The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Somerset Academy Riverside Charter Middle School
Somerset Academy Riverside is a charter middle school serving sixth through eighth graders in Coral Springs, sitting within Broward County's public school universe. As a charter, it operates independently of the traditional Broward district schools while remaining publicly funded and tuition-free.
The school is small relative to a typical middle school. Its enrollment skews slightly toward the younger grades, with eighth grade noticeably smaller than sixth and seventh. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning the school serves a largely economically disadvantaged population. Racially, the school is roughly evenly split between Black and Hispanic students, with white students making up a smaller share and other groups represented in very small numbers. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in what was provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the academic picture is mixed. Sixth-grade math is the strongest result, with a clear majority of students reaching proficiency. ELA scores across all three grades cluster in roughly the same range, with the majority of students falling short of proficiency at each grade level. Seventh- and eighth-grade math results are lower, with well under half of students scoring proficient. The eighth-grade science result on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment is the most concerning figure in the data, with only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency. That is a gap a parent would want to ask the school about directly, whether in curriculum, instructional time, or something else. Multi-year trend data was not available, so there is no way from this data to say whether scores have been improving or declining.
The comparison framework for Broward County produced only one district in the cohort, which means no meaningful peer comparison could be run. Graduation rate and chronic absenteeism data are not applicable here, the first because this is a middle school with no graduating class, and the second because that data was not reported.
On the extracurricular side, the school publicly reports a solid athletics lineup, including basketball for both boys and girls, football, soccer, volleyball, cross country, track and field, wrestling, cheerleading, and dance. Drama Club is the one listed club or activity. Whether additional clubs or enrichment programs exist beyond what is publicly listed, this data does not say.
The housing market around the school's Coral Springs zip code shows home values that have come down year over year, now sitting modestly below the Florida state median. Rents have also dipped slightly. Despite those recent declines, the local market remains costly relative to income: estimated monthly ownership costs are high enough that buyers would need well above the national median household income to stay within conventional affordability thresholds, and rent consumes a large share of a typical income. Coral Springs itself is part of the dense, suburban Broward County corridor in South Florida. Web research on the character of the city, its major employers, and its civic infrastructure did not return usable results before the search budget was exhausted, so those specifics are left out rather than guessed at. Similarly, no confirmed recent changes or strategic priorities for the Broward district were found, so that context is absent from this account.
For a family weighing this school, the decision turns on a few honest questions. The ELA numbers are near the middle of the range, math varies sharply by grade with sixth grade looking meaningfully better than seventh and eighth, and science at the eighth-grade level warrants a direct conversation with the school. The school is small, which some families find appealing for the relational environment it can create. The athletics program gives students more options than the single listed club activity would suggest on its own.
See more original research from School Decision →