The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in Math. The lowest is 53% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Mirror Lake Elementary School
Mirror Lake Elementary sits in a residential stretch of Plantation, a planned suburban city in the geographic center of Broward County. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade and draws a population that is majority Black, with a substantial Hispanic enrollment and smaller shares of white, multiracial, and Asian students. Roughly half of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning the school serves a genuinely economically mixed community, with needs that span a wide range. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what was provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments, results across grades three through five tell a mixed story. In math, fourth graders performed notably stronger than third and fifth graders, whose results sat closer to the midpoint of proficiency. In ELA, the picture is more uneven: fourth grade proficiency was well above half, and fifth grade was modestly above half, but third grade reading proficiency came in below half, which is a number a parent should ask the school about directly, since early literacy is the foundation everything else builds on. Fifth-grade science proficiency landed just above half. Trend data was not available because the assessment comparability history is unclear, so there is no way to say whether these numbers are moving up or down. That gap is worth raising with school staff.
No multi-year trend data, chronic absenteeism figures, or discipline data were available in what was provided. The neighbor comparison set for Broward County contained only one district, so no meaningful cross-district positioning on proficiency or other metrics was possible. Program offerings were not listed in the data.
Plantation itself gives some useful context for families weighing where to live. The city was built from a 1930s master plan that deliberately separated land uses and imposed architectural variety requirements, which still shapes its feel. It reads as suburban and largely car-dependent, though publicly reported Walk Score data places it at the lower end of walkability. Neighborhoods vary considerably: parts of the city retain large-lot, Old Florida character with occasional equestrian properties, while the Midtown and Gateway corridors are actively redeveloping into denser mixed-use environments. The Plantation Walk project, a major redevelopment of a former mall site, and several apartment and townhome projects in Midtown are bringing new residential supply to an area that historically sent residents east toward Fort Lauderdale for dining and retail.
The housing market around Mirror Lake's zip code has seen a meaningful year-over-year decline in estimated home values, dropping more sharply than the statewide average, which was itself down modestly year over year. Rents, by contrast, have edged upward. The rent-to-income ratio here runs high relative to national norms, and the estimated monthly carrying cost of a home at the current mortgage rate is substantial. Families renting while evaluating the area may find the cost burden worth watching closely. Home values in this zip code sit well below the Florida median, which makes it more accessible for buyers priced out of eastern Broward, though affordability pressures remain real.
Plantation's employer base is anchored in healthcare, technology, and corporate services, with names like Motorola Solutions, Magic Leap, Aetna, and several major medical institutions publicly reported as significant local employers. The city runs a tram service alongside Broward County Transit routes, though the area is fundamentally oriented around car travel. Recreation infrastructure is solid: Plantation Central Park, Plantation Heritage Park, and a network of municipal parks give families real outdoor options.
For a family considering Mirror Lake, the academic picture is mixed enough that a school visit and direct conversation with staff about literacy supports, intervention programs, and what the school is doing to move third-grade reading numbers would be time well spent. The school is part of Broward County Public Schools; district-level strategic priorities were not surfaced in what was researched, so that context is a gap here.
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