The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in Math. The lowest is 42% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Barbara Hawkins Elementary School
Barbara Hawkins Elementary is a small public elementary school in Miami Gardens, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Its enrollment is small relative to many elementary schools in the region, spread across grades from pre-K through fifth, and the school sits within Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of the largest urban districts in the country.
The student body is predominantly Black, with a smaller Hispanic population and very few students of other backgrounds. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this school firmly in a high-need economic context. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available in what we reviewed, so those populations cannot be characterized here.
State testing results come from Florida's FAST and Statewide Science assessments for the 2024-25 school year. Across third through fifth grade in math, proficiency ranges from below half of students in third grade to a bit over half in fourth and fifth. ELA proficiency in third and fourth grade sits below the one-in-three to roughly one-in-three range, with fifth grade performing noticeably better than the lower grades. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows just under half of students reaching proficiency. Taken together, these results reflect that most students in most tested grades are not yet reaching state proficiency benchmarks, particularly in the early elementary years. This is the kind of pattern a parent will want to ask the school about directly, including what reading supports are in place and how the school tracks student growth over time. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results reflect improvement, decline, or stability.
No program-specific information was provided, such as after-school programs, enrichment offerings, or intervention services, so that dimension of the school's character cannot be described here.
The school sits in Miami Gardens, a large, auto-dependent suburban city that is the third largest in Miami-Dade County, publicly reported as spanning roughly twenty square miles. The built environment leans heavily on strip-mall corridors and surface parking rather than walkable neighborhoods, and the city has acknowledged the challenge of establishing a coherent identity and pedestrian-friendly places. That said, the city is in an active growth phase. A major city center development broke ground in mid-2024 along a key commercial corridor near Hard Rock Stadium, and large industrial and logistics projects are in the pipeline. Parks and recreational facilities, including a sizable recreation complex and a network of trails and neighborhood parks, form the backbone of community amenity. Transit connections include Metrobus, a free local circulator, and Tri-Rail along the city's edge.
The housing market in the area around the school carries home values substantially above both the Florida statewide median and the national median. Rents have been climbing year over year, and the share of income a typical renter would need to spend on housing sits well above what most financial planners consider comfortable. For families considering buying, the estimated monthly mortgage on a typical area home would be a significant household expense. This is a notably expensive market relative to broader benchmarks.
At the district level, Miami-Dade voters approved a property tax increase in 2022 to fund teacher compensation and school safety, which runs through 2027 and represents a direct cost for homeowners. The district is also managing a sustained enrollment decline, and publicly reported proposals in early 2026 identified up to nine schools for closure or consolidation across the county. Families moving into the area should be aware that school assignments, grade configurations, and attendance boundaries may shift, and it is worth confirming with the district whether Barbara Hawkins itself or nearby schools are affected by any pending changes.
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