in the data. Discipline, attendance, and staffing data were also absent.

A comparison against other districts in Broward County could not be generated in a meaningful way from the available data, as the comparison set contained only one district. Olsen is part of Broward County Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in the country, so a parent researching further would find the district's broader accountability data and school improvement plans at the district level as a useful next step.

For a family weighing this school, the picture that emerges is of a mid-sized middle school in a working-class, majority-minority community that is experiencing active physical growth around it. Academic outcomes as currently reported are a genuine concern, and that warrants a direct conversation with school leadership about support structures, student progress over time, and what pathways exist for students who enter with gaps. The surrounding city offers transit access, parks, and a community in the middle of reinventing itself, which may matter differently to different families depending on where they sit relative to that change.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 63% · ▼ 30 pts below district

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

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 59% · ▼ 28 pts below district

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

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 47% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below 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 733%

School 33% · District 60% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 59% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 45% · ▼ 28 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 25 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-income41%Higher-income36%5 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income34%3 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income36%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income29%Higher-income36%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income29%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income34%Higher-income47%13 pp gap