Gator Run Elementary School, Weston FL

Original Research by School Decision on Gator Run Elementary School

Gator Run Elementary sits on Glades Parkway in Weston, a master-planned community at the western edge of Broward County where suburban development meets the Everglades. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within Broward County Public Schools, and its enrollment is quite large for an elementary campus, drawing from neighborhoods organized around the planned residential character that defines this part of Weston.

The academic picture here is genuinely strong. On Florida's FAST assessments in the most recent school year, math proficiency held at a very high level across third, fourth, and fifth grades, with each grade landing above the high-eighties or at the low-nineties. ELA proficiency followed closely, running through the mid-to-upper eighties across those same grades. Fifth-grade science results on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment were also well above the majority of Florida schools that report similar data. These are not average results within Florida; they sit at the high end of what elementary schools in the state report. Multi-year trend data was not available in the dataset, so a parent cannot see direction of travel from these figures alone, and subgroup breakdowns were not present, so the picture here reflects all students as a whole.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with white students making up a meaningful secondary share, and smaller populations of Asian and multiracial students. The school qualifies a relatively small share of its students for free or reduced-price lunch, consistent with the surrounding community's economic profile. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs was not available in the dataset, so a parent who needs detail on those populations would want to ask the school directly.

Weston itself shapes the context considerably. It is a planned, predominantly residential city without a traditional downtown; public life organizes itself around the Weston Town Center, an open-air plaza, and an extensive network of parks and trails, publicly reported to span more than fifty miles of marked bicycle lanes connecting neighborhoods to parks and shops. The community draws families who value structured suburban environments, access to parks, and well-maintained public spaces. Country Isles Park, Heron Park, and Tequesta Trace Park are among the neighborhood parks woven into the fabric of daily life. Schools in Weston sit on separated neighborhood campuses rather than in any concentrated center, and Gator Run fits that pattern.

Housing in this zip code is priced well above both the Florida state median and the national median, by a wide margin. Rents are also substantially above the national average, and the rent-to-income ratio in this area is stretched well beyond what most financial planners would call affordable at typical income levels. Year-over-year home values have edged slightly downward, though not sharply. Families considering this school zone should plan around one of the higher-cost residential markets in South Florida.

On program offerings, the dataset did not include specific detail about extracurriculars, enrichment programs, or specialized academic tracks at Gator Run. The school's website or direct contact with the office would be the right place to explore those questions. The district brief for Broward County returned no confirmed parent-relevant changes before the search budget was exhausted, so no district-level shifts are noted here.

For a family weighing where to land in western Broward County, Gator Run represents an elementary campus with notably high proficiency results in a community built around residential stability and outdoor amenity. The cost of entry into the neighborhood is real and high, and the school draws from a relatively affluent population. What the data shows clearly is that academic outcomes at this campus rank among the stronger results an elementary school in Florida produces.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 391%

School 91% · District 68% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 491%

School 91% · District 69% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 589%

School 89% · District 63% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 386%

School 86% · District 61% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 486%

School 86% · District 62% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 585%

School 85% · District 62% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Science

Grade 582%

School 82% · District 57% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above 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-income84%Higher-income86%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income95%Higher-income85%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income63%Higher-income87%24 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income80%Higher-income93%13 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income86%Higher-income92%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income74%Higher-income91%17 pp gap