The top reported proficiency rate is 72% in Math. The lowest is 50% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on South Hialeah Elementary School
South Hialeah Elementary sits on East 5th Street in one of Hialeah's older residential sections, a densely settled Cuban-American city in northwestern Miami-Dade. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade and draws a student body that is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with virtually all students identifying that way. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school firmly in the high-economic-need tier. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs were not available in what was provided, which is a gap worth raising directly with the school.
The enrollment is substantial for an elementary school, spread fairly evenly across grade levels from kindergarten through fifth grade, with a sizable prekindergarten cohort as well.
On the most recent Florida state assessments, the math picture is the stronger half of the academic story. Third and fourth graders tested at high rates of proficiency on the FAST Math, and while fifth-grade math proficiency was somewhat lower, it still reflects a majority of students meeting the standard. That is a genuinely encouraging result in a school serving a population with high economic need, and parents looking for evidence of instructional strength in math can point to these numbers.
Reading and language arts tell a more cautious story. ELA proficiency rates in third, fourth, and fifth grades all sit below the math results, with fourth grade the lowest of the three. Roughly half or fewer of students in each tested grade met the ELA standard. This is not unusual at schools with large shares of English-developing students and families navigating economic pressure, but it does mean a parent should ask the school specifically what reading intervention and language support looks like, especially in the middle elementary grades. Fifth-grade science proficiency landed near the same range as ELA, with about half of students meeting the standard.
No multi-year trend data was available in what was provided, so it is not possible to characterize whether scores are improving, holding steady, or declining. A parent who wants to understand trajectory should ask the school or check Miami-Dade district results directly.
The parent district is Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of the largest urban systems in the country. Two district-level developments are worth knowing. Voters approved a property-tax measure to fund teacher pay and school safety, which is publicly reported to expire in 2027 unless renewed, creating a near-term question about sustained teacher compensation funding. More immediately relevant for families considering a move: the district is publicly reported to be navigating a significant enrollment decline, with proposals to close or consolidate up to nine schools and reconfigure grade structures across regions. Families who enroll in one school should go in aware that attendance boundaries and grade configurations may shift.
The neighborhood itself is urban and dense. Hialeah is not a suburb in the conventional sense. Commercial corridors, industrial zones, and residential blocks are woven together, and everyday life is shaped by the city's Cuban-American character in shops, bakeries, and street texture. Walkability varies considerably by block; the area around the school is compact enough that some families walk, but car dependence is common across most of the city. Transit is comparatively strong for South Florida: Metrorail and Tri-Rail connections link Hialeah to Miami International Airport, downtown Miami, and points north.
The housing market in the zip code shows home values well above the Florida state median and significantly above the national median, with rents running at a level that the affordability data flags as consuming a notably high share of typical household income. That cost pressure is a real constraint for many families in a community where economic need is already high.
Comparison data across Miami-Dade County's districts was not applicable here because the comparison set was too small to produce meaningful positioning, so no peer-district ranking is available.
For a family with a child in elementary school, South Hialeah offers genuinely solid math results in a high-need urban setting, a neighborhood with deep cultural identity and real transit access, and a large, active school community. The ELA results are the clearest area to probe further with school staff before enrolling.
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